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Flawed answer key adds to CLATalogue of disasters, candidates join RTI campaign

post CLAT hangover
post CLAT hangover

Examinees in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2012 have pointed out at least 10 errors worth 10 marks in the question paper’s answer key that was released by the CLAT committee on Friday. The key was released exactly a week after this year’s convenor NLU Jodhpur published a reshuffled university allotment list to replace an earlier list that contained errors.

“CLAT 2012 has become more like a scam than an exam,” fretted a candidate observing that "a lot of students have got marks much lower than expected by them. This has put students in a dilemma whether the OMR checked by the authorities were also done in the same manner as allotment of first university list”.

According to the answer key, Priyanka Chopra is the Indian national ambassador of UNESCO, whereas she is really the ambassador of UNICEF, while Ashok Amritraj, and not Vijay Amritraj as the key suggested, is the tennis player-turned-filmmaker.

A candidate told Legally India that the logical reasoning section contained some questions which were lifted unchanged from preparatory books by MK Pandey and R S Aggarwal. The answer keys displayed incorrect answers for these questions, alleged the candidate.

Several CLAT takers said they would file Right to Information (RTI) requests with NLU Jodhpur, and formed a Facebook group organising a “mass RTI campaign” on Sunday afternoon. Around 39 people were members of the group at the time of going to press.

“Is it possible that if my marks are found to increase after the formulation of this
RTI application I would be upgraded to a University higher in my ranking as per
my score?” asked a prospective applicant in his draft RTI application uploaded on the Facebook page of CLAT preparation forum Clathacker.

According to the already marked CLAT 2012 answer sheets, as many as 37 candidates secured scores in the range of the top 12 marks, while another 25 scored in the next range of 12 marks.

A total of 25,769 aspirants participated in this year’s competition for 1,702 undergraduate national law university (NLU) seats.

The first criticism surrounding this year’s examination process began on the day of the examination (13 May). Unhappy that questions were allegedly inconsistent with the official CLAT syllabus, some candidates vowed to initiate public interest litigations (PIL) against the committee.

On 28 May, the result and first university allotment list was released by NLU Jodhpur, but several candidates claimed they were not allotted universities according to their preference, even after securing the requisite cut-off marks.

Evidently, NLIU Bhopal – traditionally a lesser preferred law school than NUJS Kolkata, had outranked the Kolkata law school in terms of CLAT preferences depicted in the flawed list.

A revised university allotment list was released last week, after NLU Jodhpur vice chancellor NN Mathur admitted that the earlier list contained errors that would be fixed in June.

Meanwhile, on 4 June the Delhi high court admitted that the first writ should not have been dismissed, and allowed a letters patent appeal against the CLAT convenor, the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the Human Resource and Development Ministry.

The court will look into the issue of a permanent CLAT committee, replacing the present rotational system between the 14 NLUs.

List of incorrect answers pointed out by an examinee

General Knowledge

1. Identify the Indian Tennis player who has turned Hollywood filmmaker?

A) Vijay Amritraj (B) Mahesh Bhupathi

(C) Leander Paes (D) Ashok Amritraj

Answer according to NLU J Answer key- Vijay Amritraj but correct Answer is Ashok Amritraj.

2. Priyanka Chopra has been named National Ambassador of
(A) WHO (B) UNICEF (C)UNESCO (D)International Red Cross Society

Ans according to NLU J answer key- UNESCO, but correct answer is UNICEF

3. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) completed how many years of operation in 2011?
(A) 3 years (B) 4 years (C) 5 years (D) 6 years
Ans according to NLU J Answer key is 6 years, but they have asked how many years in operation in 2011. In 2011 it completed 5 YEARS.

Legal aptitude

4.The Right to Equality is guaranteed by-
(A) Article 14 to 18 (B) Article 14
(C) Article 14 and 15 (D) Article 14, 15 and 16

Answer according to NLU J Ans key is Article 14,15 and 16 but Correct answer is 14 to 18.

5. X went to Y’s house and forgot his bag which contained 1 kg sweets. Y’s children consumed the sweets. Decide the liability of Y.
(A) Y is bound to pay the price of sweets to X
(B) Y is not bound to pay anything
(C) Y is bound to pay half the price of sweets.
(D) Y would not have to pay anything because X loves Y’s children.

Due to the ambiguous nature of question and no legal principle, two options have the equal opportunity to be right, option A and B. But the CLAT committee has marked only option B as correct.

6.Principle: Nothing is an offence which is done by a person who, at the time of doing it, by reason of unsound state of mind, is incapable of knowing the nature of the act, or something that he is doing is either wrong or contrary to law.
Fact: X takes his son Y who is three years old, for bathing to the well. He throws his son inside the well so that the son can have a good bath. After 10 minutes he also jumps into the well to take bath and get his son out of the well. Both were rescued by the villagers but his son was found dead.
(A) X has committed culpable homicide amounting to murder
(B) X has committed murder
(C) X has done no offence as he can plead the defense of unsound state of mind
(D) X’s family should be held responsible for allowing him to take the child to the well
By applying principle to the question it s cut and dry that Answer should be "C" but CLAT key says it to be "A" [Correction: This question appears to be correctly answered in the answer key]

12. Statements:

I. Cheese is bad for people with high-cholesterol.

II. Sumeet does not eat cheese.

Assuming that (i) and (ii) are true, which of the following statement follows?

(A)Sumeet has high-cholesterol.

(b)Cheese is bad for Sumeet.

(c)People with high-Cholesterol do not eat cheese.

(d)None of the above

Answer given by CLAT committee says it be C. But correct answer should be None.

  

LOGICAL REASONING

8. Statement One: All researchers are sociologists
Statement Two: Some researchers are professors.
Conclusions:
I. All researchers are professors.
II. Some researchers are professors.
III. Some professors are sociologists.
IV. Some sociologists are researchers.
(A) Only III and II follow.
(B) Only II and IV follow.
(C) Only III follows.
(D) None follows.
Answer should be None of the above. Even if i take re-statement then also B should not be the answer. But again B was the best option here. 9.Statement: Should students’ union in colleges and universities be abolished?

Arguments:
(i) Yes, it detracts students from academic and career development.
(ii) No, all great leaders have been students’ union leaders.
(A) Argument (i) is strong. (B)Argument (ii) is strong.
(C) Both (i) and (ii) are strong. (D) Neither (i) nor (ii) is strong.

CLAT Answer- A, But correct Answer is-D.

10.Statement:
I One who has squared a circle is not a mathematician
II Therefore -----------------------
(A) No one who has squared a circle is a mathematician
(B) All non-mathematicians have squared a circle
(C) Some mathematicians have squared a circle
(D) All mathematicians square a circle
None of the options is correct. But as per the committee, if we take the answer as A then:- If I haven't squared the circle then does that mean that I mustn't be a mathematician? Of course not. A would be inappropriate. [Correction: This question appears to be correctly answered in the answer key]

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