The CLAT consortium of all national law university (NLU) vice-chancellors (except for NLU Delhi) had passed a resolution yesterday, followed by a press release today (PDF), stating:
The Members of the Consortium unanimously resolved that the recent actions of Professor Sudhir Krishnaswami, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, NLSIU, Bangalore, and particularly his unilateral decision of going ahead with his own independent test are in derogation of the Bye-laws and the Objectives of the Consortium.
Since the Vice Chancellor, NLSIU is the Secretary- Treasurer of the Consortium, in the light of the clear conflict of interest between these the functions of the Consortium and his decision to hold independent test for NLSIU, the Consortium unanimously resolved to divest him of his functions as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Consortium with immediate effect. He is advised not to discharge these functions and not speak for the Consortium in any manner nor represent the Consortium in any proceeding till further decision in this matter is taken by the Governing Body.
A member of the consortium confirmed to us, however, that the resolution did not remove NLSIU Bangalore itself from the consortium.
However, NLS has just now responded with a counter
press release (PDF) response, doing exactly the latter.
NLSIU’s registrar wrote in the nine-paragraph release, which made a number of responses to the CLAT consortium’s position:
However, given the statements of the Consortium in its Press Release of 6 September, NLSIU, and its Vice Chancellor, have no alternative but to completely disassociate from CLAT 2020.
No member of the University, including the Vice Chancellor or any member of staff shall hereafter participate in CLAT 2020 in any manner, administratively or otherwise.
There are several ways to interpret this.
On the one hand, NLSIU clearly called the CLAT consortium’s bluff, which puts it in a somewhat easier position vis-a-vis any legal challenges: if NLSIU is out of the CLAT, it may not be bound by the CLAT consortium’s bylaws anymore (at least for this year’s CLAT) and could try to argue that it may not have an alternative entrance exam available to it anymore. (However, it might have helped its case had the consortium evicted it, rather than NLS disassociating itself in response).
On the other hand, the CLAT consortium did not have many options either.
We understand that a lot of the NLU VCs are privately furious (according to
one tweet from last week, the authenticity of which we could not confirm but which reflects what several VCs have told us, “OUR VC just said that there will be a meeting to ‘deal with the mess that Sudhir has created in Bangalore’ ? this might be my fav gossip ever”).
Apart from putting the CLAT into an even bigger crisis than its repeated postponements have put it in, many of the VCs see NLSIU’s decision to roll its own entrance test as a deliberate backstabbing of the consortium, especially since NLSIU had apparently been planning the move for months but had not shared it with the rest of the members.
That said, NLSIU in its latest press release is effectively saying that the consortium should have known that NLS would Claxit, having “on several occasions raised concerns about the delay”.
NLSIU claimed that it had “proactively presented several options to the Consortium to ensure the conduction of the CLAT 2020”, including:
- Carving out an exception for NLUs to design their own admission process for 2020-21 as a single national examination may not be feasible in 2020;
- Allowing for CLAT 2020 to be conducted in two or more series so that Universities may choose either the earlier or later date series;
- Allowing for individual NLUs to conduct an examination, permitting CLAT-enrolled candidates to appear for a separate examination with no further need for registration or fee payment;
According to NLS, the other NLUs, however, “repeatedly rejected” those options:
On the one hand the Consortium was unwilling to confirm the date for the conduct of CLAT 2020. On the other it was unable to consider any of the options proposed b NLSIU, or permit individual NLUs to develop their own approach in the exceptional circumstances presented in a COVID-affected academic year.
Furthermore, NLS noted that the last two decisions to postpone the CLAT (on
5 August and
27 August) were “not taken unanimously as has previously been reported” (for the record, our earlier reports did not state that the decisions had been reached unanimously).
According to NLSIU
United front by remaining CLAT NLUs
The CLAT consortium, meanwhile, used their press release as a show of a united front,
The Consortium of National Law Universities unanimously reiterated its decision to hold the CLAT on 28th September, 2020 as announced earlier. Except NLSIU, Bangalore, no other Law University is going to hold its test independently as was erroneously reported in the social media. The interview of Professor Sudhir Krishnaswami, Hon’ble Vice- Chancellor, NLSIU, Bangalore, to Bar and Bench was purely his personal opinion. No other member University is neither feeling hard pressed in the Consortium nor has any plans of conducting its own independent admission test for 2020.
Krishnaswamy had told
Bar & Bench in an interview last week that “I don’t see it as a contest at all. Frankly, we might have been the first to stick our heads out, but there are other universities which are hard-placed. We are not the only university that feels this way.” (he also added “we will engage with the Consortium in a very robust and constructive way. We think that many of these things can be resolved quite easily” - the time for that has clearly passed now).
Administratively, the CLAT consortium has had to restructure somewhat to continue functioning.
Control of the official CLAT website, as well as the “secretarial and administrative functions” have been handed to Nalsar Hyderabad vice-chancellor (VC) Faizan Mustafa.
The treasury function has been passed on to NLU Odisha (which convened last year’s CLAT) vice-chancellor KD Rao.
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What have you done, Sudhir!
Using the same words of commenters here.
Its as though you guys are trying so hard to create this image of a villager, but failing so hard.
Sure, they may be better than the rest, but Ivy League better? Nah, man. I want some of that stuff you are smoking. Seems pretty powerful!
I think a Urgent PIL should be filled before the Honourable SC by all the remaining VC who stand against this move of Sudhir and they should also arrange a meeting with the education ministry. This man needs to be teached an important lesson. He's the person who can proudly say AAPDA KO AVSAR MEIN BADALNA.
The consortium will keep postponing clat indefinitely. Let’s face it - Covid 19 ain’t going nowhere until they find a vaccine which may take a year or two at least.
Sudhir clearly has plans for nls that do not involve a zero year.
Besides just a few weeks ago clat aspirants were asking for the exam to not be postponed because of “mental stress”. Continuing to postpone the exam creates problems for many students apart from mental stress also. Students might find themselves having to work, having to pay really exorbitant fee at private universities to avoid a gap. Few people can also afford to have a gap year in general. Most students get one shot at something like nls- and to have that be postponed continuously might take away that shot also.
I don’t necessarily agree with an online exam- but it is also difficult to know what is the right course of action in such uncertain times. Maybe they went the online way because of health/ funding concerns. There are no optimal outcomes- some folks will be unhappy no matter what they do.
At least nls and Sudhir are doing something rather than sitting on their hands and virtue signalling.
All of these access concerns might get amplified by an online exam- but maybe it’s better to rage at your local government to make sure you have uninterrupted electricity and some sort of community assistance for students at times like this rather than bitch out nls admin for doing the best they can with what they have.
It also seems very unlikely that CLAT won't be held on September 28 (now that NLS has walked out claiming that the consortium is dragging their feet, they have to conduct it). JEE and NEET is happening, cases are rising but so is general complacency. Unless state governments continue to impose strict lockdowns three weeks from now, my bet would be on CLAT happening.
And students need a certain amount of credits to graduate on time- if they have less time to acquire those credits in- there will be more people who fail and drop out and more scam courses. It’s silly to think you can make up for one whole trimesters work next year- especially if they are difficult courses offered by qualified professors.
More than that - if you give up all the breaks - that causes a lot of strain for people who are teaching. They don’t go on vacations during the break- they spend that time actually doing research, catching up on grading, and putting together course materials for new courses. So even if you make teachers teach during the break- quality will suffer a lot.
It is time to evaluate if CLAT is doing more harm than good.
I just pray that the hundreds of underprivileged kids survive this debacle and secure their due.
It’s one thing to disagree with the man. It’s another to post this Inaccurate personal attacks.
And there is value in criticising his decision- but none what so ever in attacking his background or his personal history- especially when one doesn’t know him in any depth.
It's one thing to come from a weak socio-economic background and it's another to actually understand the plight and take action when you're in charge.
A good part of Indian bureaucracy comes from weak socio-economic background but what do they do for the poor? The same is the case with Sudhir.
Your comment reminds me of the the non-political interview where Modi answered every question citing his background.
I did not say we should not criticise nlat for being exclusionary or think about how this could be better done. I simply said that attacking someone for being privileged- while knowing nothing about where they come from or what they have suffered through - is ignorant and frankly unproductive and hateful. Do better.
twitter.com/gautambhatia88/status/1302539626561888256
twitter.com/DrAMSinghvi/status/1302606345992982528
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