NLSIU Bangalore has made a press release about the conclusion of the dramatic retakes of the National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT) today, claiming a successful run yet again but declining to confirm how many actually sat for the re-takes.

That is despite a PDF of all the exam questions spreading online within barely 20 minutes of the start of the test and persistent unanswered questions and worrying facts about the circumstances of the re-take itself, after the actual exam was marred by technical issues.

It also finally confirmed what seemed to have been the case all along. Nearly everyone who had registered any complaints about the exam was “offered the opportunity to appear for another examination” today, “out of abundant caution”.

The latest press release is headlined, “NLAT 2020 Examination Process Completed”, but that may be overselling it slightly. On Saturday, the NLAT had also claimed in a release that the NLAT had been “successfully completed on September 12”.

Of course, with a pending Supreme Court petition (and a high court writ petition having filed for inclusion in it) there’s no guarantee that the entire NLAT process is indeed complete (though judges are well known to be loathe to interfere with examinations that have already happened).

Why NLS needs to confirm some numbers

In a marked contrast, in Saturday’s press release NLS was not afraid to showcase some numbers: 24,603 candidates for the undergraduate programme, of whom 23,225 (94.4%) actually appeared.

The only figure included in today’s press release was that “nearly 80% of the candidates who were offered an additional slot appeared for the exam” retake.

However, that number is fundamentally meaningless without the following information, which we have repeatedly requested from NLSIU:

• How many candidates filled in the complain form before the deadline of noon on Sunday?
• How many candidates were offered a retake?
• How many of those candidates tried to sign in to take the retake exam earlier today?
• How many of those successfully submitted the exam after having attempted all questions?
• How many of the candidates that appeared today, were not counted as having ‘appeared’ for Saturday’s NLAT?

If NLS is striving to provide transparency, those numbers are vital in demonstrating how bad (or limited, as may be the case) the technical problems on Saturday actually were.

We have requested a comment and those numbers from NLS several times today but understand the university will not be confirming those numbers, at least not today.

First delay creeps into NLAT timetable

But with a Supreme Court hearing on Wednesday, 16 September, things may not be over yet.

Since our story of this morning pointing it out, NLS has adjusted its exam timetable on its exam portal to delete the item that had promised release of the merit list by Tuesday, 15 September.

Instead, it now mentions for 16 September: “Notification of Results and Provisional Admission List by Email subject to further orders of the Court.”

The press release concludes with: “The release of admission results will be subject to further orders of the Supreme Court on September 16, in WP (Civil 1030/2020).

Full press release PDF copy here (and screenshotted image of release below).