CLAT coach Rajneesh Singh said on the Facebook page of CLAT prep website Clathacker.com: “Static-ness continues and that too after they announced at clat.ac.in that no legal knowledge and no static. PIL going to be filed against CLAT. some people are going to do so. The case is very strong.”
“Sign me up for it too” commented several candidates on Singh’s post.
“Examiners should be more responsible,” rued one aspirant adding “I want to sue them for my time which I will never get.”
“We should really do something regarding this because our future depends on this,” called out another candidate on the Facebook protest page against CLAT 2012.
25,769 candidates, up from last year’s 23,875, competed across 20 cities for 1702 undergraduate law seats according to Times of India, in the common entrance exam for selection to 14 participating national law universities that was conducted by NLU Jodhpur from 3 PM to 5 PM today.
“CLAT cheated us” and “CLAT can never be trusted” were among the first few updates this evening, on online CLAT discussion forums.
CLAT’s website had stated that candidates will not be tested on any prior knowledge of law or legal concepts. If a technical or a legal term is used in the question, that term will be explained in the question itself.
However questions in the legal aptitude section clearly seemed to flout this assurance. A case in point being a question that stated the legal principle, “majority is not competent to contract”, and then without further explanation went on to ask whether a contract with a minor is “void”, “voidable”, or “void ab initio”.
Other alleged questions included those on the concept of “joint liability” in the Indian Penal Code, and those requiring being well-versed with eminent jurist Austin’s principles.
It was further stated on the website that the general knowledge section will only test students on their knowledge of current affairs: “broadly defined as matters featuring in the mainstream media between March 2011 and March 2012".
General knowledge questions in the paper today on the contrary asked for the year 2010 declared brand ambassador of UNICEF, the name of the “S-shaped” ocean, and the longest Indian highway.
There was a minor Facebook controversy over a question asking for the location of the Akshardham temple, which most people thought they passed in Delhi, while the smaller, less lustrous original version of which exists in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
Though rants such as “NLU-J has scammed us”, among others resonated after 5 PM today, some candidates observed that the length of the paper was good enough for them to finish it before time.
“I finished my paper 20 minutes before time”, chirped a candidate excitedly.
The unexpected nature of the question paper apart, it was reportedly fairly easy in comparison to the All India Law Entrance Test (AILET) conducted by NLU Delhi a week ago.
According to a latest update on Clatgyan’s Facebook page, a Rohini Delhi test centre attracted some bad press and parental fury when three candidates from allegedly influential families forcibly used unfair means by getting certain non-candidates to write their paper.
Advocates who are parents of other candidates appearing at the Rohini centre have also resolved to file a PIL tommorow.
Delhi reported the largest number of test-takers for CLAT 2012, with 6,113 candidates taking the test in 10 centres across the city, according to Times of India.
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you bird brain there is no difference between the two!
Well well well.."stupid enough" comment is justified here..This chap really thinks there is no difference between the two..
A void contract is one where for example two people enter into a contract and then one of them goes mad. The contract becomes void.
But VOID AB INITIO is a contract which is void from the very beginning (INITIO) in the case of a contract with a minor.
!!
Why should the future of Law School be determined by the quality of paper set by other colleges?
I remember the pre-CLAT papers, and even the CLAT 2008. We used to get such hard working chaps going by what Elizabeth would say.
Actually, no. While the CLAT Committee, consisting of all the VC-s of NLU-s, may frame the overall guideline for the paper, the actual paper and its contents are entirely at the discretion of the conducting university, as the current practice goes.
WORD, I say.
Also, it will make the students value a said Law School more than this preference shit.
P.S.- The centre in rohini where that incident happpened- C.M. Model school. (It was my test centre).
Thank you for pointing out.
We have now checked the GK questions list on CLAT Gyan and have corrected the error.
Best wishes,
Prachi
Bhopal leaked the CLAT paper.. remember?
Quoting Hullo:
Paper leak happened in the Delhi godown of a courier company for which RMLNLU, Lucknow was responsible. And not Bhopal.
Yeah ppl at RML, CNLU and HNLU are fools they shuldnt even be counted in NLUs. thats right Loki dont say shit just you wanna blurt it out let them conduct the exam and then talk
Really NALSAR guy?? Being part of one more controvercy would hurt you guys??
Kindly reserve your comments to Delhi and Christ only..If at all you were trying to equate these institutions and meant anything derogatory.
As i was not a candidate for the exam, so cant say whether Delhi was an option for the question of Akshardham temple. if people have marked Delhi, its logically correct. the question was where is akshardham temple located. if some one mentions Delhi instead of Gandhinagar, how does it make it wrong. if the word original was added then it would have been correct to say gandhinagar.
Minority is?
Correct me if i'm wrong, but didn't the Bhopal paper leak?
Please get your facts right, the paper was leaked at Lucknow.. who preaches this stuff at your law school though ?
and if u think this is abt daddy's richie kids then my friend u hv got ur powers of logic all messed up! gud luck to u
Dear dear,
People had to walk for two kms to reach the center and then there was no fan. Just because you are from equatorial Africa doesn't mean everyone can cope up with Delhi heat.
Hmmm...already thinking like a lawyer before entering law school.
Less lawyer.. more litigant!!
You mean but "then" and not "than"?? Right.
"INDRA Canal her dead..." It is Indira Canal and this English requires divine interpretation. Thank God you did not write an essay in CLAT.
You mean "barring", Miss Joshi?
The last thing our bureaucratic law schools need are students of this ilk. The law is not meant to be memorized, Ms. Joshi, but analyzed and applied. Not particularly aware of how much stress was laid on reasoning by CLAT '11 but if that is the case, it is for the best.
Sadly, even with your extremely narrow approach to learning, you'd do great at a law school. Incompetent students almost always go well with incompetent teachers.
I said as well as good in reasoning.
why does hard working or knowing gk properly means not good in reasoning.....
Does any one know which University will prepare next year's question paper?
ROFLMAO.
Are you guys for real? This kid is yet to start law school. Leave her alone. And let's see what you do at the end of five years with your English that she doesn't.
It's almost stereotypical, the legal reasoning questions (15) that were asked were awfully old beat and repetative. The trend speaks for itself, people who dont have any reasoning aptitude cannot possibly set papers to identify aptitude in students, they made the paper such that all the book mugging goodfornothings like them could get selected and the real talent gets left behind.
And this is what is worrisome.
I happen to be a student at one of India's top 2 National Law Universities; and it is quite worrisome for us to see people jumping up and down over questions like the S-shaped ocean and the largest gland - any goddamned person who has had access to a globe or a map; or a decent GK textbook in school would have the answers to such questions on their fingertips. And rushing to Courts due to their own incapacity to answer such questions only goes to show the latent hypocrisy of CLAT takers this year.
The contract question is basic knowledge that has been a part of the syllabus and given in LST, Universal as well as LexisNexis books, which are considered essential to studying for Clat.
Rather than wasting your time filing PIL's, where your not even clearing an Entrance, just shows your mental calibre.
"law is codified common sense"
Okay.. a lot of discussions going on all over regarding the "grading" of CLAT 2012 paper as easy, moderate, unexpected and the like.
Every student has his/her abilities to answer questions.
Some were saying that Maths was easy, some said it wasn't.
But what is important is how ONE has attempted it.
One of the most illogical things that i heard was "inclusion of STATIC GK in the paper in-spite of the fact that the official CLAT 2012 website declared that only current affairs would be tested." Okay, even though they mentioned that only current affairs region would be tested,that doesn't mean one never came across ANY STATIC GK QUESTION ever in their life!
If a student complaints that Delhi was not amongst the options for the question regarding Akshardham Temple, then I am sorry. One i supposed to know that Delhi only has the REPLICA and the original is in Gujarat! And if Delhi wasn't in the options one could have thought differently that there might be a possibility of Akshardham being in some other city too rather than jumping to conclusions.
Definitely the GK section was VERY EASY compared to the AILET (NLU-D)'s GK section. AILET's GK was full of Science based questions (very specific) and it proved to be difficult for a Commerce student like me. But I am not going to file a PIL saying that there were too many UNEXPECTED SCIENCE QUESTIONS in the paper. One has to take it as it comes and use some presence of MIND and not just ready made solutions.
Well the Legal section came with a little surprise as some of the questions were based on "Assertion Conclusion" and not Legal Principles. But at the same time I was able to ATTEMPT them by taking some ideas from the options given.
Never did I feel during the paper that something was out of the syllabus or whatsoever. Because when I was giving the paper I focused only on answering the questions that focusing on how someone is supposed to answer such a question. There is a fine line between the two.
As far as scoring is concerned I don't know how much I will score. But the satisfaction of having done the paper well (pretty well as compared to AILET) I would say that it was a great experience. The marks part that i have written is to say that even if I score less that would be because of my mistakes not the paper's.
Just because someone is appearing for Law exams doesn't mean they start behaving like Lawyers ALREADY.
As you mentioned that a Rohini Delhi test centre attracted some bad press and parental fury when three candidates from allegedly influential families forcibly used unfair means by getting certain non-candidates to write their paper.
Now that's something worth filing a PIL for!!
In a competitive exam you study only for what you have to, nothing more, so implying that its the students own fault for not studying for questuons beyond the scope of the exam is unreasonable
I actually co-related the S Shaped ocean with the titanic..and i got my answer right!!!
Are you bored || Does legallyindia not satisify your latent blood lust? || Do you hate any law college?
If the answer to anyone of the above is YES.
Then, all of you guys from the top law schools (NLSIU, NALSAR, NUJS -and just so that it isn't a nerd fest- Symbi, ILS, GLC- and just so it isn't too cheap and because we are accommodating and like to average it out- GNLU, RGNUL..blah blah) are invited to come and participate in THE NLUJ dharna and stone throwing - 2012?
The main event will be the Dharna for the CLAT disaster and an evening of stoning the VC and his office.
Other activities will include vociferous and verbose, if somewhat specious, DEBATES on which is the best law school. Make a Dharna (MAD), Un-parliamentary Debate, Slogan shouting, among a host of activities.
To ensure your visit is comfortable and to create the right ambiance for the demonstration, you would be provided with free accommodation in our hostels, Jodhpur darshan during the afternoons, narcotic substances during the nights and a social evening or two where intoxicated or not, indecency WOULD be expected!
[...] our beloved caterer, would be happy to feed extra mouths and earn some praise for a chance. It is expected that he would even provide an ALL paneer menu for the period of the event.
Entertainment is promised. A formal invite would be sent out once the bureaucratic wrangling between the Acad Comm, Cul Comm and the Sports Comm is sorted out.
Looking forwarding to seeing all of you'll!
Cherrio!
1. The inclusion of Static GK in the paper - The official declaration regarding GK seems to be that only current affairs would be tested. The implication of this seems to be, at least in my mind, that current affairs spanning over an entire year is inclusive of two factors: the actual event in question + a piece of information that renders the reporting of the event logically complete. For example, if there has been something in the news about India's longest highway, it is absurd to argue that only the exact event pertaining to the highway can be questioned, and not the identity of the highway itself. So unless you can prove that there was nothing in the news for AN ENTIRE YEAR that even mentioned the highway in question, you're screwed. That does fall under the heading 'Current Affairs' and you can be tested on it.
2. The inclusion of unexplained legal concepts in the Legal Aptitude section - I am aware that the rules stated that any legal concept would be explained before being questioned on. Now, this may not be clear right away, but in competitive examinations, there's an implied amount of knowledge that the test-taker is expected to possess. Like every student taking the IIT entrance is expected to know about the Periodic table, a CLAT-taker is expected to know the meaning of the words 'void', 'voidable' and 'void ab initio'. If they'd tested on a concept like Usufructuary Mortgage, you have a right to complain. But the CLAT is a competitive examination, and it does NOT test students who arrive armed with nothing but their wits. There's a fine line between explaining legal concepts you are NOT expected to know and words you, as a test-taker should know the meaning of, like 'joint liability'.
If you did badly, you have my sympathies. We've all been there, and it never goes as badly as you think it does. Sit tight, wait for the results, and for god's sake, be smart about when you have to sue.
Well, let me state beforehand that I've my emotions firmly in control, given that I'm a NLU alumnus and not a CLAT-aspirant. However, there are two points I would like to mention here. One, I agree with the fact that most of the 'static GK' questions that had been asked are those that CLAT aspirants should be aware of. Although there can be debates about whether having information about leukemia or some other trivia may or may not be relevant towards testing one's aptitude for NLU-s. However, the point that is being made is misrepresentation, not the standard of questions asked. If you want to quibble on the ground of current affairs having a tenuous link to such 'static GK', you are within your rights to do so -however, NLUJ ought to have realized how its notification would have been interpreted. After all, it wasn't merely trying to safeguard against legal proceedings. The purpose of the notification was to HELP the examinees.
About the legal aptitude part, I can rebut a little stronger. The comparison with IITJEE does not hold ground here. The periodic table and/or other physics/chemistry information a student ought to know not because he's appearing for IITJEE but because he's been taught physics/chemistry in plus-two level. The analogy with law does not hold true. Also, I completely disagree that a NLU-entrant needs to know be a priori aware of legal concepts like Austinian theory or difference between void and voidable. That's what first year at law school is there for! If he/she is aware of it, kudos to him/her, but it cannot be made a condition precedent for his entry.
Everybody here, claiming that only people who royally screwed up the exam are complaining is well not so true, since I am myself expecting a score above 160. Nothing in GK section was out of context, what was out of context was the legal reasoning and assertion questions which required the candidate to know whether IPC 347 relates to murder or section 98 relates to private defense.
After stating explicitly that legal knowledge wont be tested you can reasonably hope for a National Law institute to abide by the norms. If knowing IPC and constitution section(s) refers to common knowledge then well your definition of common knowledge is rather absurd.
I wish and hope that more CLAT mentors and law aspirants adopt the approach suggested in this article. I've given my take on this issue on myLaw - do share your thoughts and comments! mylaw.net/Article/Clat_astrophe_that_wasnt/
I agree, Kunal. However, just as the approach of students and/or preparatory centres needs to be revised, so should the organization needs to be streamlined and improved by having it centralized. Otherwise, discrepancies and irregularities of this nature will keep on happening. The students can hardly be blamed. They do, for the most part, what they are told to.
oh that's the phenomenon! nothing new. cheers
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