Delhi High Court seeks NLU Consortium, BCI response on "exorbitant" counselling fee for CLAT PG

The Delhi High Court on Monday sought responses from the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs), Bar Council of India (BCI), the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Central government on a plea challenging the counseling fee being charged by the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) for Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) post graduate admission. .Justice Rajneesh Kumar Gupta issued notice to the above mentioned respondents but did not pass any interim order. "The process is going on, cannot disturb the whole process for one candidate," the judge remarked while issuing notice..The petition was moved by one Jatin Shrivastava who secured the 474th rank in the results.He argued that an arbitrary and exorbitant fee was being levied without even examining the suitability of the candidates to bear the expenditure..According to the plea, there is a requirement of mandatory payment of an amount of ₹30,000 as the counseling fees for participation in the process. Further, it stated that a candidate is required to pay confirmation charges of ₹20,000 for participating in every round of the counseling and an equivalent amount of charges for freezing their option in the counseling process..CLAT PG candidate moves Delhi High Court challenging "exorbitant" counselling fee.Such a high fee is completely unheard of and has absolutely no nexus with the purpose and objective for which the counseling is being convened, Shrivastava's petition argued.The plea said that charging such an exorbitant fees is not only discriminatory and disproportionate, but also serves as an impediment for those who are not at all in the earning capacity. "He cannot participate without making payment of ₹20,000 per round. It is in teeth of UGC rules and Supreme Court order. Second round of counselling I could not participate in because it required ₹20,000 payment again. I have already paid the refundable ₹30,000 counselling fee. After that, ₹20,000 per round is being charged," petitioner's counsel Siddharth R Gupta told the court.Gupta further told the Court that for freezing a seat during counselling ₹20,000 has to be paid again."This is the only exam in the whole country which charges such a large amount. Hundreds of students are not able to participate," he said.The Court issued notice on the plea and posted it for further consideration on July 2. .A similar petition has also been filed before the Kerala High Court, which is slated to hear the matter next on July 22. .Advocates Siddharth R Gupta, Mrigank Prabhakar, Aman Agarwal and Uddaish Palya appeared for the CLAT PG candidate.