Supreme Court rejects plea against CLAT PG 2025, asks petitioners to move HC

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition alleging procedural lapses and arbitrary treatment of candidates during the conduct of the Common Law Admission Test post graduate exam 2025 (CLAT PG 2025) [Anam Khan and Another v. Consortium of National Law Universities]..A Division Bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar told the petitioners to approach the concerned High Court instead of directly coming to the Supreme Court."There are precedents saying we cannot be court of first instance. We are not inclined to entertain the Article 32 petition. Petitioners may approach jurisdictional High Court," the Court ordered.The Court also rejected the petitioners' request to stay the admission process until the matter is heard by a High Court. The Court observed that it cannot grant such interim relief after deciding not the entertain the plea. "The balance of convenience is not in favour of stay," the Bench added.The petitioners' counsel, meanwhile, pointed out that it may be difficult to determine which High Court to approach, since candidates who took the exam are from different States. The Court suggested that this difficulty could be resolved by approaching the Delhi High Court."They (candidates from different States) can then go to Delhi High Court, you can file it with permission. Please, you can take permission from High Court and file," the Court said. .Interestingly, the Bench also observed that there appeared to be mistakes in the petitioners' arguments with regard to alleged errors in the answer key."I have seen some of questions. (With respect to) some of them, you are wrong. I don't want to go into all that," CJI Khanna remarked..The two petitioners, Anam Khan and Ayush Agrawal, who appeared for the CLAT PG 2025 exam conducted on December 1, raised concerns over procedural inconsistencies, errors in the provisional answer key and excessive fees for filing objections. They then filed the plea against Consortium of National Law Universities alleging procedural lapses and arbitrary treatment of candidates at the exam.As per the petitioners, various procedural lapses at examination centers resulted in unequal treatment, undermining the fairness and integrity of the test.According to the petition, Anam Khan, who took the exam at Government Law College in Mumbai, received her question booklet at 1:50 PM, in line with the Consortium’s Test Day Instructions. In contrast, Ayush Agrawal, who took the exam at Acropolis Institute of Law in Indore, was handed his question booklet after 2:00 PM, effectively reducing his allotted examination time.Such treatment amounts to a violation of right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution, it was contended..The petitioners also contested several answers provided in the provisional key and have alleged that there were errors in at least 12 questions. These errors reflect negligence by the Consortium which affects the merit ranking of candidates, it was contended.Moreover, candidates were required to pay ₹1,000 per objection, a sum the petitioners deem unreasonable given the errors originated from the Consortium’s own oversight. As per the plea, despite charging ₹4,000 as an application fee, the Consortium failed to ensure accuracy in the answer key.Besides, the petitioners also took exception to the timeline followed in release of answer key to the counseling. The final answer key was released on December 9 followed by results on December 10 and counseling registration on December 11.This timeline does not allow sufficient time for candidates to seek legal remedies or challenge errors in the answer key, it was contended.Therefore, the petitioners sought directions to stay the publication of CLAT PG 2025 results and the counseling until the final answer key is released without any errors..[Read Order]