Recently, the Rajasthan High Court directed the committee formed to address grievances raised by candidates who appeared for the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2025 to resolve these issues in a timely manner, preferably before the final results of CLAT are announced.

The single-headed bench of Justice Arun Monga also sought a response from the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLU Consortium) regarding a petition filed by CLAT-UG candidates, who have raised concerns over the conduct of the exam and its results.

The Court took cognizance of the fact that students with unresolved grievances may be disadvantaged if CLAT admissions proceed hastily before these complaints are addressed. 

To prevent such discrepancies, Justice Arun Monga directed the NLU Consortium to ensure the grievance redressal process is completed swiftly and, ideally, before the finalization and implementation of the CLAT results.

"To prevent anomalies, such as candidates granted admission, without any fault of theirs, being ranked lower in the merit list than those succeeding later before the Committee, it is considered desirable that the committee gives its findings/decision with alacrity in a timely manner. Therefore, the entire grievance redressal process should ideally be completed before the finalization and implementation of the overall results," the Court ordered.

The Court scheduled the next hearing for this matter on January 8, 2025.

The petitioners are represented by advocates LS Udawat and Divik Mathur.

The petitioners argued that while a grievance redressal committee, led by a retired High Court judge, has been formed to address alleged irregularities in CLAT 2025, the NLU Consortium is proceeding with the admission process without awaiting the resolution of pending grievances. They pointed out that no deadline has been set for submitting or deciding these grievances, potentially leading to unfair outcomes.

Candidates who successfully resolve their grievances later may find themselves ranked lower than those admitted earlier, creating an unjust situation.

In a related development, a petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court challenging errors in the final answer key released by the NLU Consortium for CLAT undergraduate admissions.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had declined to entertain a petition alleging procedural lapses and arbitrary treatment of candidates during the CLAT for postgraduate admissions to NLUs.

A Division Bench, consisting of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, instructed the petitioners to approach the relevant High Court instead of filing directly with the Supreme Court. The top court also rejected the petitioners' request to stay the admission process pending the High Court's hearing.