LI NETWORK
On Monday Supreme Court just few Hours before the scheduled start of Common Law Admission Test (CLAT)-2020 allowed a suspected COVID-19 positive aspirant to take the entrance test in a separate isolation room.
CLAT-2020 is the common entrance exam conducted by 22 National Law Universities of India, the exam was scheduled to start at 2 PM today for admission to LLB, LLB 5 year Integrated and LLM.
Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan permitted student Deepansh Tripathi to take his CLAT examination on September 28, 2020 in a separate isolation room to be provided by his Centre Superintendent.
Supreme Court also said “the student shall ensure that a downloaded copy of this order should be presented before his Centre Superintendent as early as possible by any other non-symptomatic person”.
On such order being produced, the Centre Superintendent shall provide a separate room for applicant to appear in the examination. Applicant shall enter into the centre after other candidates take entry and shall first leave the examination centre, it said.
Supreme Court said the Centre Superintendent may also request the Chief Medical officer of the District or Superintendent, Government Hospital to provide medical staff to render necessary assistance.
The student has contended in supreme court that although as per the admit card issued to him, COVID-19 symptomatic candidates will be allocated to isolated room, instructions have been issued by the Consortium of NLUs that candidates who have been tested positive and are under medical surveillance or in isolation will not be permitted to take the CLAT, 2020 examination.
Student in his Plea sought clarification of the September 21 judgment on CLAT and order to the Consortium with regard to denial to appear in entrance examination to aspirants suffering from Covid-19 by not providing isolation rooms at the exam centers.
In his application student said, “The sudden change in the stand of the Consortium of National Law Universities has deprived the applicant of his fundamental right under Article 14 of the Constitution of India to be treated as an equal and be given opportunity to appear in the examination on September 28, 2020 which otherwise he was well entitled to like any other student”.