Delhi High Court Today (June 23) asked for replies from BCI, UGC, NLUs Consortium, and the Centre on a plea against high CLAT PG counselling charges. The petitioner claimed the fees are unfair and unaffordable for many students.
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NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs), Bar Council of India (BCI), University Grants Commission (UGC), and the Central Government to respond to a legal petition.
This petition is challenging the high counselling fees charged by the NLUs for the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) PG admission process.
Justice Rajneesh Kumar Gupta, while issuing the notice, did not give any temporary relief to the petitioner.
“The process is going on, cannot disturb the whole process for one candidate,”
-said the judge during the hearing.
The petition was filed by a student named Jatin Shrivastava, who got 474th rank in the CLAT PG results. He told the court that the counselling fees were very high and unfair, especially when the student’s ability to pay such a large amount had not even been considered.
As per the petition, to take part in the CLAT PG counselling, candidates have to pay a mandatory Rs 30,000 as counselling registration fees. Apart from this, students must pay Rs 20,000 to confirm their participation in every round of counselling. If they want to freeze their option (secure a seat), they need to pay another Rs 20,000 for that as well.
The petition stated that these kinds of high charges are not common in any other exam and seem to have no direct connection with the real purpose of counselling.
According to Shrivastava, this heavy fee system is making it hard for students, especially those who do not have any source of income, to move forward in the admission process.
“He cannot participate without making payment of Rs 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 Rs20,000 payment again. I have already paid the refundable Rs 30,000 counselling fee. After that, Rs20,000 per round is being charged,”
-said the petitioner’s lawyer, Advocate Siddharth R Gupta.
He added further that:
“This is the only exam in the whole country which charges such a large amount. Hundreds of students are not able to participate.”
The High Court has now officially issued notice to all the concerned authorities and has listed the matter for further hearing on July 2.
Meanwhile, a similar petition on the same issue is also pending before the Kerala High Court, which is scheduled to hear that matter on July 22.
Advocates Siddharth R Gupta, Mrigank Prabhakar, Aman Agarwal, and Uddaish Palya appeared in court on behalf of the CLAT PG candidate.
PREVIOSULY IN DELHI HC
A student who appeared for the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) PG filed a legal case in the Delhi High Court, raising questions about the high counselling fee being asked by the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs).
The student says the fee is too expensive and difficult to pay, especially for those from poor or middle-class families.
This petition was brought before the vacation bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh and Justice Rajneesh Kumar Gupta on June 20.
The court has now scheduled the hearing for June 23.
The petition was filed by Jatin Shrivastava, who got 474th rank in CLAT PG results. He has told the court that the amount being charged by the CLAT Consortium is not only very high but also fixed in an arbitrary way, without thinking whether students can afford it or not.
“The petitioner is entirely dependent on education loan for pursuing his LLM studies, which loan would be sanctioned only after the petitioner gets admission in any NLU of his choice and even the loan installments shall be transferable only to the concerned NLU and not to the CLAT Consortium or payable to the petitioner, in terms of the various covenants of the loan agreement,”
-the petition says.
The plea further explains that to take part in the CLAT PG counselling, students must first pay Rs 30,000, and this is compulsory.
Also, in every round of counselling, students have to pay another Rs 20,000 if they want to confirm a seat or freeze their choice. This amount is non-refundable, meaning it will not be returned if the student does not get a seat or withdraws from the process.
“That Clause 2 – ‘Admissions Counselling process’, vide Clause 2.1 titled as ‘Freeze Option’ of which, whenever any candidate participant intends to apply for ‘Freeze Option’, he is required to deposit a ‘Non-Refundable Confirmation Fees’ of Rs. 20,000/- at the time of opting for freezing of any seat. This fee is payable at every round whenever the candidate opts to Freeze any seat and thus may be charged even multiply in 2nd and 3rd round of counselling (considering there are only 3 rounds of counselling) whenever the concerned candidate participant intends to Freeze the seat for himself of his choice. Thus, vide various Sub-Clauses of Clause 2.1, for the 2nd and 3rd/ final round of counselling, the candidate participant would be required to pay a non-refundable amount of Rs. 20,000 – 40,000 only for freezing their seat in both the rounds,”
-the plea states.
Jatin Shrivastava has told the court that this type of high fee system is not normal and has no real purpose behind it. He said it seems to only create difficulties for poor students.
He also claimed that such fees are not only unfair and excessive, but also create a barrier for students who do not earn money or belong to low-income families.
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