The Court disagreed with the respondents. It noted that the challenge is not against qualification or eligibility, but focused on the selection process, on the ground that the incorporation of the restrictive selection criteria is nothing but indirect discrimination.
Justice Arun pointed out that out of the 1,721 law colleges in India, only 23 are members of the Consortium of National Law Universities.
“The argument that, apart from law graduates passing out from NLUs, graduates from other law colleges would also have appeared for the CLAT 2021 PG programme, cannot also be countenanced, since such candidates would only be a minuscule minority among the law graduates,” the Court held.
Moreover, the test was conducted much prior to the issuance of NTPC’s notification and law students cannot be expected to appear for CLAT just in case it will be a criterion for a job they may aspire to in the future, it was noted.
Further, it was highlighted that CLAT is focused on academics and not assessment of the skill set expected of future law officers, leading to the conclusion that the inclusion of CLAT clearance as a criterion has no rational nexus to the object sought to be achieved.
Source: Barandbench
