PRAYAGRAJ The Allahabad high court on Tuesday directed the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) to revise the merit list for CLAT UG-2026, which was held on December 7, 2025, after an answer key dispute. But it clarified that students who had already taken admission during the first round of counselling will not be disturbed.
Justice Vivek Saran partly allowed a petition filed by Avneesh Gupta, a candidate who appeared in CLAT exams. The court passed the order as the high-powered ‘Oversight Committee’ had arbitrarily overruled subject matter experts regarding a disputed question without assigning any reasons for the same.
The petitioner, who took the test, moved the HC challenging the answer key for question nos. 6, 9 and 13 of test booklet-C (corresponding to questions 88, 91 and 95 of master booklet-A).
While the court refused to interfere with questions 6 and 13, the bench found merit regarding the challenge to question no. 9, a logical reasoning question and directed that both ‘B’ and ‘D’ options must be treated as the correct answer.
The court noted that the ‘Oversight Committee’ had overruled the decision of the expert committee and had retained the correct option as answer ‘B’ for the aforesaid question without assigning any reasons.
The court, while allowing the petition, observed: “In such view of the matter, the respondent/Consortium of National Law Universities is directed to revise the merit list by awarding marks against question no. 9 of booklet-C (corresponding to question no. 91 of booklet-A) and to all other questions which correspond to the same in different booklets of CLAT-2026 entrance examination by treating both ‘B’ and ‘D’ as correct answers and thereafter further directed to revise the merit list and republish/re-notify the same within a period of one month from today.”
{{/usCountry}}The court, while allowing the petition, observed: “In such view of the matter, the respondent/Consortium of National Law Universities is directed to revise the merit list by awarding marks against question no. 9 of booklet-C (corresponding to question no. 91 of booklet-A) and to all other questions which correspond to the same in different booklets of CLAT-2026 entrance examination by treating both ‘B’ and ‘D’ as correct answers and thereafter further directed to revise the merit list and republish/re-notify the same within a period of one month from today.”
{{/usCountry}}“Since it has been informed at the Bar that the first round of counselling has already been finalised thus the students/candidates who have already taken admission pursuant to the first round of counselling shall not be disturbed, however for further counselling, the respondent is directed to act on the revised/re-notified merit list,” added the court.