NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that it favoured the consolidation of all petitions challenging the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2025 before a high court as it issued notice on a plea by the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) seeking transfer of various petitions pending before seven high courts.
A bench headed by chief justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna issued notice to the petitioners in the high courts and posted the matter for hearing in the first week of February.
While the court preferred transferring all matters to the Punjab and Haryana high court, where the first petition was filed, it later dropped this portion of the order, as solicitor general (SG) Tushar Mehta preferred Karnataka high court and a set of lawyers favoured Delhi high court which had decided an issue regarding discrepancies in the answer key of CLAT 2025 question paper.
The bench, also comprising justice PV Sanjay Kumar, however, did not bar proceedings before the high courts. “Notwithstanding our order, the petitioners before the high courts can complete their pleadings,” the bench said.
The consortium said petitions about CLAT were pending before the high courts of Punjab & Haryana, Delhi, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bombay, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. It reasoned that the pendency of these petitions before different courts could lead to contradicting orders which could stall the admission process to undergraduate and post-graduate law courses.
{{/usCountry}}The consortium said petitions about CLAT were pending before the high courts of Punjab & Haryana, Delhi, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bombay, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. It reasoned that the pendency of these petitions before different courts could lead to contradicting orders which could stall the admission process to undergraduate and post-graduate law courses.
{{/usCountry}}The bench said that in the interest of “efficiency” it would be expedient to transfer the matters for an early resolution of the dispute in question.