CLAT Candidates Shall Get Extra Marks, suggests Grievance Redressal Committee

The Grievance Redressal Committee which is constituted by National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS) Kochi has looked into the complaints submitted to them by various candidates who appeared for CLAT 2018. The committee has suggested that the affected candidates should be compensated with extra marks.

According to the report, CLAT 2018 was held on May 13, 2018, however, there were several irregularities due to which the candidates who appeared for the test suffered. The Committee has also agreed that the exam was held with improper facilities and witnessed mismanagement across different test centers across India.

The Committee which is headed by the retired High court judge, Justice MR Hariharan Nair, has concluded CLAT 2018 was fraught with various imperfections. The Committee has agreed to the idea of compensating the candidates with extra marks, however, it has not advised for a re-test.

Till the day the exam got over, the Committee has received a total of 4690 complaints regarding the conduct of the examination. Some of the major complaints addressed by the students were that initially they were not able to log in as a result of which multiple logins was required thereby affecting the performance of the system, Inefficient software and computer resulting in avoidable interruptions in answering questions, No air conditioners in some of the exam centers which further stood in the way of best performance of candidates in many centres during the peak of summer, power failure was reported at many centres, to name a few.

Upon further inspecting the complaints at the CLAT 2018 Office, it was found that on the day of the examination, about 70 candidates lost less than one minute, 140 candidates lost less than two minutes, 94 candidates lost more than one minute, and 1899 candidates required multiple logins.

Since re-test of CLAT 2018 shall not be in the picture, the committee has suggested for a method to be adopted in order to compensate the CLAT 2018 takers with marks, on account of the time lost by them during the re-login process or were at an extra-time disadvantage.

One of the things which the Committee needs to take care is that existing CLAT Allotment list remains unaffected and the affected candidates get the compensation for all the trouble suffered. To this, the Grievance Committee states that “In case one or more candidates with the same mark acquires eligibility for the reason that another person with the same mark has got into the eligibility list as per the existing rank, (say 51), such candidates may be added with Rank Nos. 51A, 51B etc. and for accommodating the number of such additional entrants an equal number of supernumerary seats may be created on an ad hoc basis.”

The decision has been put on hold until the next hearing which is scheduled for June 11, 2018.

What do you think about the Grievance Committee’s Decision? Should they consider about re-test or compensating marks is the best solution? Let us know your opinion in the comment section below.