The Bar Council of India (BCI) has told the Delhi High Court that conducting the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) in languages other than English would give opportunities to more citizens to pursue law as a career. The submission was made by the bar body in its response affidavit to a PIL seeking that the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT)-2024 be conducted in regional languages along with English. "Bar Council of India supports the issue raised by the petitioner for conducting CLAT examination in languages other than English as the same will give opportunities to more citizens of the country to appear in the exam and pursue law as a career,” BCI's affidavit stated. It further said that according to the Legal Education Rules, English has to be the medium of instruction in both the integrated five-year and three-year law courses, but it is open to the institution to allow instruction in any language other than English. If the "medium of instruction of legal education" is other than English, then students have to take English as a compulsory paper, it added. The BCI also said the All India Bar Examination (AIBE) is held in 23 languages, including English, Hindi and other regional languages. AIBE is a certification exam conducted by BCI for law graduates willing to start practice of profession as a lawyer. After clearing AIBE, the candidate is awarded a certificate of practice by BCI and once qualified, the candidate can attend court hearings in any tribunals, courts and administrative bodies. The PIL, filed by advocates Sakshi Raghav and Akash Vajpai, contends that CLAT (UG) examination “discriminates” and fails to provide a “level-playing field” to students whose educational backgrounds are rooted in regional languages. The plea seeks a direction to the consortium to conduct CLAT-2024 not only in English but all other regional languages of the Eight schedule of the Constitution of India as the "practice of taking CLAT (UG) only in English has an element of arbitrariness and discrimination and hence violative of article 14 and 29(2) of the Constitution".
