Plea in HC against DU’s decision to offer admission in 5-year law courses on CLAT score

The PIL, which challenges DU’s August 4 notification, seeks that admissions to the five-year integrated law courses be done through the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) UG 2023.

The notification states that DU’s Faculty of Law introduced the “Five-Year Integrated Law Courses – BA LLB(Hons) and BBA LLB (Hons)” – from the academic year 2023-2024.

“The Bar Council of India in its letter dated 26.07.2023 has accorded its approval of 60 seats for BA LLB (Hons) and 60 seats for BBA LLB (Hons). Admission to BA LLB (Hons) and BBA LLB (Hons) shall be based on merit in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) UG 2023 result. The classes for BA LLB (Hons) and BBA LLB (Hons) courses will be held at Faculty of Law, Kanad Bhawan, North Campus, University of Delhi. The online application for admission to BA LLB (Hons) and BBA LLB (Hons) courses will be announced by the University soon,” the notification states.

The petitioner, Prince Singh, a student of Faculty of Law, has said that DU is a central university and admissions are granted based on CUET.

The plea states that while issuing the August 4 notification, DU has imposed a “wholly unreasonable and arbitrary condition” that the admission to five-year integrated law courses shall be solely based upon merit in the CLAT-UG 2023 result, which is violative of the right to equality under Article 14 and right to education under Article 21 of the Constitution.

“That the condition imposed for admission to the five-year Integrated law courses at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, is wholly unreasonable and arbitrary. It lacks any intelligible differentia and has no rational nexus with the object of admission to the five-year integrated law courses at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi,” the plea states.