Common test for entry to law varsities

A common entrance exam, on the pattern of CAT for IIMs and JEE for IITs, will now be held for admission into seven national law universities...

A common entrance exam, on the pattern of CAT for IIMs and JEE for IITs, will now be held for admission into seven national law universities, UGC vice-chairman Mool Chand Sharma said on Monday.

Sharma, who had been the convenor of the panel looking into the possibility of a common admission exam, said: “This will benefit thousands of students, who had to write separate exams for the national law schools. This will be available from 2008-09.”

After a series of meetings held during last one year under the convenorship of Sharma, the panel decided for conducting admission to the LLB programme through Combined Admission Test (CAT) from the academic year 2008-2009.

Story continues below this ad

The seven law universities are in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Kolkata, Jodhpur, Raipur, Chhattisgarh and Gandhinagar.

In a meeting held last week which was also attended by the Chairperson of the Bar Council of India, S Gopa Kumar Nair, Vice-Chancellors of these seven law universities had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding the Common Admission Test.

This, Sharma said, was a sequel of a Public Interest Litigation pending before the Supreme Court.

The responsibility of holding CAT will rotate yearly amongst these seven law universities on the basis of their seniority.

Story continues below this ad

This year the responsibility lies with the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, and its head Prof A Jayagovind would be the head of the group which would supervise the CAT for the year 2008-09.