‘State entrance test for law colleges illegal’

The Maharashtra State Bar Council has said that the decision of the state to conduct a common entrance test for admission to law colleges in the state is not legal as they have not taken permission from the Bar Council of India which is the authority for legal education in India.

The state bar council has also said that the Law CET was unnecessary as there was already a national-level Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) that was being conducted and another CET would only burden the aspirants further as they would have to appear for two exams henceforth. The CET committee has said that while the date for the test is tentatively stated to be May 22, it could change if it clashed with other exams.

Speaking about the Law CET that would be held by the Maharashtra state, advocate Ashish Deshmukh, member of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, said that the test was not valid as it did not have any prior permission from the Bar Council of India or the state council. “The BCI is the regulating authority for legal education in the country and any decision pertaining to exams needs to have the proper and prior permission from it. The higher and technical education ministry has neither consulted the state council nor the BCI before announcing the CET, hence the test is not valid,” said Mr Deshmukh.

He added that the CLAT, which is a nationwide admission test that had permission from BCI, was sufficient for the purpose of conducting admissions and increasing the number of tests would only add to the burden on the students. “The state council is concerned for the well being of the aspirants and the introduction of another test will only add to their stress. The decision of conducting a state CET is unnecessary and uncalled for,” said Mr Deshmukh.

Justifying the need to conduct a state CET, a member of the CET committee said the decision of the state government was based on the fact that the CLAT fee was Rs 4,000 and many aspirants were unable to pay the same. “The CET fees on the other hand are only Rs 650 and will allow aspirants from poor families to appear for the test too,” said the member. The committee member added that the date of the CET for the five-year course that was announced as May 22 was tentative and could be changed if it clashed with other exams.