SC transfers all CLAT 2025 challenges to Delhi HC for centralised adjudication
The bench observed that similar challenges to the undergraduate and postgraduate CLAT-2025 results were pending before multiple high courts.
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the transfer of all petitions challenging the results of the 2025 Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) to the Delhi high court, ensuring a unified and expedited adjudication process. The decision was delivered by a bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and comprising justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan.
The bench observed that similar challenges to the undergraduate and postgraduate CLAT-2025 results were pending before multiple high courts, including those of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Calcutta, Bombay and Punjab & Haryana. To avoid conflicting rulings and streamline proceedings, the Supreme Court consolidated all cases to a single forum.
“We are also inclined to pass an omnibus order that in case a similar issue is raised before any other high court in the future, the consortium can file a copy of this order for the transfer of these cases to the Delhi high court,” the bench stated. It directed the administrative wings of the respective high courts to transfer all pending matters within seven days and scheduled the next hearing before the Delhi high court on March 3.
The transfer petitions were filed by the Consortium of National Law Universities (CNLUs), represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and advocate Pritha Srikumar Iyer. The consortium sought consolidation of the cases to prevent delays and jurisdictional inconsistencies in deciding the fate of thousands of aspirants who appeared for the postgraduate and undergraduate examinations on December 1 and December 7, 2024 respectively.
The matter has been a subject of intense legal scrutiny, particularly after a Delhi high court single judge, on December 20, 2024, directed the consortium to revise the CLAT-2025 results over errors in the answer key. The ruling was based on a plea filed by a CLAT aspirant, challenging the official answer key. The single judge found that the answers to two questions in the exam were incorrect and held that ignoring such errors would result in injustice to the candidates.
While the consortium appealed against the single judge’s order, the petitioner also challenged the decision before the division bench of the Delhi high court, arguing that similar discrepancies existed in three additional questions. The division bench, on December 24, 2024, refused to pass any interim relief, finding prima facie agreement with the single judge’s decision.
Beyond the specific case in Delhi, several candidates across various high courts have raised concerns over procedural lapses in the conduct of CLAT-2025. Grievances include alleged errors in the answer key, excessive fees for challenging incorrect answers, and procedural irregularities in both the undergraduate and postgraduate entrance tests.
Many petitioners had sought a stay on the publication of the results, citing a lack of transparency and fairness in the evaluation process. While some high courts have acknowledged these concerns, there has been no uniform directive on the matter, necessitating the Supreme Court’s intervention to centralize proceedings in one forum.
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