Delhi high court orders revised results for CLAT PG-2025
Initially, petitioners had challenged eight questions, but the Consortium withdrew four during an April meeting
The Delhi high court on Friday directed the consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) to release revised results for this year’s Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) postgraduate (PG) exam, awarding marks to all candidates for two disputed questions deemed incorrect in the official answer key.
A bench of chief justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela ruled that the consortium’s answers for two of the three contested questions were erroneous and directed that marks be given to all test-takers, who opted for the answer deemed correct by the court.
Initially, petitioners had challenged eight questions, but the Consortium withdrew four during an April meeting. After the verdict was reserved, it also agreed to withdraw a fifth question due to a discrepancy between the test booklet and the master key. That left three questions for the court to decide.
In its 18-page judgment, the court refused to quash the ₹1,000 fee charged for objecting to the provisional answer key but urged the Consortium to reconsider the amount for future exams. “While the fee is meant to deter frivolous challenges, particularly by coaching institutes, it appears excessive compared to other national-level institutions,” the court noted.
The court stopped short of ordering a refund, saying most candidates had already paid the amount and retrospective relief could trigger further litigation. It asked the Consortium to refer the matter to its grievance redressal committee.
The petitions reached the Delhi high court after the Supreme Court, on February 6, transferred all cases pending in other high courts to avoid conflicting rulings. These included challenges to the CLAT UG and PG results declared on December 7, 2024.
The CLAT answer key has come under legal scrutiny since a Delhi high court order in December 2024, in a case filed by a UG candidate. On April 23, the Delhi high court had ordered revised UG results, but the Supreme Court stayed that directive on April 30.
On May 7, the top court criticised the Consortium for framing questions “casually” and for answers that contradicted Supreme Court rulings. It ordered revisions to the evaluation of six UG questions. The final answer key was amended on May 17, reducing the total marks to 113. UG counselling began the same day.
