The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday stayed the implementation of National Law School of India (Amendment) Act, 2020, that provides reservation of 25% of the total seats in the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) for students of Karnataka.
A Division Bench comprising Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Ravi V. Hosmani passed the interim order on the petitions filed by Master Balachandar Krishnan, an aspirant to a seat in NLSIU, the Bar Council of India, and others. The petitioners had questioned the constitutional validity of the new Act.
Meanwhile, the Bench directed the NLSIU to publish the merit list without adopting the 25% horizontal reservation made for the Karnataka students as per the new Act. However, despite the stay of new Act, the Bench allowed the NLSIU to prepare a separate merit list as per the seat matrix notified on August 4 in terms of reservation provided in the new Act subject to the final outcome of the petitions.
The Bench also clarified that the list, to be prepared reserving 25% of the seats horizontally for Karnataka students is concerned, should not be notified or published in any manner pending disposal of the petitions.
“In view of the interim stay of the impugned amendment granted by us, only that portion of the notification dated August 4, 2020 is stayed which grants 5% concession on the cut-off score to Karnataka students. It is clarified that we have not issued any interim order regarding the increase of seats from 80 to 120,” the Bench made it clear.
It further clarified that all the admissions to be made shall be provisional and subject to the final result of these petitions
The Bench on September 1 had reserved its final verdict on the question of constitutional validity of the new Act after completion of arguments.
However, NLSIU subsequently filed an application before the Bench informing about its decision to conduct its own entrance test for selection to students for the academic year 2020-21, citing repeated postponement of Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) to be conducted by the consortium of National Law Universities across India.
Following this application, the Bench on Tuesday found it necessary to pass an interim order, keeping in mind the interest of students, as it was not possible to deliver final verdict on the petitions before September 12, the date on which the NLSIU is scheduled to hold its own National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT) for selecting candidates for admission as against CLAT, which is to be held on September 28.
