Reforming CLAT counselling process

Drawbacks in previous CLAT counseling:

·         Numerous categories like SC/ST/OBC/State quota/NRI/Foreign national were all counseled together and the lists were made freely migrable i.e. a student who has applied for NRI quota can move into foreign national seat if the seat remains vacant.

·         If a seat remains empty at a higher ranking college after the first round of counseling then the process to fill up that seat becomes cumbersome as the candidate who would to be allotted that seat may have already taken up his second choice and secured admission.

·         A central counseling as mooted in CLAT-2009 is impossible as students have to come from all over India and would create needless logistical and financial problems for the students and their families.

·         Two step process as followed in CLAT-2010 is fraught with confusion and uncertainty as a candidate who has submitted the initial amount for one college may get admitted into the higher rank college at a later date, thus it creates needless perplexity and anxiety among the candidates.

Recommendation for changes in CLAT-2011:

·         Have four distinct seat types which are sacrosanct and no one can migrate from one group to another after the submission of form. The groups may be 1. General 2. Statutory reservation (SC/ST/OBC etc.) 3. State quota 4. Management seat (no further division like NRI or foreign national)

·         No preference is sought at the time of filing up of form, results are declared and four distinct merit lists with further subdivisions as applicable are published.   

·         Instead of all the candidates to be called to a central location they are asked to report to their state capital where there would be a CLAT counseling centre linked up to a central office. Thus using a robust and secure IT network (if finances permit a temporary leased line from private operators like Reliance/BSNL/Airtel, if finances do not permit then Internet) all the candidates would be asked to submit their preferences.

·         All the counseling centers would ask the candidates from Rank 1-100 to come to the centre and fill up the college choice form which would allow the students to choose 3 colleges in preference list (there would also be a board alongside which would show the number of realtime vacancies in colleges in that category)

·         After the forms have been submitted with the requisite money, they would be collated and according to the ranks seats would be allotted and the list where each student has been selected would be published. A draft timetable could be like as below:

Time period	Comment
00.00-0.20	Reporting for x to 100+x
0.20-0.30	Distribution of choice forms
0.30-0.50	Filling up of choice forms
0.35-1.00	Submission of choice forms and DD
1.00-1.15	Creation of admission list
1.15-1.30	Publication of list and update of vacancy

·         State quota seats would be counseled by respective law school as per their own process.

·         Any vacant seat would be put up for counseling under management counseling which would be held after all the counseling process is over.

Advantages of the proposed counseling process:

·         A single tier process which would eliminate need to modify list at a later stage and would also do away with the needless anxiety suffered by candidates.

·         Entire admission process would be completed in 7 days instead of the present 20-25 days, thus classes can begin earlier and semesters wouldn't be affected.

Disadvantages of the proposed counseling process:

·         Every candidate has to travel to the counseling centre and that would entail some travelling and accommodation cost.

·         CLAT has to invest both human resource as well as capital in setting up at least 15-20 temporary counseling centers allover India.