6 months ago
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The Supreme Court connected Wednesday (January 7, 2026) dismissed a petition seeking a court-monitored probe into the alleged leak of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2026 question insubstantial connected the eve of the examination.
A Bench comprising Justices P. S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe declined to entertain the plea, noting that the introspection process had already concluded and questioning the request for judicial involution astatine specified a belated stage.
Addressing advocator Malvika Kapila, appearing for the petitioners, the Bench questioned wherefore the apex tribunal had not been approached earlier the declaration of results connected December 16, 2025. “You accidental the insubstantial was leaked connected December 6. Why did you hold until December 16 to attack this court? Had the petition been filed earlier the declaration of results, we would person appreciated it,” the Bench observed.
The petition, filed by a radical of instrumentality aspirants from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, alleged that surface recordings and screenshots of the CLAT 2026 question insubstantial began circulating connected societal media platforms, including Telegram, astir 10:15 p.m. connected December 6—nearly 15 hours earlier the introspection was scheduled to begin. It further pointed retired that portion Telegram allows users to edit antecedently uploaded media—a process that usually triggers an automatic “edited” label—no specified marker was disposable connected the worldly successful circulation.
Ms. Kapila submitted that the plea had been filed wrong a tenable clip and clarified that the petitioners were not seeking a absorption to behaviour the introspection afresh. The Bench, however, remained unconvinced and declined to intervene.
The CLAT 2026, a national-level entranceway introspection for admittance to undergraduate and postgraduate instrumentality programmes crossed 25 National Law Universities (NLUs), was held connected December 7, 2025, successful offline mode betwixt 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. astatine 156 centres crossed 25 States and 4 Union Territories.
The introspection was conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities (CNLUs), established successful 2017. According to the consortium, 92,344 candidates applied for the examination, competing for conscionable implicit 3,500 undergraduate seats and astir 1,500 postgraduate seats crossed the NLUs. The results were declared connected December 16 and published connected the consortium’s authoritative website.
‘Compromised exam’
The petition contended that the alleged leak had compromised the sanctity of the introspection and “vitiated the level-playing field”, thereby prejudicing the sincere efforts of genuine candidates. It further pointed retired that judicial involution was “urgent” since the archetypal allotment database was scheduled to beryllium published connected Wednesday (January 7, 2026).
“Proceeding with counselling and spot allotment based connected the results of a prima facie compromised examination, without a conclusive and autarkic probe into the alleged insubstantial leak, would pb to irreversible consequences,” the plea, filed done advocator Malvika Kapila, stated.
The tribunal was besides informed that screenshots and videos circulating connected Telegram groups included claims by individuals that they had accessed the question insubstantial earlier the examination, suggesting an organised leak. The worldly besides allegedly included messages from individuals offering entree to the insubstantial successful speech for payment.
The aspirants further pointed retired that though the consortium had operationalised a grievance redressal portal to code complaints relating to the behaviour of the examination, grievances raised done the portal concerning the alleged leak had remained unaddressed. This inaction, the petitioners contended, had led to an “irreparable erosion” of nationalist spot successful the introspection process, thereby necessitating judicial intervention.
“The videos, images, and quality reports intelligibly bespeak that the introspection process has been compromised, thereby infringing the cardinal rights of genuine candidates. A insubstantial leak strikes astatine the halfway of law guarantees of fairness, equality, transparency, and dignity inherent successful immoderate nationalist examination,” the plea added.
