No Age Bar for CLAT Entrance Examination 2015

To appear in the CLAT entrance test the maximum age limit for a general candidate was 20 years old and for scheduled category candidates 22 years old. But on 4^th March, 2015 the Rajasthan high court chief justice Sunil Ambwani and justice Prakash Gupta ruled that the Legal Education Rules, 2008, not only on the ground that the Bar Council was not competent, but also the Bar Council felt that the Rule is ultra vires the provisions of Section 7(1)H and (i), 24(1)(c)(iii), and (iiia) or 49(1)(af), (ag), and (d) of the Advocates Act, 1961, and also arbitrary, as it introduces invidious classification by dividing the class of students artificially creating a class by prescribing the maximum age limit for admission in Law Courses, and further on the ground that there is no apparent object to be served in prescribing the age of 20 years.  It was also recovered that the statutes of the National Law universities are silent of the max, age limit.

The court also ordered the withdrawal of Clause 28 of Schedule-III appended to Rule 11 of the Rules of the Bar Council of India. Considering the fact that a large population of the country lives in rural areas, which also forms talent bank, from where the students can be drawn for admission, to the top Law Colleges in the country.

The court has asked the CLAT 2015 convenor RMLNLU Lucknow to modify its application software so as not to reject applications of candidates above the current age limit and to upload the high court’s interim order on CLAT’s official website.

Advocate General of Rajasthan RN Mathur who was appearing for CLAT 2015 convenor RMLNLU Lucknow asked the court for time until 12 March to file a reply and to fix a date before CLAT application deadline 31 March to dispose of the matter.