Demanding CLAT for NTPC Law Officer appointment violative of Article 16: Kerala High Court

Kerala High Court has said that the condition mandating applicants to clear CLAT for applying to the post of Assistant Law Officer in NTPC was violative of Article 16.

Kerala High Court has held that the guidelines which make it compulsory for applicants to clear CLAT to apply for the post of Assistant Law Officer in National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) was violative of Article 16 of the Constitution of India.

The court said this while hearing a plea by an aspirant to the post and an LLM student at CUSAT with a specialization in Intellectual Property Rights. She completed LLB with an average score of 70% and claims to have several academic accolades and hence said she should be eligible to apply for the post. 

However, the NTPC's notification mandates that the candidate must have appeared in the CLAT 2021 to be eligible to apply for the post.

HC directs NTPC to test her eligibility

Justice VG Arun has directed the respondents to accept the petitioner's application and test her eligibility through a selection process, as reported by Live Law.

The High Court has agreed that deciding the eligibility of the post is within the domain of the employer and cannot be the subject matter of judicial review unless found unreasonable and arbitrary.

The court said, "Out of the 1721 law colleges in India, only 23 are members of the Consortium of National Law Universities. The argument that graduates from other law colleges would also have appeared for the CLAT-PG cannot also be countenanced, since such candidates would only be a minuscule minority." 

Read more:

• CLAT 2022 Update: Notification for Kolkata Test Centre and PWD/ SAP Candidates, Check here
• CLAT 2022 Latest Update: Consortium releases exam day instructions for test-takers, Check here