The Supreme Court on Monday allowed a suspected coronavirus patient to appear for the Common Law Admission Test, or CLAT, in a separate isolation room, hours before the start of the examination, PTI reported.
The exam, an entrance test for admission to law courses in the 22 National Law Universities, began at 2 pm earlier in the day.
A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said that Deepansh Tripathi, the student, should ensure that a downloaded copy of the court’s order is given to his exam centre’s superintendent by a non-symptomatic person as soon as possible.
After the copy of the order is given, the superintendent should provide Tripathi with a separate room for appearing for the test, the bench said. The student should enter the isolation room after all other candidates have entered their respective rooms and should also exit before them, the bench added.
The court also said the superintendent can request the chief medical officer to provide medical staff if any assistance was needed.
The court, however, refused to pass a general order relating to the matter for any other candidates, NDTV reported.
The student had contended that coronavirus symptomatic candidates were to be allocated to isolated rooms, according to the admit cards issued to them. However, he said, that the consortium of the National Law Universities had issued an order preventing Covid-19 positive patients, who were under medical surveillance or in isolation, from appearing for the exam.
“The sudden change in the stand of the Consortium of National Law Universities has deprived the applicant of his fundamental right under Article 14 of the Constitution of India to be treated as an equal and be given [the] opportunity to appear in the examination on September 28, 2020 which otherwise he was well entitled to like any other student,” the plea filed by him said.
In his plea, Tripathi said that he was aspiring to clear the CLAT exam and that he had a valid admit card for the test. He said that he was in isolation for being suspected of being positive for the infection but was ready to appear for the test.
On September 21, the Supreme Court had said that the CLAT 2020 examination needs to be conducted adhering to all coronavirus-related protocols issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Affairs.
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