The Jabalpur bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court recently dismissed the petition seeking direction to the respondent to issue and accept the application form of the petition for registration in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) UG Entrance examination, 2021 to be held on July 23, 2021.
The court held, “The cut-off date fixed for submitting the application form has its own sanctity and it cannot be relaxed ordinarily for a particular candidate.”
The last date for submission of the application form for the CLAT Examination, 2021 was 15.06.2021 and the petitioner had not submitted the application form on or before the last date and had therefore approached the High Court.
Amit Seth, Counsel appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the petitioner had difficulty in filling up the application form online on or before 15.6.2021 as the petitioner was residing in a remote area and she was not in a position to travel to a nearby city and complete the formality.
A division bench of Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Vishal Dhagat having heard the Counsel for the petitioner and on the perusal of the record noted that the initial date fixed for the CLAT Examination and submission of form for the same has been relaxed from time to time by the respondent keeping in view the difficulties faced by the students due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The Court observed that the documents filed by the petitioner reflect that the last date fixed for submission of form initially was extended vide notification dated 25.03.2021 up to 30th April 2021. Thereafter, again the fresh date was fixed for submitting the online form up to 15.05.2021 vide notification dated 28.04.2021. Then again, the last date was extended up to 15.06.2021 by the notification dated 15.05.2021.
The petitioner had adequate opportunity to submit her online application form within the extended date up to 15.06.2021. The candidates all over the country have submitted their application forms on or before the last date as has been extended from time to time by the respondent, the bench held.
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The High Court further said that the petitioner has come up with the vague plea that she was residing in a remote area and could not travel to a nearby city and submit the application form. No bona fide reason has been disclosed by the petitioner, on account of which she could not submit the application form within the time which has been extended by the respondent keeping in view the Covid-19 pandemic. Even after the expiry of the last date of 15.06.2021, the petitioner woke up only on 21.06.2021 and had approached the respondent by sending the e-mail on that date”
The bench is of the view that no material is on record that on or before 15.06.2021 any attempt was made by the petitioner to submit the application form. The form was to be submitted online and no reliable material has been filed by the petitioner to show that there was any difficulty in submitting the online form within the time.
“In these circumstances, we are of the opinion that the petitioner is not entitled to any relaxation in respect of submission of application form. Hence, the petition is found to be devoid of any merit, which is accordingly dismissed,” the order read.