Prayagraj(UP), Feb 4 The Allahabad High Court has directed the consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) to revise the merit list for CLAT-UG 2026 over an answer key dispute.
However, Justice Vivek Saran clarified that students who had already taken admission during the first round of counselling will not be disturbed.
The Common Law Admission Test Undergraduate (CLAT-UG) 2026 was held on December 7, 2025.
Partly allowing a petition filed by Avneesh Gupta, a candidate who appeared in CLAT exams, the court passed the order on Tuesday as the high-powered 'Oversight Committee' had arbitrarily overruled subject matter experts regarding a disputed question without assigning any reasons for the same.
The petitioner moved the high court challenging the answer key for question nos. 6, 9, and 13 of test booklet-C (corresponding to questions 88, 91 and 95 of master booklet-A).
The court refused to interfere with questions 6 and 13, but regarding the challenge to question no. 9, a logical reasoning question, it directed that both 'B' and 'D' options must be treated as the correct answer.
"In such view of the matter, the respondent/Consortium of National Law Universities is directed to revise the merit list by awarding marks against question no. 9 of booklet-C (corresponding to question no. 91 of booklet-A) and to all other questions which correspond to the same in different booklets of CLAT-2026 entrance examination by treating both 'B' and 'D' as correct answers," it said.
The court further directed to revise the merit list and republish/re-notify the same within a period of one month from today.
"Since it has been informed at the Bar that the first round of counselling has already been finalized, thus the students/candidates who have already taken admission pursuant to the first round of counselling shall not be disturbed. However, for further counselling, the respondents are directed to act on the revised/re-notified merit list," it added.
