Shannu Baghel Vs Union of India & Anr (Delhi High Court)
Delhi High Court held that CLAT(PG) examination is conducted for purposes of making admission to Post Graduate courses and not for offering public employment. Accordingly, NHAI recruitment criteria on the merit in CLAT (PG) is legally untenable and hence quashed.
Facts- The proceedings of this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India has been instituted by an advocate practicing before this Court taking exception to the notification issued by the National Highways Authorities of India on 11.08.2025 for engagement of Young Professional (Legal) on contract basis insofar as the said notification prescribes the recruitment criteria “on the basis of merit in CLAT (PG) score – 2022 onward”.
The petitioner argues that the impugned notification violates Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India, stating the reason that selection based only on CLAT (P G) –2022 score is arbitrary and excludes equal or more meritorious law graduates who appear for law entrance examinations for pursuing their post-graduate law courses.
Conclusion- That CLAT (PG) is a nationally recognized examination is not in dispute, however, the said examination is conducted for the purposes of making admission to Post Graduate courses and not for offering public employment. Skills for employability may be different than the skills and suitability required for pursuing higher courses of study, and accordingly, even if the syllabus of CLAT (PG) covers various substantive procedural laws, the same, in our opinion, does not justify adopting the score in CLAT (PG) examination for the purposes of offering employment. Accordingly, because certain other organizations including the public sector undertakings, have been adopting CLAT (PG) score as basis for offering employment, is not a justification, for the reasons as discussed above, for the NHAI to prescribe the impugned recruitment criteria.
