The Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MHT - CET) cell has received 6,762 applications for the five-year course of LL.B (Bachelor of Law) this year. The number has dropped as compared to the applications that were received in the last two years. The total MHT-CET applications for LL.B were 7,479 and 10,139 for the academic sessions of 2018-2019 and 2017-2018 respectively.
The total number of applicants who had appeared for the state’s entrance test for LL.B this year was 3,023 more than that of last year. As per the colleges, the delay caused in the state’s admission process is the reason why there were fewer applications this year.
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The Principal in-charge of the SNDT School of Law in Juhu, Rajesh Wankhede, told that despite the students of class 12th getting their results in May, the entire admission process continues till the month of November. Students are not keen on waiting for an entire semester and they take admission in other courses such as B.Com and B.A. instead.
The principals of all the colleges agreed that many law aspirants either opt for other courses or choose to take admission in colleges outside the state instead of waiting for the whole admission process to be over. The Principal of Agnel School of Law, Daisy Alexander, said that students prefer to take the exam of CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) and take admission elsewhere because of the delay in the state’s admission process.
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The colleges also said that the five-year LLB course admissions have taken a hit ever since the state of Maharashtra has taken over the law admissions by the introduction of a Centralised Admission Process (CAP). Rajendra Sakhare, the Principal of St. Wilfred’s College of Law, said that many seats of the course go vacant now. Last year, out of the total 9,892 seats, 5,262 seats were left vacant. This translates to 53 per cent of the total seats being left vacant for the five-year course of LL.B. On the other hand, only 4 per cent seats were left vacant in the three-year LL.B. course of the same college.