A candidate who was believed to be Covid positive was allowed to appear for the law entrance examination on Monday in an isolation room in the exam centre by Supreme Court of India.

The candidate from Madhya Pradesh, did not want to miss the admission test on Monday, had approached to the apex court to seek help. This was the first such case, in which the Supreme court steeped in.

The organisers of the exam assured the top court that every examination centre had provisions for isolation rooms for coronavirus positive students. The Supreme Court based on the assurance by organisers said the candidate could sit in a separate room after showing the court order.

The student, however was asked to enter the centre before everyone else and was to leave first and that the  superintendent of the centre had to keep medical staff from a government hospital on standby.

“On such order being produced, Centre Superintendent shall provide a separate room for applicant to appear in the examination. Applicant shall enter into centre after other candidates take entry and shall first leave the examination centre,” said the bench.

The bench also noted that  according to its order on September 21 which had paved way to conduct the law entrance examination CLAT 2020 taking all precautions and following the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) and Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

However Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and Mr Shah clarified that this order was only limited to this particular case and would have no bearing on any other student.

The candidate approached the top court complaining that the organisers, CLAT consortium, had excluded candidates who were under isolation due to Covid despite assurances made by them.

In the application, the student aspiring to clear the CLAT exam said that due to he is currently in isolation due to him being suspected of being Covid positive. “He is otherwise fine and is fully ready and prepared to give the Common Law Admission Test, 2020 (CLAT) examination scheduled to take place on September 28,” said the application.