CLAT - learnerstrove

The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a centralized national-level entrance test for admissions to the 24 out of 25 National Law Universities (NLU) except NLU Delhi which takes admissions through All India Law Entrance Test (AILET). AILET is anticipated to be merged into CLAT in the coming years . A few private and self-financed law schools in India also use these scores for law admissions. Public sector undertakings in India like ONGC, Coal India, BHEL, Steel Authority of India, Oil India , Indian Army [For the recruitment of JAG officers] etc use CLAT Post Graduation (CLAT PG) scores . CLAT is considered & ranked one among the Top 10 toughest exams in India.

The test is taken after the Higher Secondary Examination or the 12th grade for admission to integrated undergraduate degree in Law (BA/BBA/B.COM/B.SC/BSW LLB) and after Graduation in Law for Master of Laws (LL.M) programs offered by these law schools.

Eligibility

Only Indian nationals and NRIs can appear in the test.
The foreign nationals desirous of taking admission to any course in any of the participating Law Universities may directly contact the concerned University having seats for foreign nationals.
The Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) releases the CLAT eligibility criteria mentions details regarding the minimum educational qualification, minimum marks and age limit.

The eligibility requirements are as follows:

Under-Graduate Courses

Senior Secondary School/Intermediate (10+2) or its equivalent certificate from a recognized Board with not less than 45% marks in aggregate (40% in case of SC and ST candidates).
There is no upper age restriction for the test.

Post-Graduate Courses

LL. B/B. L. Degree or an equivalent degree from a recognized University with not less than 50% marks in aggregate (45% in case of SC and ST candidates).
The candidates who have passed the qualifying degree examination through supplementary/ compartment and repeat attempts are also eligible for appearing in the test and taking Admission provided that such candidates will have to produce the proof of having passed the qualifying examination with fifty-five/fifty percent marks, as the case may be, on the date of their admission or within the time allowed by the respective universities.

Exam Pattern

This law entrance exam is of two hours duration. The CLAT question paper consists of 150 multiple-choice questions. There are five sections in CLAT exam paper which are:

English including Comprehension
Current affairs including General Knowledge
Legal Reasoning
Logical Reasoning
Quantitative Techniques (Maths)

All the questions will be paragraph-based starting from CLAT 2020. One paragraph will be followed by 5-6 questions. The break up of marks is generally as follows :

Marking Scheme: For every correct answer, aspirants are given one mark and for each wrong answer 0.25 marks are deducted from their total score.

Applying for the Exam

The CLAT 2023 examination will be held in OFFLINE mode
The applications have to be submitted ONLINE only from consortiumofnlus.ac.in website.
For any information relating to the 22 NLUs, the candidate may refer to the e-brochure of the respective Institutions available in the Consortium website.
Information regarding the details of intake, reservation policies and the courses offered along with the fee structures of various participating National Law Universities is available in the Information Brochure which can be accessed from the official website of CLAT and also from the websites of the participating NLUs. The candidates are, therefore, advised to thoroughly go through the rules, policies and the fee structure of the participating NLUs before filling in the application form for UG courses, and also for the NRI and Foreign National seats.
Information provided in the e-Brochure regarding the intake, reservation policy, fee, courses offered and the subjects taught at various levels including the areas of specialization, etc., has been specified very briefly. For detailed information regarding the same, the candidates may refer to the information available at the websites of the participating NLUs.
Candidates are advised to visit CLAT 2023 website regularly for updates. The allotment of seats and the offer for admission under CLAT 2023 shall be provisional and shall not create any right of admission in favour of a candidate.

Documents to be uploaded

Front facing passport size recent photograph with plain background
Signature of the candidate
Category certificate if you are applying under SC/ST/OBC
Relevant certificate issued by competent authority if you are applying if candidate is P.W.D
Relevant certificate issued by competent authority if you are coming under BPL category

Application Fee

Application fees can be paid online only.
Application fee for General/OBC/PWD/NRI/PIO/OCI candidates: Rs.4,000/-
Application fee for SC/ST/BPL category candidates: Rs.3,500/-
The cost of previous years’ question papers is Rs.500/- (not included in the CLAT 2023 application fee of Rs.4,000/- or Rs.3,500/- as the case may be.)
The candidates themselves will have to bear the bank transaction charges for remitting the fee online. The actual bank transaction charges will be displayed in the payment gateway page after candidates choose the mode of payment.
Application Fees is non-refundable.

Admit Card/Hall ticket

The Admit Card/Hall ticket can be downloaded by the candidate by logging into his/her account. The exact date on which the hall tickets will be made available will be intimated on the website.