CLAT Full Form: Eligibility Criteria, Participating Universities, Syllabus

The full form of CLAT is "Common Law Admission Test". Candidates have to appear for CLAT in order to gain admission into 5-year LLB and LLM programmes of participating NLUs. There are 24 national law universities (NLUs) participating in CLAT 2025. Being a national-level law entrance exam, the scores of CLAT are also accepted by over 60 law schools in the country. The upcoming CLAT 2025 will be held on December 1, 2024 in offline mode.

Latest: CLAT 2025 Registration Direct Link (Official)

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This Story also Contains

1. CLAT Full Form - Highlights
2. What is CLAT Exam - Brief History
3. CLAT Exam Details - Participating Universities
4. CLAT Exam - What is Consortium of National Law Universities?
5. CLAT Exam Eligibility
6. CLAT Syllabus

Over 60,000 candidates are expected to appear in the CLAT exam and it will be held in over 140 exam centres across the country. CLAT exam is for admission into the integrated law programmes and post graduate law programmes of the participating NLUs.

CLAT Full Form - Highlights

What is CLAT Exam - Brief History

To understand CLAT meaning and its purpose, it's good to look at brief history of the exam. The National Law Universities (NLUs) were created on the lines of IITs and IIMs to redefine the legal education system in the country. India is the only country to have universities solely focused on providing legal education. The National Law School of India University, Bangalore set up in 1987, was the first NLU in the country. Today, there are 26 such National Law Universities

Earlier, each university conducted its entrance test. This practice was challenged in court through a PIL filed by one parent. The PIL sought to introduce a single entrance exam for gaining admission into various national law universities. Subsequently, 7 NLUs joined hands, and in 2008 conducted the first ever Common Law Admission Test, the full form of CLAT. Subsequently, the number of universities that are part of the CLAT has risen to 24. Other universities such as the National Law University, Delhi still conduct their entrance exam.

CLAT Exam Details - Participating Universities

Given below are the participating universities in CLAT 2024. From last year, RPNLU Prayagraj also started accepting admissions into BA LLB programme based on CLAT scores.

Participating NLUs in CLAT

CLAT Exam - What is Consortium of National Law Universities?

The Consortium of National Law Universities was founded on August 19, 2017, to raise the standard of legal education in India, and also improve the justice system by providing quality legal education and producing capable future lawyers and judges. The consortium is a legal entity registered under the Karnataka Co-operative Societies Act, at Bengaluru.

The group seeks to promote better coordination between the national law schools to deliver the highest quality of legal education in the country.

CLAT Exam Eligibility

The Consortium of NLUs has detailed the CLAT eligibility criteria for various UG and PG programmes on its official website. Any candidate desirous of taking the Common Law Admission Test should thoroughly go through the same. Further, candidates must also go through the individual websites of the colleges they wish to apply to in order to check their eligibility.

The eligibility criteria include details about age, and minimum qualification, among other things.

CLAT UG Eligibility Criteria

CLAT PG Eligibility Criteria

Also Read: CLAT Vs AILET - Eligibility, Syllabus & Pattern, Marks Distribution, Participating Institutes

CLAT Syllabus

Let’s explore the undergraduate and postgraduate CLAT exam syllabus one by one.

UG-CLAT Exam Syllabus

The CLAT UG exam syllabus covers 5 different sections namely English Language, Current Affairs, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning, and Quantitative Techniques. There will be 120 questions in the CLAT UG paper, each worth one mark. For each incorrect response, 0.25 marks will be deducted from the final score. The duration of the exam is two hours.

CLAT UG Syllabus 2025

CLAT 2025 Section Wise Details

• CLAT English Language: In this section, the candidate will encounter a set of passages of around 450 words each that cover both fictional and non-fictional topics, and have a difficulty level of 12th grade. The candidate has to answer questions based on the passages to show their level of understanding of the text.

• Current Affairs: This section requires the candidates to answer questions based on passages that are derived from newspapers and other journalistic sources. The questions test the candidate’s awareness of current affairs and general knowledge

• CLAT Legal Reasoning: In this section, the candidate will encounter passages of around 450 words that revolve around public policy, legal matters, and philosophical enquiries. The passages are followed by questions that test their ability to identify principles set out in the passage, apply these rules to real situations, and also assess how a change in principles will change their application to the real world.

• Logical Reasoning: In this section, the candidate, after reading a given passage, has to answer questions that demand drawing inferences, recognizing and forming arguments, and identifying patterns of relationships between different arguments.

• Quantitative Techniques: This section includes questions that are based on brief statements of fact, textual or visual representations of numerical data. The candidate has to extrapolate data from these texts, graphs, or other representations and perform mathematical calculations on it.

PG - CLAT Exam Syllabus

The syllabus for the postgraduate course focuses on the subject expertise of the aspiring candidates. The CLAT LLM Exam syllabus will test the candidate’s proficiency in matters concerning different laws that are specified in the table below.

The PG-CLAT exam pattern consists of 120 questions, and the candidate will get a total of 120 minutes to attempt the questions.

Each question carries one mark while there is a negative marking of 0.25 for every incorrect response.

Also, check - Colleges Accepting CLAT Score