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Inside the CLAT 2025 Counselling Fee Dispute: Why the Confirmation Fee Sparks Outrage
As the controversy over CLAT 2025 results settles, a new dispute has emerged, this time over the non-refundable counselling fee. Recently, advocate Siddharth Gupta filed a plea in the Delhi High Court, challenging the non-refundable confirmation fee as unreasonable, excessive, and violative of Articles 14, 19(1)(g), and 21 of the Constitution.
The Delhi High Court agreed to examine the matter; a bench of Justice Vikash Mahajan has listed the matter for hearing on July 17. It has sought responses from the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) and the University Grants Commission (UGC).
CLAT counselling is a centralised method of seat allotment in participating national law universities and IIULER, Goa. This multi-stage method starts with registration, followed by shortlisting NLUs in the order of preference. The CLAT counselling registration fee is Rs. 30,000 for general candidates and Rs. 20,000 for ST/SC/OBC/BC/EWS/PWD candidates. While the UG counselling is over, the CLAT PG counselling is currently ongoing.
Allotment of Seats
The allotments are announced in three rounds. After the allotments in the first two rounds, candidates are given three options: Freeze, Float, and Exit. While the Freeze and Exit options are simpler, providing the options to accept the offer or completely opt out of the process, exercising the Float option is complicated and requires careful consideration.
The Float option explores the candidate’s admission chances in law schools placed higher in the preference list than the current allotment. The allotment is revised only if there are seats in those NLUs. If not, the candidate has to accept the admission offer from the already allotted university.
Non-Refundable Confirmation Fees and Controversy
Exercising the Float option requires a payment of a confirmation fee indicating the candidate’s acceptance of the current allotted seat.
The problem arises when candidates have no intention of accepting the admission offer from the allotted university and find no allotments in higher-ranked NLUs after exercising this option. In this situation, the loss of the confirmation fee, Rs. 20,000, is inevitable.
The petition also highlights clause 1.5.1 of the counselling, which requires candidates to select a minimum of 15 NLUs out of 25 when creating their preference list. It calls the provision violative of Article 14 and, therefore, unconstitutional, requesting the court to strike it down.
Selecting 15 NLUs is mandatory for participating in the CLAT PG counselling, irrespective of the candidate’s preference for NLUs. While it might not be a serious issue in the first instance, it becomes one when seen in combination with the provisions of the float options and confirmation fee.
The petitioner has thus requested the court to issue any writ/order/direction holding the levy of ‘Non-Refundable Confirmation Fees’ as excessive, unreasonable, arbitrary and resultantly violative of Article 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India and strike down the same. It has sought to restrain the CLAT Consortium from collecting the same from any candidate in the ‘ongoing counselling process’ for admissions to CLAT PG Courses. Furthermore, the petitioner has also sought the refund of the non-refundable confirmation fee collected by the consortium from the candidates.
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Hello Dear Student,
With a CLAT PG rank of 4649 and CUET PG score of 106 , getting top NLUs or central universities may be difficult. However, you still have good options for pursuing an LLM in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) at private and state-affiliated universities.
Some suitable options include:
With a CLAT PG rank of 2854, it is challenging to get into NLUs under the general category. You can participate in the CLAT 2026 spot rounds to get a seat under the OBC category at tier 3 NLUs.
Hi,
You can check NLU wise marks required in CLAT PG for admissions here .
Hi,
You can download the CLAT PG previous year question papers here .
With a rank of 3917 in CLAT PG, your best options for an LLM include top private universities that accept CLAT scores, along with CUETPG opportunities. Some of the best non-NLU options are BHU, LPU Jalandhar, UPES Dehradun, etc.
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