LLB At NLU Without CLAT 2025: What Are Your Options?

LLB At NLU Without CLAT 2025: What Are Your Options?

Sumeet SudarshanUpdated on 24 Mar 2025, 04:07 PM IST

The Consortium of National Law Universities has postponed the CLAT 2025 counselling process indefinitely due to ongoing court cases. However, there is a way candidates can do an LLB at NLU without CLAT. A few National Law Universities offer 3-year LLB programmes in addition to 5-year LLB. The admissions into NLU 3-year LLB courses are not done through the Common Law Admission Test but through entrance exams conducted by respective universities. In this article, let’s look at the options candidates have to do an LLB at NLU without CLAT.

LLB At NLU Without CLAT 2025: What Are Your Options?
LLB At NLU Without CLAT: What Are Your Options?

Which NLUs Offer LLB Without CLAT?

There are three National Law Universities that offer LLB without CLAT. NLSIU Bengaluru, NLU Odisha, and DSNLU Visakhapatnam offer 3-year LLB programmes. These NLUs conduct their 3-year LLB admissions by conducting their own law entrance exams. These universities also feature in the NIRF law rankings 2024 and are among the top law colleges in India.

Amity University-Noida Law Admissions 2026

Among top 100 Universities Globally in the Times Higher Education (THE) Interdisciplinary Science Rankings 2026

UPES Integrated LLB Admissions 2026

Ranked #18 amongst Institutions in India by NIRF | Ranked #1 in India for Academic Reputation by QS Rankings | 16 LPA Highest CTC

NLUs Offering 3-year LLB

NLU

NIRF Ranking

Entrance Exam

NLSIU Bengaluru

1

National Law School Admission Test (NLSAT)

NLU Odisha

26

NLU Odisha All India Entrance Test (NAIET)

DSNLU Visakhapatnam

39

DSNLU Entrance Test (DET)

LLB At NLU Without CLAT: Exam Schedule

Candidates interested in enrolling for 3-year LLB programmes at NLU must be aware of the exam schedule. They must complete the application form online from the official website of the respective universities before the prescribed deadline. After the entrance exam, each NLU will conduct the admission process separately unlike CLAT counselling which is a centralised process. The table given below provides the timeline for the exams.

Entrance Exam Schedule for 3-year LLB at NLUs

Exam Name

Application Window

Exam Date

NLSAT (NLSIU Bengaluru)

January 2 to March 30, 2025

April 27, 2025

NAIET (NLU Odisha)

February 13 to March 31, 2025

May 11, 2025

DET (DSNLU Visakhapatnam)

First week of August 2025 (Tentative)

August 2025 (Tentative)

NLU 3-year LLB Seat Intake

The number of 3-year LLB seats at NLUs is far less than the 5-year LLB seats available through the CLAT counselling process. Given below is the seat intake of the 3-year LLB programme at the three NLUs.

3-year LLB Seats

Eligibility Criteria for LLB at NLU Without CLAT

Before applying for LLB admissions at NLU, candidates must make sure they fulfil the eligibility criteria as prescribed by the university. If a candidate fails to meet the eligibility requirements then they will be disqualified from the admission process. Given below are the 3-year LLB eligibility criteria for each of the three NLUs.

3-year LLB Eligibility Criteria

NLU

Educational Qualification

Minimum Passing Marks

Other Details

NLSIU Bengaluru

Graduation in any stream from a recognised university

45% for general, 40% marks for SC/ST/OBC/PwD candidates.


No age limit. Final-year graduation students can also apply.

NLU Odisha

45% for general/OBC, 40% marks for SC/ST candidates.


DSNLU Visakhapatnam

45% for general, 42% for OBC, and 40% for SC/ST categories.



NLUs Not Participating in CLAT 2025

NLU Delhi and NLU Meghalaya do not participate in the Common Law Admission Test. However, the application form for admissions into both NLUs are currently closed. NLU Delhi conducts its admissions through the All India Law Entrance Test conducted in offline mode. NLU Meghalaya admissions are done through a separate entrance exam conducted by the university. The universities offer BA LLB and LLM programmes.

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Questions related to CLAT

On Question asked by student community

Have a question related to CLAT ?

Hello,

CLAT or Common Law Admission Test, a national level examination, is conducted for admission to the law colleges and universities.

With your rank you can get mid tier NLUs and newer NLUs. Some of the Institutes are RGNUL Patiala, CNLU Patna, NLUT Agartala, etc. Keep a eye on the cut off scores and counseling rounds.

Here is a college predictor via your rank designed by Careers360.

https://law.careers360.com/clat-college-predictor

Check out the official website of Careers360 for more information regarding the colleges.

https://law.careers360.com/articles/clat-2026-rank-wise-college-list

Thank you.

Hello,

No, with a CLAT rank of 9515, it does not offer any admission to the University School of Law and Legal Studies.

As per the stats provided, USLLS BA LLB (Hons) lists the OBC category entries from 4600 to 5600 ranks.

For further clarifications visit

https://www.careers360.com/colleges/university-school-of-law-and-legal-studies-new-delhi/cut-off

Hope it helps with your query. Good luck.

Hello,

For your mentioned rank, the top elite law universities are constrained to be limited, especially when the chance is fairly divided among reserved category people.

But apart from CLAT rank, NRI admissions have some different processes.

Some NLUs handle counselling with required eligibility and quotas. The counselling registration window is open until December 27, 2025. You can apply to know through them. Because even missing application deadlines will lessen your eligibility.

NRI admissions regarding CLAT can be applied directly with the major required document proofs.

Cutoffs to 10,000 are being allotted after regular rounds for counselling, but the course fee for this will be 10-20 lakhs per annum only if the candidate is either of these: NRI, OCI, or PIO.

For further clarifications check the official portal

Consortium of  (https://consortiumofnlus.ac.in/clat-2026/) NLUs.

Hope it helps with your query. Good luck.

Hello,

Here is your CLAT 2026 Rank-Wise College List - Available NLUs in your rank range. I am providing you the link. Kindly open and check it out.

https://law.careers360.com/articles/clat-2026-rank-wise-college-list

I hope it will help you. For any further query please let me know.

Thank you.

Hello,

With an OBC category rank of 2796 and All India Rank (AIR) 15163 in CLAT 2026, your chances of admission into a National Law University (NLU) are moderate too low for the top NLUs, but you may still secure a seat in some of the newer or lower-ranked NLUs depending on the cutoffs and counselling rounds.

For more access mentioned link below:

https://law.careers360.com/articles/nlu-cutoff

Hope it helps.