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.

LiveCLAT 2026 First Seat Allotment List (OUT) LIVE: Consortium of NLUs merit list at consortiumofnlus.ac.inJan 8, 2026 | 8:25 AM IST

The Consortium of National Law Universities is the exam conducting authority of the CLAT exam 2026.

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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 ?

Since you scored 8000 AIR in CLAT, getting into top NLUs may not be possible, so it is a good idea to look for affordable and good law colleges.


State government law colleges are usually low in fees, and have decent reputation. Some options include Government Law College, Mumbai, Faculty

Yes you can get addmission into UPES dehradun with the clat rank of 8037

Through the below college predictor you will get the list of best collges based on your rank:

CLAT College Predictor 2026 (Free) - https://law.careers360.com/clat-college-predictor

Hope it helps

With 67 marks in and SC rank 415 in CLAT, you have a very good chance of getting admission in CNLU Patna BA LLB. The SC category cut-off at Patna NLU  are usually much lower than the general category, so your rank is well within the likely range. Final admission

HELLO,

For CLAT 2026 counselling , the only official registration window announced by the Consortium of NLUs was from 17 Dec 2025 to 27 Dec 2025 that was last date to register and pay the fee. There are no additional or alternate registration dates released for 2026 beyond this window.

With an AIR of 34724 and OBC category rank of 7153, chances of getting a seat in DSNLU Visakhapatnam are low in early rounds. However, since you are already invited for counselling, there may be some chance in later rounds depending on seat vacancy and cut-off movement. You should participate