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 Result (OUT) LIVE: Law admission counselling until December 27; NLU admission process, top collegesDec 19, 2025 | 9:38 AM IST

CLAT 2026 cut-offs for the top NLU’s, as per previous year’s trends, are as follows.

Top NLUs

Expected cut-off marks

UG seats offered, excluding supernumerary NRI seats

NLSIU Bengaluru

100+

300

NALSAR Hyderabad

100+

132

WBNUJS Kolkata

98+

108

NLU Jodhpur

95+

164

GNLU Gandhinagar

95+

172

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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 ?

Hello,

Based on previous year CLAT cutoff trends , your chances for NLSIU Bangalore are very low .

NLSIU Bangalore has the highest cutoff among all NLUs . In recent years, the final closing rank for General category has been around AIR 100–120 only.

You have:

  • General category AIR: 658

  • Women category rank: 313

  • No Karnataka domicile

Women reservation in NLUs is horizontal , not a separate quota. This means it does not add extra seats . It only helps when candidates are very close to the general cutoff. At a rank of 313 , the gap is too large.

Even in spot or final rounds, NLSIU does not go beyond ~120 rank for General category candidates without domicile.

However, with these ranks, you have good chances in other top NLUs like NALSAR Hyderabad, WBNUJS Kolkata, NLU Jodhpur, GNLU Gandhinagar, and NLIU Bhopal, depending on counselling rounds.

You can also use our CLAT College Predictor Tool to predict which colleges you can get based on your score and rank.

Hope it helps !

Good afternoon,

With 86.7 marks and 1906 rank in CLAT 2026, you have a chance to get admission in mid-tier and the newest NLUs. The list of probable NLUs where you can get admission is mentioned below.

1. RMLNLU Lucknow

2. MNLU Mumbai

3. DSNLU Visakhapatnam

4. NLU Odisha

5. CNLU Patna

Thank you.

Hello,

Yes, a student with CLAT 2026 rank around 12,000 can register for counselling.

However, chances of getting a seat in the top NLUs (like NLSIU Bangalore, NALSAR Hyderabad, WBNUJS Kolkata, NLIU Bhopal) are very low, as their closing ranks are usually below 4,000 for the general category.

For mid-tier NLUs (like NLU Jodhpur, HNLU Raipur, GNLU Gandhinagar, RMLNLU Lucknow), closing ranks generally go up to 5,000–8,000, so it will still be difficult.

Lower-tier NLUs (like NLU Odisha, NUALS Kochi, NUSRL Ranchi, NLUJA Assam, DSNLU Vizag, TNNLU, HPNLU Shimla) sometimes admit candidates with ranks in the 10,000–30,000 range , especially in later counselling rounds or if there are vacancies. State quota reservations can also improve chances.

You can also use our CLAT College Predictor Tool to predict which colleges you can get based on your score and rank.

Hope it helps !

Hello,

A CLAT score of 81.25 places you in the moderate range, where admission to top NLUs becomes difficult, but opportunities may still remain in newer and mid-tier NLUs, depending on your category, seat movement, and round wise cutoffs.

https://law.careers360.com/articles/clat-2026-college-predictor

Hope you understand.

Hello there first of all congratulations on scoreing so well in your CLAT examination

With general AIR 33490 and clat score nearby 96 or 95 , getting admission in RGNUL Patiala under punjab domicile is POSSIBLE but NOT GUARANTEED