What is CLAT? Know all about Common Law Admission Test: Gateway to Prestigious National Law Universities

The Common Law Admission Test, popularly known as CLAT is a national level law entrance exam in India. The CLAT exam is considered a gateway to prestigious national law universities (NLUs) and other prominent law schools in India. Every year, over 60,000 candidates take the CLAT exam. Most of them compete for 5-year integrated LLB courses offered by NLUs, while around 10,000 participate for LLM admissions.
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This Story also Contains

1. Overview of CLAT Exam
2. Who can apply for CLAT exam?
3. CLAT registration and fees
4. CLAT syllabus and pattern
5. NLUs participating in CLAT exam
6. How many candidates appear in CLAT every year: Past trends
7. CLAT vs Other Law Entrance Exams (OLET) comparison

The CLAT exam is conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs). The exam is held in December every year. The scores of CLAT are accepted by 24 NLUs, an off-campus of GNLU Gandhinagar in Silvassa and over 60 law schools across the country.

Overview of CLAT Exam

Who can apply for CLAT exam?

The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is essentially for law aspirants looking to pursue LLB or LLM courses. However, going beyond the admission scenarios, the CLAT exam can also be used to find jobs in Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and the Indian Army. In short, candidates should apply for CLAT with the following objectives.

• To seek admission in 5-year integrated LLB courses offered by NLUs and affiliated law schools

• Jobs offered by PSUs based on CLAT PG scores

• For Indian Army JAG recruitments

Since CLAT is conducted at two levels - CLAT UG and CLAT PG, candidates applying for the exam should meet the following conditions.

CLAT Eligibility

Candidates must meet the CLAT eligibility criteria before filling up the application form. The eligibility criteria vary depending on the course selection. The details of course-wise eligibility criteria are explained below.

CLAT for LLB courses

• Candidate must have passed class 12th from a recognised board with at least 45% marks (40% in the case of SC/ST candidates).

CLAT for LLM course, Indian Army JAG and PSU Recruitments

• Candidates must have completed an LLB course (3-year LLB or 5-year LLB) with at least 50% marks (45% in the case of SC/ST candidates) from a recognized university.

CLAT for 3-year LLB?

Many students wonder if CLAT scores can be used for getting admission to 3-year LLB courses. However, the CLAT exam is not conducted for 3-year LLB. The 3-year LLB falls at the postgraduate level, however, it is still equivalent to a 5-year LLB, not an LLM which requires knowledge of various laws.

The CLAT UG is conducted for Class 12th students and therefore cannot be applied for 3-year LLB admissions.

CLAT registration and fees

The consortium releases the CLAT application form in the first week of July every year. The CLAT registration website is consortiumofnlus.ac.in. Candidates need to fill in personal and communication details, exam centre preferences, reservation status and NLU preferences while filling out the application form for the CLAT exam.

The CLAT registration fee is Rs. 4,000 for General/OBC/PWD/NRI candidates and Rs. 3,500 for SC/ST/BPL candidates. The CLAT registration fee is generally much higher than many other law entrance exams and therefore, often seen as a barrier by underprivileged candidates willing to study law in NLUs.

CLAT syllabus and pattern

Reading, critical thinking and analytical skills are considered essential for a successful career in Law. Therefore, the CLAT syllabus is designed to test these skills. The CLAT UG has five sections;

• English and comprehension

• Legal aptitude

• Logical reasoning

• Maths

• General knowledge and current affairs

Unlike many other law entrance exams, the CLAT UG syllabus is vast and as a result, the question paper turns very lengthy. 120 multiple choice type questions are asked from comprehension-based passages and thus require a lot of reading and analysis of paragraphs.

Since CLAT is not conducted in vernacular languages, English becomes a dominant factor in the entrance exam. This also leads to the criticism that CLAT favours candidates who have previously studied in English medium. The state board students or those who study in regional languages remain at a typical disadvantage as they have to go the extra mile by working on the English language and vocabulary.

CLAT LLM syllabus covers almost every aspect of the LLB course. The subjects in CLAT LLM are taken from the subjects of LLB courses. Candidates are expected to demonstrate a decent understanding of various laws, constitutions, and current legal affairs. The CLAT LLM question paper too has comprehension-based questions. The topics covered in CLAT LLM are mentioned below;

1. Constitutional Law

2. Jurisprudence

3. Administrative Law

4. Law of Contract

5. Torts

6. Family Law

7. Criminal Law

8. Property Law

9. Company Law

10. Public International Law

11. Tax Law

12. Environmental Law

13. Labour & Industrial Law

NLUs participating in CLAT exam

The CLAT exam is accepted by all National Law Universities (NLUs) except NLU Delhi and NLU Meghalaya. There are 24 NLUs and GNLU’s off-campus that are part of the CLAT consortium and participate in the admission process. The list of such NLUs is given below.

State-wise distribution of NLUs participating in CLAT

How many candidates appear in CLAT every year: Past trends

As mentioned above, CLAT witnesses the participation of over 60,000 candidates every year. These students are grouped into two categories - 5-year LLB through CLAT UG and LLM through CLAT PG. Over 50,000 candidates opt for CLAT UG alone, whereas around 10,000 candidates appear for CLAT LLM.

CLAT Registrations over the years: Data

CLAT vs Other Law Entrance Exams (OLET) comparison

Undoubtedly, CLAT is the most popular law entrance exam in India. However, over 40 law entrance exams are conducted in India. These include university, state and national-level law entrance exams. The major law entrance exams include AILET for NLU Delhi, MH CET Law for Maharashtra law colleges, TS LAWCET for Telangana law colleges, LSAT India for 15+ private law colleges, and CUET law for central universities and 100+ private law schools.

The CLAT exam is very different from OLETs. It is one of the most comprehensive law entrance exams. One major difference between CLAT and OLETs is that most of the OLETs have straightforward objective-type questions whereas CLAT requires reading comprehension passages before answering any question.

Seats offered by NLUs through CLAT

The NLUs offer a combined intake of over 3,300 seats through the CLAT exam. Most of the NLUs offer around 120-180 seats. Among CLAT participating NLUs, NLSIU offers the highest 300 seats in BA LLB. NLIU Bhopal also offers 202 seats. The remaining NLUs offer less than 200 seats. Apart from this, NLUs also offer around 238 seats for NRI/NRI-sponsored candidates. For the LLM programme, the NLUs offer around 1300 seats with a wide range of specializations. Around 55 seats are offered to NRI/NRI-sponsored candidates in LLM courses.

Domicile reservation in NLUs

NLUs also offer domicile reservations at both UG and PG levels. Domicile reservation in CLAT NLU is as per the rules laid down by state governments. Due to this, there is no uniformity in the domicile reservation given by NLUs. It ranges from 25-62% of their intake. For example, NLUs in Maharashtra offer domicile reservation up to 62% of their intake, whereas NLSIU Bengaluru, NALSAR Hyderabad and NLU Jodhpur reserve 25% of their intake for domicile candidates. There are NLUs such as NLIU Bhopal, HNLU Raipur, and CNLU Patna that reserve 50% of seats for domicile candidates.