Best Colleges in India Accepting CLAT

The Consortium of National Law Universities (CNLU) conducts the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) for admission into 5-year integrated LLB and LLM programmes of participating National Law Universities. At present, there are 24 NLUs that accept CLAT scores. Only NLU Delhi and NLU Meghalaya do not participate in CLAT.  Other than NLUs, there are several private law colleges accepting CLAT scores for admission into their law programmes. At present, there are 60+ CLAT scores accepting colleges. 

The NLUs participating in CLAT offer 4000+ seats for UG programmes and 1300+ seats for PG programmes. The Common Law Admission Test  is conducted once a year in offline mode at around 130 CLAT exam centres across 23 states and 4 union territories.

CLAT Eligibility Criteria

The Consortium of NLUs prescribes the CLAT eligibility criteria for appearing in CLAT UG and CLAT PG. As per CLAT exam eligibility, candidates must have clear class 12 with a minimum of 45% (40% for SC/ST) for admission into undergraduate programmes. 

For admission into LLM programmes, candidates must be graduates in LLB with a minimum of 50% (45% for SC/ST). Candidates must also check the eligibility criteria with the individual colleges that accept CLAT scores.

CLAT Colleges Rankings

Among the NLUs that accept CLAT scores, 10 NLUs have been ranked in the top 30 in the NIRF law rankings 2023. NLSIU Bengaluru occupies the top spot, whereas NALSAR Hyderabad and WBNUJS Kolkata are ranked third and fourth respectively. 

CLAT Cut Off

The CLAT cutoff will be released by each participating NLU separately for each category in multiple rounds for each round of CLAT counselling. The cut off is expressed in terms of the closing rank of the candidates admitted into a particular category. Top-ranked NLUs such as the ones in Bengaluru and Hyderabad have higher cut off. Newer NLUs such as NLU Tripura and DBRANLU Sonepat have lower CLAT cut offs. The ranks are decided based on CLAT scores. 

Both CLAT marks and rank are intricately linked. When filling NLU admission preferences, candidates must consider their admission chances and then carefully fill out the choices. One can also check out Careers360’s CLAT College Predictor to predict one’s chances of admission into various NLUs.

Colleges Accepting CLAT Scores

As outlined earlier, there are 24 NLUs and around 65 private law colleges that accept CLAT scores. The list of top 10 NLUs is given in the table below.

Top 10 CLAT Colleges

FAQs

Q. Is CLAT offline or online?

A. CLAT is held in offline mode at designated CLAT exam centres across the country.

Q. How many NLUs are participating in CLAT?

A. There are 24 NLUs participating in CLAT.

Q. How many affiliated colleges accept CLAT scores?

A. At present there are 60+ private law colleges that accept CLAT scores.