Common Law Admission Test
The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a centralized national-level entrance test for admissions to the 25 out of 27 National Law Universities (NLU) except NLU Delhi and NLU Meghalaya which administer their own entrance exams, the All India Law Entrance Test (AILET) and the NLU Meg Admission Test (MEG UAT), respectively. Both AILET & MEG UAT are anticipated to be merged into CLAT in the coming years. CLAT was first introduced in 2008 as a centralized entrance examination for admission to the National Law Schools/Universities in India. A few private and self-financed law schools in India also use these scores for law admissions. Public sector undertakings in India like ONGC, Coal India, BHEL, the Steel Authority of India, Oil India, the Indian Army (for the recruitment of JAG officers) use CLAT Post Graduation (CLAT PG) scores.
Consortium of NLUs | |
| Acronym | CLAT |
|---|---|
| Type | Pen-and-paper-based |
| Developer / administrator | Consortium of NLUs, Bar Council of India |
| Knowledge / skills tested | Legal Reasoning, Logical reasoning, English Comprehension, General knowledge Current Affairs, Quantitative Techniques |
| Purpose | Entrance to National Law Universities, Self-financed law colleges, PSUs & Indian Army (JAG OFFICERS) |
| Duration | 2 Hours |
| Score / grade range | -30 to 120 |
| Score / grade validity | 1 year |
| Offered | Yearly |
| Restrictions on attempts | None |
| Countries / regions | India |
| Languages | English |
| Annual number of test takers | More than 1,00,000 |
| Prerequisites / eligibility criteria | Senior Secondary Exam, High School in any stream (for UG courses) Graduation in law ( for PG courses) |
| Fee | 4,000 INR |
| Scores / grades used by | (National Law Universities) & other Private Law Colleges, PSUs, Indian Army. |
| Qualification rate | App. 3% |
| Website | consortiumofnlus |
The test is taken after the Higher Secondary Examination or the 12th grade for admission to integrated undergraduate degrees in Law (BA/BBA/B.COM/B.SC/BSW LLB) and after graduation in an undergraduate law program for Master of Laws (LL.M) programs. It is considered one of the top 10 toughest entrance examinations in India with the acceptance rate being as low as 3 percent.