Common Law Admission Test (CLAT)

Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a centralized national level entrance test for admissions to twenty two National Law Universities (NLU) in India. Most 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, Steel Authority of India, Oil India etc. use CLAT Post Graduation ( CLAT PG) scores for recruitment of legal positions in the companies. The test is taken after the Higher Secondary Examination or the 12th grade for admission to integrated under-graduate degree in Law (BA LL.B) and after Graduation in Law for Master of Laws (LL.M) programs offered by these law schools.

CLAT DOCUMENTS

CLAT 2021 registration will be available via online process only.
• Before filling the application form, candidates should be ready with the scanned documents of photograph, signature, SC/ST/SAP certificate (if applicable), and domicile certificate (if applicable).
• The last date for submission of the duly filled application form will be in the last week of March 2021 (tentative).
• Do not send the application form through an offline process.

This law entrance exam is of two hours duration. The CLAT question paper consists of 150 multiple choice questions. There are five sections in CLAT exam paper which are

English including Comprehension
• Current affairs including General Knowledge
• Legal Reasoning
• Logical Reasoning
• Quantitative Techniques ( Mathematics)

All the questions will be paragraph based starting from CLAT 2020. One paragraph will be followed by 5-6 questions. The break up of marks is generally as follows - English 30, Current Affairs including General Knowledge:37, Quantitative Techniques:15, Logical Reasoning:30 and Legal Reasoning:38.

Marking Scheme: For every correct answer, aspirants are given one mark and for each wrong answer 0.25 marks are deducted from their total score.

Eligibility

The candidate has to qualify in 10+2 or equivalent examination with minimum 45% marks (in case of Unreserved/OBC/SAP categories) and 40% marks (in case of SC/ST category).
• Appearing candidates of Class 10+2 or equivalent examination are eligible to appear in the entrance exam.
• At the time of admission, the candidates would have to produce an evidence of their passing qualifying examination.
• There is no upper age limit to appear in CLAT

Method of allocation

The CLAT form provides the students with a preference list. Each student fills the preference list, according to the colleges he/she desires. On the basis of these preferences and ranks obtained, students are allocated colleges. As the NLUs are established by the respective state governments, therefore most NLUs also have reservations for their domiciled candidates.

CLAT Counselling

The admission to UG and PG programmes in participating universities under CLAT will be done via centralized counselling. The seat will be allotted on the basis of ‘merit-cum-preference’. It will be prepared with the CLAT score and order of preference given by the candidate in the CLAT application form. After the result is out, counselling process will begin. Candidates would have to fork out Rs. 50,000/- as counselling fee to show their serious intent in taking admission in any of the participating NLU(s).

Placement

Aspirants are focused on the quality of placements offered by each law college. This governs their choice most of the time. Leading law firms and corporate houses visit the campuses to pick the best. There is no accurate data available to establish the veracity of claims. Every year, the scenario looks different and it varies from one campus to another for NLUs across the country. The factors governing the changes are unpredictable.

Keeping aside the aspect of job placement that worries every CLAT aspirant, there is another aspect of placement that merits attention – the college campus to choose if more than one offers you a seat. The problem compounds when you do not make it to the first choice of yours and have to select from several other options.

Fee structure in National Law University

While every law college accepting CLAT score has its own independent fee structure with various components, NLU has the following sample fee structure. It is preferable to consult the website of every leading law college for the revised fee structures and latest updates regarding the payment schedule.

Previous Year Papers

CLAT- 2020 (Paper with Answer Key)
• CLAT – 2021 (Paper with Answer Key)