Common Law Admission Test

The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a national entrance exam for law programmes at India's National Law Universities. It runs at two levels: the five-year integrated LLB taken after Class 12, and the LLM taken after a law degree. Introduced in 2008, it is written offline on paper, and candidates mark their answers on an OMR sheet.

CLAT is conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities, a body of the NLUs set up in 2017. The Consortium has run the exam centrally since 2019; before that, the participating universities took turns conducting it. Most of India's National Law Universities admit students through CLAT, while NLU Delhi, the best-known exception, holds its own test, the All India Law Entrance Test (AILET).

A CLAT score carries beyond the NLUs. Many private and affiliated law colleges accept it for admission, and several public-sector undertakings, among them ONGC, Coal India and BHEL, use CLAT PG scores when recruiting for legal roles.

For the UG programme you need to have passed Class 12 with at least 45% marks (40% for SC and ST candidates). For the LLM, you need an LLB or an equivalent qualification with at least 50% (45% for SC, ST and PwD candidates). CLAT sets no upper age limit at either level.

Sources: Consortium of National Law Universities (official) · Common Law Admission Test - Wikipedia