Common Law Admission Test(CLAT)

About the exam

About CLAT

CLAT 2027 will be written on paper on Sunday, 6 December 2026, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., and applications for it close at 11:59 p.m. on 31 October 2026. The Consortium of National Law Universities sets the date, the paper and the rules, and the CLAT score then decides five-year integrated law and LL.M. seats at the participating universities for the 2027-2028 academic year. In the last cycle, CLAT 2026, the result was followed by a counselling process with its own money at stake: a refundable registration fee, a non-refundable confirmation fee, and a Freeze, Float or Exit choice for every candidate offered a seat.

The Common Law Admission Test is set by the Consortium of National Law Universities, which was established on 19 August 2017 with the stated aim of improving standards of legal education, according to the Consortium of National Law Universities website. The CLAT 2027 FAQ describes the test as the route to all admissions to the five-year integrated LL.B. and LL.M. programmes at participating universities that commence in the 2027-2028 academic year (CLAT 2027 FAQs).

The Consortium is the conducting body on paper, but no single university runs the exam every year. The Report of the CLAT Expert Committee 2026 records that a new CLAT Convenor is chosen each year to head the process, which means the conduct of CLAT rotates between member NLUs from one year to the next.

For CLAT 2026, 92,344 candidates applied, an increase the Consortium put at 17% more applications, with 75,009 registering for the undergraduate paper and 17,335 for the postgraduate one, according to the CLAT 2026 press release of 7 December 2025.

"Five-year integrated" covers more than the B.A. LL.B. The fifth round of CLAT 2026 allotments was published as separate lists for B.B.A. LL.B. programmes at several universities, a B.Com. LL.B. (Hons.) at Tamil Nadu National Law University, a B.Sc. LL.B. (Hons.) in Cyber Security at NLIU Bhopal and a B.Sc. LL.B. (Hons.) in Criminology and Forensic at WBNUJS Kolkata, as the CLAT 2026 Fifth Provisional Allotment List page shows.

National Law University Delhi is not on the CLAT 2027 Participating Universities page. Its B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) and LL.M. admissions run on AILET, which NLU Delhi conducts every year, as its AILET 2027 FAQ explains.

At a glance

CLAT highlights

Calendar

Important dates

The Consortium's Executive Committee and Governing Body fixed the CLAT 2027 calendar at meetings on 18 July 2026, and announced it in the CLAT 2027 Press Release dated 22 July 2026. The instructions pages add the closing hour and the extended sitting for candidates with disabilities.

The instructions call the exam date "Subject to revision in case of necessity", and say only that the admit card date "will be intimated on the website"; they give no answer key or result date (CLAT 2027 UG Instructions).

The last cycle shows how the calendar actually moved once it was under way. The table below is CLAT 2026 as it ran, not a projection for CLAT 2027.

The CLAT 2026 extension came on the original closing day: a CLAT 2026 deadline extension notice dated 31 October 2025 moved the last date for both the UG and PG applications to 7 November 2025.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The undergraduate and postgraduate papers have separate qualifying bars, and neither has an upper age limit for CLAT 2027 (CLAT 2027 UG eligibility page; CLAT 2027 PG eligibility page).

Undergraduate (Five-Year Integrated LL.B.)

A candidate needs to have passed 10+2 or an equivalent examination with at least 45% of marks or the equivalent grade, or at least 40% for candidates in the SC, ST and PwD categories, according to the CLAT 2027 UG eligibility page. Candidates still taking that examination in March or April 2027 may also apply, but lose their claim to admission if they cannot produce proof of passing when they are admitted.

The Consortium's own pages do not agree on that window. The FAQ page, answering a question about Class 12 or LL.B. results that arrive after counselling begins, says candidates appearing for their qualifying examination in April/May 2027 are also eligible, and leaves the manner of producing those results to the NLUs at admission, while another answer on the same page, about a March board exam, repeats March/April (CLAT 2027 FAQs). A candidate whose board examinations run into May should put that question to the Consortium's help desk before relying on either page.

Postgraduate (LL.M.)

A candidate needs an LL.B. degree or an equivalent examination with at least 50% marks or the equivalent grade, or at least 45% for SC, ST and PwD candidates, and those appearing for the qualifying examination in 2027 may apply on the same proof-at-admission condition (CLAT 2027 PG eligibility page).

Nationality and NRI Seats

Indian nationals, NRIs, PIO card holders and OCI card holders can appear for CLAT 2027, under both the CLAT 2027 UG Instructions and the CLAT 2027 PG Instructions. Foreign nationals are not eligible for CLAT, and the UG instructions tell them to approach the NLUs directly for admission. The Consortium does not allot NRI or NRI-sponsored seats either: those applicants also deal with the universities themselves. The PIO and OCI wording is new this cycle: the CLAT 2026 UG Instructions named only Indian nationals and NRIs.

Step by step

Application process and fee

Applications for CLAT 2027 are accepted only through the online form on consortiumofnlus.ac.in. The sequence the CLAT 2027 UG Instructions lay down:

1. Register with a personal mobile number and email address, and validate the mobile number with the OTP sent to it.
2. Log in with the mobile number and the password set at registration.
3. Fill in the form with the candidate's and parents' names spelt exactly as on the certificates, mark sheets and identity proof.
4. Upload a recent front-facing passport-size photograph with a plain background, the candidate's signature, and, where claimed, the SC/ST/OBC category certificate, the PwD certificate and the BPL certificate, with documents and certificates in PDF format only.
5. Pay the fee online and submit before the deadline.

Once the form is submitted and paid, the programme, the category and the BPL field are locked. A candidate who files more than one form is considered only on the last one, and the fee paid on the earlier form is not refunded.

The same CLAT 2027 UG Instructions take the fee online only, leave the bank's transaction charge for the candidate to bear on top (the payment gateway shows it), and make the application fee neither refundable nor adjustable.

Some parts of a submitted CLAT 2027 form can still be changed through the "Edit Application Form" button. A notification dated 3 September 2026 told candidates whose chosen test centre city had been removed to select another before 31 October 2026 (CLAT 2027 test centre notification, listed on the CLAT 2027 page). Two notifications dated 5 September 2026 changed the domicile reservation categories offered by WBNUJS Kolkata and NLU Meghalaya and gave affected candidates the same 31 October 2026 deadline to update their reservation (WBNUJS reservation notification; NLU Meghalaya reservation notification, both listed on the CLAT 2027 page).

A candidate who needs a scribe or other accommodation has to say so in the application form, pick the disability category there, and upload a valid UDID card or disability certificate, under the CLAT 2027 PwD policy dated 7 September 2026 and listed on the CLAT 2027 page.

Before the exam

Admit card and exam day

The CLAT 2027 admit card is downloaded by logging in to the candidate's account, and the date it becomes available will be announced on the website (CLAT 2027 UG Instructions).

The exam-day rules on record come from the CLAT 2026 question booklets, which the Consortium published with its CLAT 2026 objection notification. The UG booklet carried 120 questions across 40 pages, two of them blank for rough work, and no extra paper was handed out. Every answer had to be marked on the carbonised OMR response sheet supplied with that booklet, and the cover let a candidate walk out at the end with both the booklet and the candidate's copy of the sheet. Mobile phones, headphones and digital watches were barred from the test premises, and the cover carried the instruction "DO NOT OPEN TILL 2 P.M."

The CLAT 2027 PwD policy, listed on the CLAT 2027 page, sets out the accommodations for this cycle:

• Compensatory time: 40 extra minutes, for a total of 2 hours and 40 minutes, including for candidates using a scribe or reader (CLAT 2027 PwD policy, listed on the CLAT 2027 page).
• Scribe: the candidate may bring one or ask the Consortium to arrange one. For the UG paper the scribe can at most be enrolled in Class 11 and not yet have finished its final examinations; for the PG paper the scribe may be a school student or an undergraduate outside humanities and law.
• Other aids: requests beyond a scribe go to the Nodal Officer, PwD, and any requirement the application form does not cover has to reach that officer at least 10 working days before the exam; a disability that arises after applying has to be reported no later than two working days before it.

Structure

Exam pattern

CLAT 2027 is an offline paper for both programmes (CLAT 2027 UG Instructions; CLAT 2027 PG Instructions), and the Governing Body resolved on 18 July 2026 that there will be no changes to the syllabus or the sections of either paper this cycle (Expert Committee Report 2026 press release). The same resolution asks the CLAT 2027 Convenor and the paper setters to consider and adopt the Expert Committee's suggestions on question format and quality "in a feasible manner".

The UG Paper

The Consortium gives the undergraduate sections as approximate question counts rather than fixed ones. The right-hand column is the split the Consortium reported for the CLAT 2026 paper once it had been set.

The CLAT 2027 UG Question Paper Format states the 0.25 penalty for a wrong answer and says nothing about a blank one. The last paper was explicit: the cover of each CLAT 2026 booklet appended to the CLAT 2026 objection notification promised "no deductions for Unanswered Questions".

Two CLAT 2027 candidates on equal marks are separated first by their Legal Aptitude section score if they sat the UG paper, and only then in favour of the older candidate and, failing that, by a computerised draw of lots (CLAT 2027 UG Instructions). The LL.M. instructions drop the section step and go straight to higher age (CLAT 2027 PG Instructions).

The PG Paper

The postgraduate paper is a single section of 120 one-mark objective questions built on extracts from primary legal material, such as important court decisions, statutes or regulations, with each extract followed by a series of questions (CLAT 2027 PG syllabus page).

The Reform That Was Not Adopted for CLAT 2027

The Report of the CLAT Expert Committee 2026 recommended restructuring the UG paper into three sections (Logical Reasoning and Legal Aptitude, Language and Comprehension, and Quantitative Techniques), removing General Knowledge and Current Affairs altogether, and setting no more than 10 to 15 questions per section in two hours. For the PG paper it proposed adding a Legal Knowledge section and a written Problem Question. The Governing Body kept the existing pattern for CLAT 2027. It will engage with the Report's recommendations and with public feedback, invited until 31 August 2026, in coordination with a committee the Office of the Chief Justice of India is to constitute, in preparation for CLAT 2028 (Expert Committee Report 2026 press release).

What to study

Syllabus

The UG paper is framed as a test of the comprehension and reasoning skills a legal education needs, rather than of prior knowledge, though the syllabus allows that prior knowledge may occasionally help in Current Affairs. The CLAT 2027 UG syllabus page describes the five sections this way:

• English Language: passages of about 450 words from fiction and non-fiction, pitched at what a Class 12 student could read in 5 to 7 minutes, with questions on the main point, inferences, summaries and word meaning in context (CLAT 2027 UG syllabus page).
• Current Affairs, including General Knowledge: passages of up to 450 words drawn from news and journalistic writing, covering events of significance in India and the world, arts and culture, international affairs and historical events of continuing significance (CLAT 2027 UG syllabus page).
• Legal Reasoning: passages of around 450 words on fact situations, public policy or moral questions, answered by applying the principles in the passage; no prior knowledge of law is required (CLAT 2027 UG syllabus page).
• Logical Reasoning: short passages followed by questions on arguments, premises, conclusions, contradictions and analogies.
• Quantitative Techniques: numerical information set out in text, worked with Class 10 mathematics such as ratios and proportions, basic algebra, mensuration and statistical estimation.

The FAQ adds that the Current Affairs section has no fixed time frame (CLAT 2027 FAQs).

For the PG paper, the syllabus page draws on what every undergraduate law degree makes compulsory, and spells the subjects out: Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence first, then Administrative, Contract, Torts, Family, Criminal, Property and Company Law, and finally Public International, Tax, Environmental, and Labour and Industrial Law (CLAT 2027 PG syllabus page).

How to prepare

Preparation and books

Previous years' question papers cost Rs 500 on top of the CLAT 2027 application fee (CLAT 2027 UG Instructions). The most recent paper is already public at no charge: all four sets of both the UG and PG question booklets from CLAT 2026, each with its provisional answer key, are appended to the CLAT 2026 objection notification. The two CLAT 2027 syllabus pages describe each section and stop there, with no reading list attached.

The Report of the CLAT Expert Committee 2026 contains sample questions too, but they illustrate its proposed three-section model, including rule-derivation and data-sufficiency formats, which the Governing Body did not adopt for CLAT 2027.

Where it is held

Exam centres

CLAT 2026 was held at 156 centres in 93 cities across 25 states and 4 union territories, according to the CLAT 2026 press release of 7 December 2025.

Candidates choose test centre cities in the application form, and the Consortium can still move them. The CLAT 2027 instructions reserve the right to cancel a city or centre and shift applicants to another if unforeseen incidents occur or if too few or too many candidates choose it (CLAT 2027 UG Instructions). For CLAT 2027 a notification dated 3 September 2026 has already removed Vellore and Tiruvarur as test centre cities (CLAT 2027 test centre notification, listed on the CLAT 2027 page).

Changes also came late in the last cycle. A CLAT 2026 Lucknow centre notification dated 28 November 2025 moved candidates from Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Govt. Girls PG College in Rajajipuram to Lucknow Public College, A-Block, and told them to download a revised admit card.

After the exam

Answer key

In CLAT 2026 the Consortium published a provisional key, took paid objections, and then issued a final key approved by its Governing Body. Each objection cost Rs 500, refunded to the paying account if the objection was upheld, and objections sent by email, support ticket or phone were not entertained (CLAT 2026 objection notification).

Objections were reviewed by Subject Expert Committees chaired by Prof. Ishwar Bhat, former Vice-Chancellor of NUJS Kolkata, and their recommendations went to an Oversight Committee chaired by Justice V. Gopala Gowda, a former Supreme Court judge. The final key left the UG provisional key unchanged, and UG was evaluated out of 119 marks (CLAT 2026 final answer key) because one UG question had already been withdrawn in the provisional key (CLAT 2026 result notification). The PG provisional key had also withdrawn one question, the final key changed the answers to three more, and PG too was evaluated out of 119 (CLAT 2026 result notification).

After the final key, the CLAT 2026 Grievance Redressal Committee took complaints about mark totalling, counselling registration, the seat matrix and centre conditions, with no fee, but expressly excluded any grievance about the correctness of the final key (CLAT 2026 grievance notification).

The final key has not been the last word in court. By a judgment dated 3 February 2026, a single judge of the Allahabad High Court directed a revision of the CLAT 2026 UG merit list, awarding marks for Question 9 of Booklet C (and its equivalents in other sets) by treating both options B and D as correct, without affecting candidates already allotted seats in the first round. The Consortium decided to appeal to a Division Bench (CLAT 2026 Allahabad High Court notification). The year before, for CLAT 2025, a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court ordered four questions withdrawn as erroneous and the rank list revised before the matter went on appeal to the Supreme Court, as the Report of the CLAT Expert Committee 2026 records.

Scores

Result and scorecard

CLAT 2026 scores were put before the Consortium's Governing Body on 16 December 2025 and approved, and candidates downloaded scorecards from their CLAT accounts or from a mirror site, result1.consortiumofnlus.ac.in (CLAT 2026 result notification).

Top marks appear in the same CLAT 2026 result notification. The highest mark on the CLAT 2026 UG paper was 112.75 and on the PG paper 104.25, both out of 119. Overall attendance was 96.01%, and 57% of those who sat the exam were women. The notification broke down the top 100 on each paper by city and gender, with Bengaluru placing 15 of the UG top 100 and New Delhi 22 of the PG top 100.

Scores you need

Cutoff

Neither the CLAT 2027 eligibility pages nor the CLAT 2027 UG Instructions set a minimum CLAT mark.

For CLAT 2026 the Consortium's allotment pages carried no cutoff table. They linked the provisional allotment lists as separate files for each NLU and programme, for both the five-year programmes and the LL.M., in five rounds, and the rank at which each list closed is read from those files (CLAT 2026 Fifth Provisional Allotment List page). Seats left after the fifth list were advertised by the universities themselves, and the CLAT 2026 vacant seats page carries only the notices that NLUs sent to the CLAT office, with a note to contact any other NLU directly.

Getting a seat

Counselling and seat allotment

The CLAT 2027 FAQ says only that counselling for admissions will be held in December 2026 or January 2027, with no fees or rules attached (CLAT 2027 FAQs). In the last cycle the Consortium, not the individual universities, ran the central allotment, and the rules below are the five-round process its CLAT 2026 counselling instructions of 17 December 2025 set.

Registration and Preferences

Eligible candidates were invited by email, SMS and a notice on their CLAT portal, according to the rank list and each NLU's admission matrix, and only those who registered and paid were considered for any seat. Registering meant paying a Counselling Registration Fee of Rs 30,000 in the General category, or Rs 20,000 for ST, SC, OBC, BC, EWS and PwD candidates, a deposit that came back on the conditions set out below (CLAT 2026 counselling instructions).

Candidates had to list at least 15 NLU preferences for UG and at least 5 for PG (CLAT 2026 counselling instructions). A candidate was considered only for the NLUs on that list, even if a seat was vacant elsewhere, and could only move up the list, never down.

Freeze, Float and Exit

Every candidate allotted a seat had to act in that round, and a candidate who did nothing was marked "Not Interested", lost the seat and dropped out of later lists, under the CLAT 2026 counselling instructions:

• Freeze: accept the seat and leave counselling, after paying the non-refundable Confirmation Fee.
• Float: hold the seat, also after paying the Confirmation Fee, and move automatically if a higher preference came up later. The move could not be undone, and Float was not available in the fifth and final round.
• Exit: leave the process. A candidate who had already frozen or floated forfeited the Confirmation Fee, and the seat went to someone else.

The instructions do not state the amount of the Confirmation Fee. It was adjusted against the university's fee on admission, and the balance was due at the NLU by 24 April 2026 for seats frozen in rounds one to three and by 30 May 2026 for rounds four and five (CLAT 2026 counselling instructions).

The Counselling Registration Fee came back in full to a candidate never allotted a seat. Rs 5,000 was deducted for a late Exit after holding a seat, for failing to pay the balance university fee in time, for being found ineligible by an NLU, or for withdrawing after 30 May 2026 having taken admission, and in each of those cases a Confirmation Fee already paid was not returned (CLAT 2026 counselling instructions).

The Court Case That Moved the CLAT 2026 UG Rounds

The Allahabad High Court case pushed the undergraduate rounds off the published calendar. The third UG list, due on 5 February 2026, was deferred that day (CLAT 2026 Allahabad High Court notification). A notice dated 1 May 2026 then postponed the fourth UG round because the Division Bench had reserved judgment on the Consortium's appeal, and said PG counselling would continue on its notified dates (CLAT 2026 fourth round postponement notice).

Each rescheduling notice stated that seats already allotted in earlier lists were unchanged (CLAT 2026 UG third round schedule; CLAT 2026 UG fourth and fifth round schedule). The revised fourth and fifth round schedule also moved the full-refund cut-off for a UG Exit from 1:00 p.m. on 8 May 2026 to 2:00 p.m. on 14 May 2026 (CLAT 2026 counselling instructions; CLAT 2026 UG fourth and fifth round schedule).

The CLAT 2026 instructions closed the Consortium's central process after the fifth round and left member NLUs free to fill remaining seats under their own norms (CLAT 2026 counselling instructions). In May 2026, for example, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Law University, Sonepat, invited its own applications for a B.B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) programme on CLAT-2026 scores, with a last date of 30 May 2026 (DBRANLU B.B.A. LL.B. admission notification).

Where it is accepted

Participating institutes

The CLAT 2027 UG Instructions refer to the fee structures of all 26 NLUs, and tell candidates to read the information brochure and the NLUs' own websites for intake, reservation policy, courses and fees before they apply. The CLAT 2026 UG Instructions said 25, though the two cycles' lists read alike: the CLAT 2027 Participating Universities page and the CLAT 2026 Participating Universities page carry the same entries, from NLSIU Bengaluru to NLU Meghalaya in Shillong, each with a website link and a brochure. Both show GNLU's Silvassa campus as an entry separate from GNLU Gandhinagar.

A second Consortium page, Affiliates, is where bodies outside the NLUs appear. For CLAT 2026 it named NTPC Limited as a public sector unit that had signed an MOU with the Consortium to use CLAT 2026 scores (CLAT 2026 Affiliates page). Below that, the same page showed a grid of universities and law schools, among them Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, the University of Lucknow, the Institute of Law at Nirma University and SVKM's Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, headed only by the line "This page will be updated soon." The CLAT 2027 Affiliates page shows that same line and, so far, no affiliate at all.

Get help

Contact

Registration queries go to clat@consortiumofnlus.ac.in or 08047162020, between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on working days, and the same help desk page carries a web form sorted by query type, from payment and PwD matters to domicile and specific-NLU questions (CLAT 2027 help desk).

Accommodation requests under the PwD policy go to the Nodal Officer, PwD, CLAT-2027, at nodalofficer-pwd@consortiumofnlus.ac.in, with a copy to clatoffice@consortiumofnlus.ac.in (CLAT 2027 PwD policy, listed on the CLAT 2027 page). The letterhead on the CLAT 2027 test centre, reservation and PwD notices carries the Consortium's postal address: National Law School of India University, Post Bag No. 7201, Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru 560072 (CLAT 2027 test centre notification, listed on the CLAT 2027 page).

Source

Official links

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Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Exact dates, deadlines, cutoffs, merit lists, answer keys, results, seat counts are per-cycle. Anything per-cycle here is stated for the cycle it names and is taken from the conducting body's own notification; confirm it on the official website before acting on it. Expertie does not conduct any exam, process applications or charge fees.

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