About CLAT

The concept of a National Law School to act as a pace-setter and a testing ground for bold experiments in legal education came up before the Bar Council of India in the context of the Council’s statutory responsibility for maintaining standards in professional legal education under the Advocates Act, 1961.

The Bar Council of India, representing the organized legal profession at all India level, took initiative in establishing the first National Law School in Bangalore. The success of National Law School of India University, Bangalore, has inspired many states to set up similar institutions in their respective territories and at present, there are thirteen National Law Schools in different parts of the country.

Till 2007 each National Law School conducted admission test in different centers spread all over the country and thousands of students after their ten plus two examinations took these multiple admission tests at considerable expense and inconvenience.

In order to avoid the hardship faced by the students in taking number of tests for admission to individual Universities and in view of the direction of the Supreme Court, initiative was taken jointly by the University Grants Commission, Ministry of HRD and the National Law Universities for conducting a Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) for admission to different National Law Universities in the Country.

Eligibility:
10+2 Examination or equivalent with not less than 50% marks for General and 45% marks for SC/ST/OBC* and Persons with Disability*. (Students taking qualifying examination in March/April are also eligible to apply).

Age Limit:
Not more than 20 years in case of General and 22 years in case of SC/ST/OBC* and persons with disability* as on 1st July.
*Subject to reservation at the University concerned.

Pattern of the Test Paper:

Weightage wise subject areas: