Postgraduate Law School entrance exam, applicable to all the colleges and universities who are participating members of the Common Law Admission Test, for students who want to pursue postgraduate courses in Law.

 The CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) - PG is one of the most important postgraduate entrance exams for law aspirants in India. This National level entrance examination provides students with the opportunity to join the LLM course offered the by the various participating institutions including the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and 13 other institutions that are situated in different parts of the country. The duration of these courses is 5 academic years and the entrance exam is generally held around the month of May.

The exam is conducted across various cities across the country including Bangalore, Bopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cuttack, Gandhinagar, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Jodhpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, New Delhi, Patiala, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi and Siliguri.

 What are the eligibility criteria?

To be eligible for CLAT, you should be an Indian citizen or a Non – Resident Indian (NRI).

To be eligible to appear in the CLAT PG, you should have completed a 3 – year LLB degree or an integrated 5 – year LLB degree or its equivalents from a recognized university with a minimum aggregate percentage of 55% (50% for SC and ST candidates).

 Candidates who are appearing for their final year LLB or integrated LLB exams in the same year as the CLAT are also eligible to appear for the entrance exam provided that they can submit their final mark sheet before the specified date.

Reservations will be as per current state norms of the state in which the NLU is situated.

For any further information, please visit the following website: http://www.clat.ac.in.

How to apply?
You can only apply for the CLAT online. The application forms are available on the following website: http://www.clat.ac.in.

Before you start filling the application form online, make sure you have scanned copies of the following documents in your computer ready to be uploaded:
LLB/Integerated LLB marksheets, Birth Certificate, Passport Size Photograph, Scanned Copy of your signature as well as signature of your guardian/parent.

You might also have to upload additional documents in case you wish to apply through a reserved category (SC/ST/OBC/PWD etc.).

Once you fill in the application form and upload the necessary documents, you will have to make the payment for the application. You can pay online through a credit/debit card or offline, through a Bank Challan.

To pay offline, you will need to select the Bank Challan payment mode on the website. Print the generated Bank Challan and make the payment at any branch of the State Bank of India (SBI). You will then need to enter the details of the paid Bank Challan on the CLAT online application to submit the form.

Your Hall Ticket/Admit Card will only be available on the CLAT website. You will need to take a print of your admit card to enter the examination hall.

For any further information, please visit the websites of any of the NLUs or click on the following link: http://www.clat.ac.in.

 What is the pattern of the examination?

The CLAT exam comprises of a total of 150 marks.

The exam will comprise of 50 questions which will be objective type in the multiple choice format. Each objective question is of one mark and has four options out of which only one is correct. Please do not attempt the questions you do not know the answers to as there will be negative marking. 0.25 marks will be deducted for every wrong answer. 

The rest of the 100 marks will be divided equally amongst 4 descriptive essay type questions of 25 marks each.

The total duration of the exam is 2 hours.

Students will be admitted through the CLAT on the basis of merit. 

Your results will be published on the CLAT website.

For any further information, please visit the websites of any of the NLUs or click on the following link: http://www.clat.ac.in.

What do you do after you get your results?

Admissions into the different participating NLUs are conducted on through an online counseling procedure on the basis of your CLAT scores.

The counseling will be conducted online for candidates who have qualified in the CLAT examination through the following website: http://www.clat.ac.in.

The first 2500 qualified candidates with the highest scores in the CLAT will be allowed to participate in the counseling procedure and their names will be added in the merit list.

You would be required to sign in using the account you created during registration and make your choices in order of preference with regards to the NLU you wish to join. You will have to mark your choices/preferences based on two main factors:

1. The colleges you wish to join.

2. The colleges that are likely to admit you based on your rank. Go through the ranks that were admitted by a particular college last year for your course. You can obtain the ranks of last year from the counseling website.

Base your decision on these two factors and make multiple choices to ensure that you receive an admission.

You will also have to submit the required fees within the specified duration to be considered for admission.

Once you’re allotted a seat, you will need to print the allotment letter and report to the university in due time and get your documents verified as well as submit the remaining admission fee to confirm your seat. 

Subsequent rounds of counseling will be conducted for vacant seats and upgradation.

For any further information regarding the eligibility criteria and other details, please visit the following website: http://www.clat.ac.in.

What are the prospects?

Some the main colleges and universities that admit students on the basis of the CLAT exam are:

Important Dates for CLAT – 2014: