About CLAT

What is CLAT?

Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a national level law entrance exam for class 12th passed students. It is conducted every year by The Consortium of NLUs for admission in UG & PG Law Program. Generally CLAT & its admission related workout is conducted from December to June. Both Indian & NRI students are eligible for this exam. There are 5 topics – English, Maths, Static GK + Current Affairs, Legal Aptitude & Logical Reasoning for ug program but for pg program, there are 7 topics - Constitutional Law, Law of Torts, International Law, Jurisprudence, Intellectual Property Law, Law of Contracts & Criminal Law.

How did CLAT come into existence?

In India there are 27 National Law Universities, the first of which is the National Law School of India University, which accepted its first student batch in 1987. Out of the twenty seven NLUs, the National Law University, Delhi conducts its own separate entrance test, known as All India Law Entrance Test and NLU Meghalaya conducts its own separate entrance test known as MEG UAT & MEG PAT. With the emergence of other law schools, which also sought to conduct their admission tests at around the same time, students faced a hard time preparing for them. Students faced a lot of difficulty preparing for entrance exam with the emergence of other law schools, because they also sought to conduct their admission tests at about the same time. This issue has been raised from time to time to conduct a common entrance examination to reduce the students ' burden of performing multiple tests, but given the autonomous status of each law school, there was no nodal agency to coordinate an action to this regard.

The matter attracted India’s attention when Varun Bhagat filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in 2006 at the Supreme Court of India against the Union of India and various National Law Universities. The Chief Justice of India directed the Union of India to consult with the National Law Universities to formulate a common test. The move was strongly backed by the Bar Council of India.

Given the lack of a central nodal authority to bring forth a consensus on the issue, the Ministry of Human Resources Development, (Government of India) and the University Grants Commission of India organized a meeting of the Vice-Chancellors of seven National Law Universities along with the Chairman of the Bar Council of India. Following a few such meetings, the Vice Chancellors of the seven National Law Universities signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 23 November 2007 to conduct a common admission test. That's how CLAT came into existence. Accordingly, the first CLAT was conducted in 2008 by the National Law School of India University. Subsequently, CLAT-2009, CLAT-2010, CLAT-2011, CLAT-2012, CLAT-2013, CLAT-2014, CLAT-2015, CLAT-2016, CLAT-2017, CLAT-2018, CLAT-2019 & CLAT-2020 have been conducted by NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, National Law Institute University, The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, National Law University, Jodhpur, Hidayatullah National Law University, Gujarat National Law University, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Chanakya National Law University, National University of Advanced Legal Studies, National Law University Odisha and Consortium of NLUs respectively.

How did consortium of nlus come into existence?

On 17.10.2018, a permanent CLAT Secretariat was established at Bangalore. In 2018, Consortium also decided to conduct the test offline again. Earlier the test was being conducted by the University by rotation and now it has been decided that it will be conducted by EC of Consortium.

The Consortium became the legal entity when it was registered at Bangalore under the Karnataka Co-operative Society Act, of 26.03.2019 in which 16 NLU's signed and became the founding members of the Consortium. The remaining NLU's (except National Law University, Delhi) subsequently joined the Consortium. It has three permanent member, i.e., National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR), Hyderabad, National Law Institute (NLIU), Bhopal.

Now from 2020, CLAT is being conducted by Consortium of NLUs till date.

Trivia

1. Currently, 25 NLUs are participating in CLAT Exam to provide admission to LLB and LLM programs.
2. Rajendra Prasad National Law University was inaugurated in Paryagraj, Uttar Pradesh, on Friday, 16th February 2024. The ceremony was presided over by the Chief Justice of India (CJI), DY Chandrachud, who called for Hindi to be the medium of instruction, marking a pivotal moment in the nation's legal education landscape.