CLAT 2026 Exam: The Consortium of National Law Universities has postponed the release of the CLAT UG 2026 3rd allotment list following a directive from the Honble Allahabad High Court to revise the merit list. Consequently a revised counselling schedule will only be issued once the Consortium concludes its Special Appeal before the Division Bench.
The Consortium released the CLAT 2026 merit list for the second round of counselling on January 22 2026. Those candidates who opted the float option during the CLAT 2026 first round can participate in the second allotment list. Candidates can freeze the allotted seats in the second round of CLAT 2026 by paying the confirmation fees by 1 PM on January 29 2026. Earlier the CLAT first merit list was published on January 8 2026. The last date to register for counselling is December 27 2025. During the counselling candidates had to provide a minimum of 15 preferences for UG and a minimum of 5 preferences for PG programme. The CLAT 2026 exam was concluded on December 7 2025 from 2 pm to 4 pm in pen and paper mode.
Last year NLU Prayagraj and India International University of Legal Education and Research IIULER Goa have also joined the CLAT consortium. The offline based CLAT 2026 will have 120 objective type questions from topics mentioned in the exam syllabus. The CLAT 2026 syllabus has five sections English language general knowledge current affairs legal logical and maths. The consortium will also release two CLAT 2026 sample papers in due course which the candidates can access only after completing the application process.
Also Check How many candidates appear in CLAT success rate
The Common Law Admission Test also known as CLAT is a national level law entrance exam conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities CNLUs. The CLAT scores are accepted for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate law programs offered by 25 national law universities one off campus of GNLU Gandhinagar in Silvassa and IIULER Goa and over 60 affiliated colleges.
The consortium has recently issued a notice regarding a change in the CLAT 2026 seat reservation category for NLUO Cuttack and DSNLU Visakapatnam. Both NLUs have made changes in their reservations for both UG and PG programmes. As per the official notification Odisha State Category with 11.25 percent and the Ex Servicemen quota have been introduced in NLUO Cuttack. The SC of AP category has been subdivided into 3 sub groups in DSNLU Visakapatnam.
A change introduced last year was that candidates are not required to fill in their NLU preferences at CLAT 2026 registration. Instead candidates must submit their NLU preferences at the time of counselling after the CLAT 2026 results have been declared. This change provides the candidates with the opportunity to target specific NLUs as per their CLAT 2026 score.
The addition of IIULER Goa and NLU Prayagraj also gives the students more options for using CLAT scores for LLB and LLM admissions.
| Sections | Approximate number of questions | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| English Language | 22 to 26 | 20 percent |
| Current Affairs including General Knowledge | 28 to 32 | 25 percent |
| Legal Reasoning | 28 to 32 | 25 percent |
| Logical Reasoning | 22 to 26 | 20 percent |
| Quantitative Techniques | 10 to 14 | 10 percent |
| Event | Details |
|---|---|
| Official Notification | Released on July 20 2025 with registration window and exam date details. |
| Application Form | Opened on August 1 2025 and closed on November 7 2025. |
| Admit Card | Issued on November 22 2025. |
| Exam Date | Conducted on December 7 2025 from 2 PM to 4 PM in pen and paper mode. |
| Answer Key | Provisional answer key released December 10 2025 with objection window until December 12 2025. |
| Result | Likely in second or third week of December 2025. |
| Counselling | Five rounds of counselling based on rank and preferences. |
The inception of CLAT as the common test has its roots in the 2007 case Varun Bhagat v Union of India when a parent of a law aspirant argued for a centralized test. The first CLAT was organised in 2008 for seven national law universities.
In 2014 seven other national law universities joined CLAT. In 2018 the CLAT Consortium was established in Bengaluru and the exam mode was changed to offline.
CLAT is now conducted by a seven member executive committee consisting of a convenor president vice president secretary treasurer and other members.
Currently CLAT scores are accepted by 24 out of 26 national law universities. NLU Delhi conducts the All India Law Entrance Test AILET and NLU Meghalaya conducts MEG UAT and MEG PAT separately.
| Full Exam Name | Common Law Admission Test |
| Short Exam Name | CLAT |
| Conducting Body | Consortium of NLUs |
| Frequency Of Conduct | Once a year |
| Exam Level | National Level Exam |
| Languages | English |
| Mode Of Application | Online |
| Mode Of Exam | Offline |
| Mode Of Counselling | Online |
| Participating Colleges | 153 |
| Exam Duration | 2 Hours |
| No Of Seats | 3361 |
CLAT Common Law Admission Test session 2026
The CLAT 2026 eligibility criteria will be published by the consortium of NLUs through an official notification. However there are not many changes in the eligibility criteria year after year. Candidates appearing in the CLAT exam 2026 must meet the eligibility criteria prescribed by the Consortium of National Law Universities NLUs. Since the Common Law Admission Test CLAT is conducted for both UG and PG programmes the eligibility criteria are also different for each level. The details of CLAT UG and CLAT LLM eligibility criteria are given below.
| Particular | UG CLAT | PG CLAT |
|---|---|---|
| Educational qualification | Class 12th or equivalent | LLB graduation |
| Minimum marks required | General candidates 45 percent SC ST 40 percent |
General candidates 50 percent SC ST 45 percent |
Candidates have to meet the following conditions
There is no age limit for appearing in CLAT 2026. Further there are no restrictions on the number of attempts.
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