22Sep 2026
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Entrance exams: what is live
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Entrance Exams
Other Law Entrances
Admission to the national law universities runs through two examinations: CLAT, conducted by the consortium of those universities, and AILET, conducted by National Law University Delhi, which sits outside it. Most serious aspirants sit both, and the preparation overlaps almost entirely.
The single most important thing to understand about both is that they no longer test legal knowledge. They are comprehension examinations — a passage supplies whatever principle a question needs, and what is assessed is whether you can read it accurately and apply it under time. A candidate memorising legal provisions is preparing for an examination that no longer exists.
Entrance exams · checked 19 September 2026
Entrance exams this month, from the official portals
Notifications, application windows, exam dates, answer keys and results as the conducting bodies published them, each with its source and a link to the exam guide.
The format
Why these are reading examinations
Every section of the modern CLAT is passage-based — English, current affairs, legal reasoning, logical reasoning and even quantitative techniques, which presents data in a passage rather than as standalone problems. AILET follows a similar orientation with three sections rather than five. The consequence for preparation is that the highest-return activity is not subject study but reading: daily, widely, and at increasing speed.
What each examination asks
- CLAT — 120 passage-based questions in two hours across five sections — English, current affairs and general knowledge, legal reasoning, logical reasoning and quantitative techniques — one mark each with 0.25 deducted per wrong answer.
- AILET — 150 questions in two hours across three sections — English 50, current affairs and general knowledge 30, logical reasoning 70 — with the same 0.25 deduction and general knowledge questioned more directly than CLAT’s passage-based approach.
2026-27 cycle
CLAT 2027 and AILET 2027: dates, fees and where each stands
Checked 15 September 2026 against consortiumofnlus.ac.in and nationallawuniversitydelhi.in.
| Test | Registration | Examination | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|---|
| CLAT 2027 (Consortium of NLUs) | 3 August – 31 October 2026, 11:59 p.m. | Sunday 6 December 2026, 2 – 4 p.m. (to 4:40 p.m. for PwD), offline on OMR | Registration open; admit-card and result dates to be notified; CLAT 2026 result came nine days after the test |
| AILET 2027 (NLU Delhi) | 7 August – 10 November 2026 | Sunday 13 December 2026, 2 – 4 p.m., 32 test cities | Registration open; admit cards 30 November; 110 B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) and 70 LL.M. seats on merit |
| Test | Paper | Marking | Fee and eligibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| CLAT UG | 120 passage-based questions, 2 hours — English 22–26, Current Affairs 28–32, Legal Reasoning 28–32, Logical Reasoning 22–26, Quantitative 10–14 | +1 / −0.25; tie-break on Legal Reasoning, then age | ₹4,000 (₹3,500 SC, ST, BPL, PwD); class 12 with 45 per cent (40 SC, ST, PwD); no age limit |
| CLAT PG | 120 objective questions from judgments and statutes, 2 hours; no descriptive section | +1 / −0.25 | Same fee; LL.B. with 50 per cent (45 SC, ST, PwD) |
| AILET UG | 150 questions, 2 hours — English 50, Current Affairs and GK 30, Logical Reasoning 70 | +1 / −0.25; tie-break on Logical Reasoning, then age | ₹3,000 (₹1,000 SC, ST, PwD; BPL SC, ST and women exempt); class 12 with 45 per cent (42 OBC, 40 SC, ST, PwD) |
| AILET LL.M. | 100 questions from the branches of law, 2 hours | +1 / −0.25; tie-break on age | Same fee; LL.B. with 50 per cent (45 SC, ST, PwD) |
The two tests fall a week apart in December 2026, and a single reading-based preparation serves both; the additions for AILET are 30 more questions in the same two hours, no legal-reasoning or quantitative section and static general knowledge. The exam guides below carry the full pattern tables, dates, fees, eligibility, the 2026 result figures, the procedure from registration to counselling and free mock tests on the current patterns.
Comparing
Where the two differ
- Separate applications and dates — NLU Delhi is outside the CLAT consortium entirely, so both must be applied for separately.
- AILET tests knowledge more directly — its general knowledge section includes static content and asks rather than supplying, which a CLAT-only preparation leaves uncovered.
- CLAT is more pace-pressured — a long, dense paper in two hours, where many candidates do not finish.
- AILET fills seats at one university — which concentrates the competition and sharpens the cutoff.
Preparation
What actually builds a law entrance score
- Read a newspaper properly every day. Editorials and analysis rather than headlines. It serves English, current affairs and legal reasoning simultaneously.
- Read demanding long-form writing regularly. Reading speed on unfamiliar material is what the papers actually test.
- Practise applying a stated principle exactly. Including when it conflicts with your intuition or with what you believe the law to be. This is a discipline, not knowledge.
- Add static general knowledge for AILET. The clearest gap in a CLAT-only preparation.
- Always practise under full time. Untimed practice conceals the reading endurance problem that decides these exams.
Exam guides
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Questions
Other Law Entrances — FAQs
When is the CLAT 2027 exam date, and when does registration close?
CLAT 2027 is on Sunday 6 December 2026 from 2 to 4 p.m., with applications on consortiumofnlus.ac.in from 3 August to 11:59 p.m. on 31 October 2026. AILET 2027 is on Sunday 13 December 2026 from 2 to 4 p.m., with applications on nationallawuniversitydelhi.in from 7 August to 10 November 2026 and admit cards on 30 November. Both are single afternoon sessions; CLAT is offline on OMR.
What are the CLAT and AILET fees and eligibility?
CLAT costs ₹4,000 for General and OBC candidates and ₹3,500 for SC, ST, BPL and PwD candidates, and needs class 12 with 45 per cent (40 for SC, ST and PwD) for the UG programme or an LL.B. with 50 per cent (45) for the PG programme, with no age limit. AILET costs ₹3,000, or ₹1,000 for SC, ST and PwD candidates, with BPL SC, ST and women candidates exempt; it needs class 12 with 45 per cent (42 for OBC, 40 for SC, ST and PwD) for the B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) or an LL.B. with 50 per cent (45) for the LL.M.
Which LLB entrance exams are there after graduation, for the 3-year LLB?
CLAT and AILET admit only to the five-year integrated programmes and the LL.M., so a graduate wanting a three-year LL.B. looks elsewhere: Delhi University, BHU and the other central universities admit through the LL.B. code of CUET PG (proposed for March 2027 in NTA’s calendar); Maharashtra through MH CET Law for the 3-year LL.B. (held on 1–2 April 2026, applications from January); Telangana and Andhra Pradesh through TG LAWCET and AP LAWCET, which have separate three-year and five-year papers in May–June; Panjab University through PU LL.B.; and the private universities — Symbiosis (SLAT is five-year only), Jindal (LSAT-India), Christ, KIIT — through their own tests. The papers test the same reading, reasoning, legal aptitude, general knowledge and English as CLAT, at a gentler level.
Do I need to study law before a law entrance exam?
No, for the undergraduate papers. Both CLAT and AILET supply whatever legal principles their questions require and test whether you can apply them accurately — including when the stated principle conflicts with your intuition or with what you believe the actual law to be. Memorising legal provisions is preparing for an examination format that no longer exists. The postgraduate papers are different and do assume knowledge of the core law curriculum.
Should I take both CLAT and AILET?
Most serious aspirants do, and it makes sense. The examinations are on different dates with separate applications, and the preparation overlaps almost entirely — daily reading, comprehension practice, current affairs and logical reasoning serve both. The addition AILET requires is a body of static general knowledge, since its general knowledge section questions more directly than CLAT’s passage-based approach, and that is worth building from early rather than in the final fortnight.
What is the hardest part of a law entrance exam?
Finishing it, particularly in CLAT. The paper is long and dense, and worked without a clock it feels comfortable — no individual question is hard. Under two hours it becomes a reading endurance test, and many candidates simply do not reach the end. That is why the headline metric in mock analysis should be how many questions you reached, and why reading speed deserves more preparation attention than any individual section.
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