Know all about CLAT A guide for all CLAT aspirants Rishu Malhotra
Contents 1. Introduction 2. History 3. Exam Pattern 4. Participating Colleges 5. Important Dates
Introduction CLAT or Common Law Admission Test is the prime Law Entrance Examination that is conducted in India. The Examination forms the admission criteria for the 5 year integrated Law Courses like BA LLB etc. and LLM in the various National Law Universities or NLUs. The score of CLAT is also used by Indian Oil Corporation Limited as selection criteria for the post of Legal advisor. The Examination is conducted every year in rotation by the National Law Universities for the UG and the PG programme. CLAT 2015 will be conducted by the Ram Mohan Lohiya National Law University or RMLNLU on 10 th May 2015. Currently there are 18 National Law Universities in India and all of them take admissions through CLAT only National Law University, Delhi being an exception does the same through their own entrance examination All India Law Entrance Test (AILET). The latest National Law University is Maharashtra National Law University or MNLU, Nagpur and will take admissions in the year 2015 on the basis of CLAT.
History CLAT was first conducted by the National Law School of India University or NLSIU on 11 th May,. Earlier all the National Law Universities conducted their own Law Entrance Examinations for admissions. In the year the first CLAT core committee was established to have common admission criteria in all the National Law Universities in India. CLAT 2009 was conducted by NALSAR, Hyderabad on 31 st May after being rescheduled from 17 th May due to leaking of question papers. CLAT 2009 saw the joining of four more national law universities namely: RMLNLU, Lucknow CNLU, Patna RGNUL, Patiala and NUALS, Kochi CLAT 2010 was held on 9 th May and was conducted by NLIU, Bhopal. This exam was one of the best managed and executed CLAT in the history as it was marked with no controversy associated.
CLAT 2011 was conducted by the West Bengal National University of Judicial Sciences, Kolkata on 15 th May. CLAT 2011 left the candidates disappointed by the standard of the exam, as up to 12 questions in the various sections had underlined answers due to the oversight of the organisers and students also found the paper lengthy in comparison to the time limit provided. CLAT 2012 was held on 13 th May and was conducted by NLU, Jodhpur. This exam had attached with it a number of controversies, which includes allegation of setting questions out of syllabus and out of the pre- declared pattern. The declared rank list also contained error, due to which the first list was taken down and a fresh list was put up. The declared question-answer keys contained several errors, which resulted in petitions being filed by the aggrieved students in different High Courts. The same year also saw the joining of three new national law schools in CLAT which were: NUSRL, Ranchi NLUO, Cuttack and NLUJA, Assam. CLAT 2013 saw the introduction of negative marking in CLAT. From now 0.25 marks were deducted for every wrong answer. It was conducted on 12 th May 2013 by HNLU, Raipur. CLAT 2014 was held on 11 th May and was conducted by GNLU, Gandhinagar. The exam was heavily criticized for being poorly conducted with the results being withdrawn and declared again after a week. Although GNLU handled the issue very well and the students were even allowed to verify their OMR by visiting the campus.
Exam Pattern CLAT UG: The CLAT UG exam is completely objective in nature and is of 200 Marks for which a candidate is allotted 120 Marks for completion. There is a negative marking of 0.25 marks for every wrong answer; however there is no negative marking if the question is not answered. The detailed exam pattern is given below. Section Number of Questions Marks Allotted for Each Section Time Allotted English 40 40 Comprehension General 50 50 Knowledge and Current Affairs Legal Aptitude 50 50 Logical 40 40 Reasoning Numerical 20 20 Aptitude Total 200 200 120 Minutes
CLAT PG: The CLAT PG exam consists of one Objective and one subjective paper. The Objective paper consists of 50 Questions of One mark each while the Subjective paper has 4 questions of 25 marks each. The Detailed section-wise division is given below: Exam Description Total Marks 150 Exam Duration 2 Hours Long Essay type Descriptive Questions(covering subject areas such as Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence ) Objective Questions( Covering all compulsory law subjects prescribed by the BCI for the Under-Graduate Course except Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence ) 100 mark (4 Questions of 25 Marks each) 50 mark ( 50 Questions of one mark each )
Participating Colleges At present there are 16 National Law Universities participating in CLAT. DSNLU, Vishakhapatnam became the latest entrant this year. Details of Participating National Law Universities: Name of College College Website CLAT Joining Year NLSIU, Bangalore http://www.nls.ac.in/ NALSAR, Hyderabad http://www.nalsar.ac.in/ WBNUJS, Kolkata http://www.nujs.edu/ NLIU, Bhopal http://www.nliu.ac.in/ NLU, Jodhpur http://www.nlujodhpur.ac.in/ GNLU, Gandhinagar http://www.gnlu.ac.in/ HNLU, Raipur http://www.hnlu.ac.in/ RGNUL, Patiala http://rgnul.ac.in/ 2009 CNLU, Patna http://www.cnlu.ac.in/ 2009 NUALS, Kochi http://www.nuals.ac.in/web/index.aspx 2009 RMLNLU, Lucknow http://www.rmlnlu.ac.in/ 2009 NUSRL, Ranchi http://nusrlranchi.com/ 2012 NLUJAA, Assam http://www.nluassam.ac.in/index.htm 2012 NLUO, Cuttack http://www.nluo.ac.in/ 2012 TNNLS, Chennai http://tnnls.in/index.php 2014 DSNLU,Vishakhapatnam https://dsnlu.ac.in/ 2015
Apart from the 16 National Law Universities that are included in the CLAT admission procedure, the latest national law university MNLU, Nagpur will also conduct its admission procedure on the basis of CLAT. There are some private colleges also that take admission on the basis of CLAT. Colleges taking admissions on the basis of CLAT apart from the 16 member National Law Universities are: Name of College Type of College Courses MNLU, Nagpur Government BA LLB UPES, Dehradun Private BA LLB, B.Com LLB, B.Tech LLB, BBA LLB VIT Law School Private BALLB Faculty of Law, Private BA LLB, BBA LLB Nirma University Jindal Global Law Private LLM School, Sonipat Haryana SOA, School of Law Private BA LLB
Important Dates Application Start Date: 1st week of January. Application End Date: Last week of March Admit Card: 2 nd week of April. Exam Date: 2 nd week of May. Result Date: Last week of May. Counselling and Admission Procedure: June and July.