CLAT 2027: Exam Date, Registration, Eligibility, Pattern, Syllabus, Result and Cutoff

The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is India's national law entrance exam. It is conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs). CLAT 2027 is used for admission to the five-year integrated undergraduate LL.B. programmes and the one-year LL.M. programmes of participating NLUs for the 2027-28 academic year.

CLAT is offered in two papers. CLAT UG is for Class 12 students and graduates who want a five-year integrated law degree such as BA LL.B. CLAT PG is for graduates who want to do an LL.M. You do not need to have studied law before CLAT UG. The paper tests reading, reasoning and aptitude, and the Legal Reasoning section gives you the principle in the passage itself.

CLAT UG 2027 is a 2-hour pen-and-paper test with 120 multiple-choice questions of 1 mark each, with 0.25 negative marking. The five areas are English Language, Current Affairs including General Knowledge, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Techniques. Almost every question is based on a passage, so reading speed and accuracy matter more than memory.

Applications opened on August 3, 2026 and close on October 31, 2026 at 11:59 PM. The exam is on Sunday, December 6, 2026, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, subject to revision if needed. The admit card is downloaded from your CLAT account, and the result and counselling follow in December 2026 and January 2027.

CLAT attracts more candidates every year. In CLAT 2026, 92,344 candidates registered (75,009 for UG and 17,335 for PG) and 88,657 appeared, the highest participation so far. The CLAT 2026 exam was held on December 7, 2025 and the result came out on December 16, 2025.

The CLAT score is used by 26 NLUs, and several private law colleges and institutes also accept it. IIM Rohtak's five-year Integrated Programme in Law has a CLAT-UG admission route as well. Always confirm whether a particular college accepts CLAT for your programme and admission year.

1. August 3, 2026
   Applications open

   August 3, 2026
   Over
2. October 31, 2026, 11:59 PM
   Application deadline

   October 31, 2026, 11:59 PM

   Fee and form must be completed by this time
   Over
3. To be announced
   Admit card release

   To be announced

   Exact date not announced yet
   Expected
4. December 6, 2026 (Sunday)
   CLAT 2027 exam

   December 6, 2026 (Sunday)

   2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
   NextUpcoming
5. A few days after the exam
   Provisional answer key

   A few days after the exam
   Expected
6. Shortly after the provisional key
   Answer key objection window

   Shortly after the provisional key

   Short window, fee may apply
   Expected
7. Before the result
   Final answer key

   Before the result
   Expected
8. December 2026
   Result declaration

   December 2026

   CLAT 2026 result came 9 days after its exam
   Expected
9. December 2026 / January 2027
   Counselling

   December 2026 / January 2027

   See the counselling notice
   Expected
10. To be confirmed by each NLU
    Academic session start

    To be confirmed by each NLU
    Expected

Check consortiumofnlus.ac.in for final dates. The site switches Upcoming to Over on its own for rows with an ISO date. Dates marked Expected follow earlier years and will change once announced.

CLAT 2027 registration is open. It started on August 3, 2026 and closes on October 31, 2026 at 11:59 PM. No extension had been announced at the time of writing. Check the live portal before you start or pay, as status and deadlines can change.

Registration steps

1. 1Go to consortiumofnlus.ac.in/clat-2027 and open the CLAT 2027 registration link.
2. 2Register with your own mobile number and email ID, and complete the OTP verification.
3. 3Log in and fill in your personal and academic details.
4. 4Select the programme and fill in the category and other details carefully.
5. 5Upload your photograph, signature and any certificates in the format shown on the portal.
6. 6Review every field. Programme, category and BPL details cannot be changed after you submit and pay.
7. 7Pay the fee online and complete the final submission before the deadline.
8. 8Download and save the confirmation page and the payment receipt.

CLAT 2027 Application Fee

How many candidates registered?

In CLAT 2026, 92,344 candidates registered (UG 75,009 and PG 17,335) and 88,657 appeared, an attendance of about 96%. This was the highest registration in CLAT history. The Consortium has not published official CLAT 2027 registration figures yet. See section 18 for the year-wise trend.

CLAT 2026 had the highest participation so far: 92,344 registered and 88,657 appeared across UG and PG. UG alone had 75,009 registered and 72,631 appeared, and PG had 17,335 registered and 16,026 appeared. Attendance has stayed between about 93% and 97% in recent years.

Note: These are total UG and PG figures. Figures for some years differ slightly between sources, and the Consortium has not published CLAT 2027 numbers yet.

The CLAT 2027 admit card (hall ticket) is available by logging in to your CLAT account. The exact release date will be announced on the official website, so do not rely on social media or unofficial dates. You need the admit card to enter the exam centre, and it carries your own exam centre and reporting details.

How to download

1. 1Open the official CLAT 2027 website and go to the candidate login.
2. 2Log in with your registered credentials.
3. 3Open the admit card link once it is activated.
4. 4Download the PDF and check your name, photograph, application details, exam date, reporting time and test centre.
5. 5Take a printout as instructed in the official notice and keep it safe.
6. 6If any detail is wrong, or the link does not work after the announced release, contact the help desk at once (clat@consortiumofnlus.ac.in, 080-47162020, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on working days).

CLAT UG 2027 is a 2-hour pen-and-paper test with 120 multiple-choice questions worth 120 marks. Most questions are passage-based, so you read a passage and answer several questions on it. The Consortium gives only approximate question ranges for each section, so counts can change slightly from year to year. There are no separate sectional cutoffs, and you can attempt the sections in any order. Your exact reporting time and gate closing time are printed on the admit card. CLAT is held in a single session, so there is no slot choice unless the Consortium announces one. CLAT PG is a separate paper with the same size as UG but a different syllabus. Use the pattern of the programme you applied for.

• The exam is offline. You mark answers on an OMR sheet, so follow the invigilator's instructions and mark only in the permitted area.
• Reach the centre by the reporting time on your admit card. Reporting time is not the same as the exam start time.
• Carry your admit card and a valid photo ID, and nothing that is prohibited.
• Each wrong answer costs 0.25 mark. Unanswered questions get zero, so skip when you are truly unsure.
• The maximum score is 120 (120 questions x 1 mark), but the evaluation can change if a question is withdrawn. CLAT 2026 UG was evaluated out of 119 marks.
• Read every booklet and OMR instruction before you start. Booklet sets can have a different order of questions.
• Eligible PwD candidates get extra time and approved accommodations as per the official policy. Confirm these in advance.
• The question counts per section are approximate ranges, not fixed quotas, and there is no sectional qualifying cutoff.
• Mode: Offline, pen and paper (check the current official instructions)
• Questions: 120 multiple-choice questions
• Maximum marks: 120
• Duration: 2 hours
• Marking: +1 for each correct answer and -0.25 for each wrong answer
• Content: Extracts from judgments, statutes and regulations on Constitutional Law and other areas of law

The Consortium publishes the CLAT UG syllabus by section. You do not need prior legal knowledge. The topics below are study aids based on the official section descriptions and recent papers, not a guaranteed list of questions. Rows marked Trend describe what post-exam analyses reported about CLAT 2026.

The provisional answer key is usually released a few days after the exam on the official CLAT portal, followed by an objection window and then a final answer key. Use the final key for your score estimate. The fee, deadline and rules for objections are announced each year, so follow only the official CLAT 2027 notice. For reference, the CLAT 2026 objection notice used a time-limited portal with a fee per objection, and the final key kept the UG paper at 119 evaluated marks. Do not reuse that fee or those dates for CLAT 2027. Tips for checking the key

How to challenge the answer key

1. 1Log in to the official CLAT portal when the provisional answer key is released.
2. 2Download the key for your booklet set and match question numbers carefully, as sets can differ in order.
3. 3Count your correct, wrong and unattempted answers and estimate your score with the formula in the Result section.
4. 4To challenge an answer, open the objection facility within the deadline and select the paper, set and question number.
5. 5Give a short reason with a reliable source or clear reasoning, pay the fee if asked, and save the receipt.
6. 6Check the final answer key and all later notices. An objection does not guarantee a change, and a later correction or court order takes precedence.

The CLAT 2027 result is expected in December 2026 on the Consortium of NLUs website. For reference, the CLAT 2026 exam was held on December 7, 2025 and the result was declared on December 16, 2025. The scorecard shows your score and rank, and the rank list is used for counselling. CLAT gives an All India Rank (AIR) and does not normally publish a percentile. Use this as a guide to what the CLAT 2027 result could look like.

How the score is calculated

• Score = (correct answers x 1) - (wrong answers x 0.25). Unattempted questions add zero.
• Example: 85 correct, 20 wrong and 15 unattempted gives 85 - (20 x 0.25) = 80 marks.
• If a question is withdrawn or its key changes, the evaluated marks can change. CLAT 2026 UG was evaluated out of 119 marks.
• Your All India Rank and category rank decide your place in counselling, not your percentage of marks.
• Percentage of marks (marks divided by maximum marks) is not a percentile. Do not convert your marks to a percentile with a generic online formula.
• Ties are broken by the rule in the current instructions. For UG it lists Legal Reasoning marks first, then age, then a computerised draw of lots.

How to download the scorecard

1. 1Visit the official Consortium of NLUs CLAT website once the result is declared.
2. 2Log in with your registered credentials.
3. 3Open the CLAT 2027 scorecard section and select UG or PG.
4. 4Download the PDF scorecard and save or print it.
5. 5Wait for the counselling notice for registration, fee and preference list steps.

CLAT does not publish a marks-to-rank chart or a percentile. The rank bands above are indicative ranks predicted from the unofficial CLAT 2026 answer key, so the real mapping depends on paper difficulty and how everyone scores. Post-exam analysis said about 100 to 110 good attempts with high accuracy was a strong result in CLAT 2026. Do not convert your marks to a percentile with a generic formula. Safe score zones (early CLAT 2026 estimates) These are early expected ranges from a coaching analysis after the CLAT 2026 exam, not official cutoffs.

CLAT cutoffs are ranks, not percentiles. There is no single cutoff for all NLUs. It changes with the university, category, domicile quota, seat type and counselling round. The table shows approximate General category closing ranks from the CLAT UG 2026 fifth allotment list, as reported by a third-party site. Use them as a guide for 2027 and always check the official allotment PDF. The same score can lead to a different rank in a different year.

Sectional cutoff

These are indicative numbers, not official cutoffs. Closing ranks differ by category, programme and round, and a rank that was enough last year does not guarantee a seat this year.

1. 1
   CLAT application

   Register and apply on the official Consortium portal and pay the fee.

2. 2
   Entrance test

   Appear for CLAT UG (or PG) on the exam date.

3. 3
   Result and rank list

   The Consortium publishes the result, scorecard, All India Rank and category rank.

4. 4
   Counselling registration

   Eligible candidates register for counselling and submit a preference list of NLUs, as per the rank list and each NLU's seat matrix.

5. 5
   Seat allotment rounds

   Provisional allotment lists are published in rounds. You accept, freeze, float or exit and pay the confirmation fee by the deadline.

6. 6
   Admission and verification

   The allotted NLU verifies your documents, eligibility and fees before final admission.

7. 7
   1

   Higher marks in Legal Reasoning

8. 8
   2

   Age

9. 9
   3

   Computerised draw of lots

10. 10
    Tie-break order

    When candidates have equal marks, the order in the current instructions is applied. Confirm it in the CLAT 2027 UG instructions.

11. 11
    Typical reservation framework

    This is the common framework at NLUs. Each NLU's seat matrix is final, and some NLUs governed by state laws apply it differently.

Typical selection weightage

26 NLUs admit students through CLAT. Programmes and campus offerings vary, so check each NLU's brochure for the exact BA LL.B., BBA LL.B., B.Com LL.B., B.Sc. LL.B. or LL.M. option. Some private colleges and one IIM programme also accept CLAT scores. A listing is not a guarantee that every programme accepts CLAT every year.

All 26 IIMs

• National Law School of India University (NLSIU)
  Bengaluru, Karnataka
• NALSAR University of Law
  Hyderabad, Telangana
• National Law Institute University (NLIU)
  Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
• West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS)
  Kolkata, West Bengal
• National Law University (NLU) Jodhpur
  Jodhpur, Rajasthan
• Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU)
  Raipur, Chhattisgarh
• Gujarat National Law University (GNLU)
  Gandhinagar, Gujarat
• GNLU Silvassa Campus
  Silvassa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli
• Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University (RMLNLU)
  Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
• Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law (RGNUL)
  Patiala, Punjab
• Chanakya National Law University (CNLU)
  Patna, Bihar
• National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS)
  Kochi, Kerala
• National Law University Odisha (NLUO)
  Cuttack, Odisha
• National University of Study and Research in Law (NUSRL)
  Ranchi, Jharkhand
• National Law University and Judicial Academy (NLUJA)
  Guwahati, Assam
• Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University (DSNLU)
  Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
• Tamil Nadu National Law University (TNNLU)
  Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu
• Maharashtra National Law University (MNLU) Mumbai
  Mumbai, Maharashtra
• Maharashtra National Law University (MNLU) Nagpur
  Nagpur, Maharashtra
• Maharashtra National Law University (MNLU) Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar
  Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Maharashtra
• Himachal Pradesh National Law University (HPNLU)
  Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
• Dharmashastra National Law University (DNLU)
  Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh
• Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Law University (DBRANLU)
  Sonipat, Haryana
• National Law University Tripura (NLUT)
  Agartala, Tripura
• Dr. Rajendra Prasad National Law University (RPNLUP)
  Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh
• India International University of Legal Education and Research (IIULER)
  Goa

Other top B-schools

With the exam on December 6, you are in the final stretch. Timed practice and error analysis matter more now than starting new books. Every section is passage-based, so reading speed and accuracy decide your score.

Post-exam analyses rate every CLAT paper. These labels are opinions from coaching and media analyses, not official ratings, but they show what decided the paper each year.

CLAT 2026 section-wise level

• CATCAT 2026 November 29, 2026
• JEEJEE Main 2027 22 - 30 Jan 2027 (Session 1)