CLAT 2025: First Merit List (Delayed), NLUs cutoff, Seat Matrix, Process

Common Law Admission Test 2025 ( CLAT )

DeskCalelnderCounselling - To be notified

This exam is conducted for courses given below:
Anupama Mehra
Updated on Jan 22, 2025 09:29 IST

By Anupama Mehra, Assistant Manager – Content

The Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) did not release the CLAT 2025 First Merit List on December 26, 2024. In an official notification, the Consortium has announced that the CLAT 2025 Counselling Process has been delayed. The Consortium further said that "the single bench of Hon’ble Delhi High Court had issued an order directing the Consortium to revisit the Merit List published on December 7, 2024. In response, we filed an appeal in division bench of Delhi HC, however division bench didn’t intervene the single judge bench order. We are approaching the SC for appropriate relief against this order at the earliest available date due to vacation."

The CLAT 2025 Counselling Registration was closed on December 20, 2024 (10 pm). The consortium announced the CLAT Result and CLAT Final Answer Key PDF on December 7. CLAT Exam was conducted on December 1.  For comprehensive information about CLAT, including CLAT 2025 dates, answer key, results, CLAT cut-offs, and more, continue reading below.

Get all the latest news and updates about CLAT 2025 here.

Also Read:

Q:   Will CLAT be held twice in 2026?

A: 

In 2022, CLAT exam was held twice, I. e. on June 19 as CLAT 2022, and on December 18, 2022 as CLAT 2023. However, from 2024 onwards, CLAT exam is to be conducted once in a year only, as confirmed by the exam officials in the latest notification. Earlier, CLAT exam was conducted in May or June, but from 2024 onwards the entrance exam will be conducted in December (of preceding year to the admission year) itself for concluding admissions on time. Therefore, CLAT counselling process will be completed by May of each academic year.

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Q:   When will the CLAT counselling 2025 begin?

A: 

CLAT 2025 Counselling Registration is now over. Candidates could complete CLAT 2025 Counselling Registration until December 20, 2024 (10 pm). The Consortium will release the CLAT first allotment list 2025 on December 26, 2024. Candidates could register for counselling before the deadline. The consortium has also published the dates for announcement of merit list of various rounds. CLAT 2025 Counselling will be conducted in five rounds.  Know more about it here - https://www.shiksha.com/law/clat-exam-counselling.

 
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Q:   When will the results of CLAT 2025 be declared?

A: 

The CLAT 2025 results has been released. The NLU Consortium released the CLAT Counselling Schedule 2024 along with the CLAT Result. CLAT Counselling Registration Process 2025 will be done and only those candidates who register will be allowed to appear in CLAT 2025 Counselling. CLAT Exam 2025 was held in offline pen-paper-based mode. CLAT 2025 exam was conducted in more than 141 exam centers in India. Candidates need to secure a good rank in CLAT Exam 2025 to get admission into top NLUs.

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Q:   In what mode will the CLAT 2025 counselling be conducted?

A: 

The counselling process of CLAT 2025 is a centralised seat allotment process for all the participating National Law Universities (NLUs). Therefore, the counselling is a standardized process as under: Step 1: Candidates who appeared for CLAT 2025 and secured above minimum cutoff marks, will be required to register for the centralized counselling process once the CLAT Consortium opens the window. Step 2: For registration, candidates will be required to login into their account, and fill their preferences and upload their documents and get it verified. Step 3: The counselling authority publishes a merit list for each round with the seat allotment results, and candidates who are listed can reserve/ secure their seat by completing admission formalities such as 'Freeze' and pay the admission fee as per their category. Step 4: Candidates who do like their seat allotment can apply for upgrade by selecting float option. And those who wish to exit the counselling process, can do so by selecting exit option. Step 5: Candidates who successfully secure the seat will be issued provisional admission letter and schedule for joining the college.

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Q:   What are Freeze, Float and Exit options in CLAT 2025 counselling?

A: 

During CLAT counselling, candidates will be provided the option to choose from three options; i.e. freeze, float and exit. Candidates can understand all options below:

Freeze Option: In case a candidate is happy with the seat alloted to him/her then they can freeze it. With this they won't be allowed to appear in the further rounds of counselling. If a candidate freezes the seat, it means that the candidate is confirming their seat at the allotted National Law University (NLU).

Float Option: If a candidate is not happy with the seat allotted to them and wants to pariticpate in further rounds of counselling they can select the float option. This option mean that candidate is accepting the seat allotted to them but is willing to pariticpate in further rouns of counselling for a better college. Candidate must note that in case they choose the float option and is allotted a seat in the next round then the seat allotted in the previous round will be forfeited.

Exit Option: During the counselling process, if a candidate feels that they don't want to pariticipate further, then they may choose an option to exit. If they choose this option, it means that they are withdrawing from the counselling process and they will not be considered for further round of counselling. 

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CLAT Logo

What is CLAT Exam?

The Common Law Admission Test, known as CLAT, is a national-level law entrance exam conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs). It facilitates admission to 5-year integrated LLB (UG) and one-year LLM (PG) courses. The exam is held for admission to 24 NLUs for UG courses and 21 NLUs for PG courses. Conducted in an offline, pen-and-paper format, the CLAT exam 2025 for UG courses will include sections on English, Current Affairs and General Knowledge, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning, and Quantitative Techniques. For PG courses, the exam covers Constitutional Law and other legal subjects such as Jurisprudence, Torts, IPC, CrPC, CPC, Family Law, and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

Based on CLAT scores, the admissions are offered by NLUs. Apart from the NLUs in India:

  1. 61 other private affiliate colleges accept CLAT exam scores. Check here complete list.
  2. Some public organizations such as ONGC and BHEL use CLAT-PG scores for recruitment. 

Also Read: How to clear CLAT 2025 in first attempt?

What is new in CLAT 2025?

Candidates can check the important notification related to CLAT 2025 below:

CLAT 2025 Counselling Delayed

CLAT 2025 Counselling Registration BEGINS!

 

CLAT Result OUT!

CLAT 2025 Exam Calendar OUT!

 

 

Also Read: CLAT UG Vs CLAT PG

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CLAT 2025 Highlights

CLAT is conducted for admissions to law courses offered by 24 NLUs in India. Therefore, candidates must know the key elements of the exam as given in the table below:

Features Ongoing
Name of the exam  Common-Law Admission Test
Popularly known as  CLAT
Conducting body The Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) 
CLAT Exam Date 01-Dec-2024
Exam mode Pen-and-paper exam
Exam duration Two hours
Number of seats

For UG courses - 3, 213 and for PG courses - 1,217 (Not including sponsored, supernumerary, NRI, and extra seats.)

To read more about CLAT score accepting institutes - Click Here

Accepting colleges
24 participating NLUs, and 61 private law colleges
Top-ranked participating NLU
Here are top-ranking participating NLUs as per NIRF Ranking 2023
  • NLSIU Bengaluru - Rank 1
  • NALSAR - Rank 3
  • WBNUJS Kolkata - Rank 4
Exam helpdesk number  08047162020
Official website https://clatconsortiumofnlu.ac.in/ 

CLAT is one of the most important law entrance exams in the country and is the most difficult to crack. More than 1 lakh candidates are expected to appear for the CLAT exam this year. 97.03% of the candidates registered for the CLAT 2024 Undergraduate test, and 93.92% of the candidates registered for the CLAT 2024 Postgraduate test appeared in the exam.

Also Read:

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CLAT 2025 Counselling

DeskCalendarCounselling: To be notified

CLAT 2025 First Merit List Date has not been announced yet. Earlier, the Consortium was suppose to release the CLAT First Merit List on December 26, 2024. The counselling process of CLAT 2025 will be conducted in online mode on the official website of Consortium of NLUs; i.e. consortiumofnlus.ac. CLAT Counselling Registration 2025 is now over. Candidates could complete CLAT 2025 Counselling Registration until December 20, 2024. Candidates who will be shortlisted for CLAT 2025 admission process will be asked to exercise their options to accept, revise or withdraw from the seat allotment process before the last date. Those accepting or applying for seat upgrades will be asked to pay the confirmation fee to hold the seat. The admission process for CLAT 2025 will conclude with five rounds of the counselling process. 

Also Read: CLAT Rank Predictor 2025: Calculate your CLAT 2025 Rank List Here

CLAT counselling process is completely online including, registration, publishing of the merit list, and then seat allotment as per the preferences marked by candidates. Candidates can accept or upgrade or exit from their allotted seat in any round of counselling. Once their choice of seat is allotted then they can complete their admission by paying the counselling and admission fee as required. 

Documents Required for CLAT Counselling 2025

Listed below are the documents that were required to verify the eligibility of candidates for final admission:

UG candidates:

  1. Class 10 Marksheet (as a Date of Birth proof document)

  2. Class 12 Marksheet (qualifying examination proof)

  3. CLAT 2025 Admit Card

  4. Character Certificate/Conduct Certificate
  5. Transfer/Migration Certificate
  6. Caste Certificate (If applicable)
  7. Specially-Abled Certificate (If applicable)
  8. Domicile Certificate (If applicable)
  9. Any other supporting document to claim your seat if applied under a category such as Wards of Serving/Retired Defence Personnel, EWS, Sons/daughters of Ex-servicemen/Defence service personnel etc.

PG candidates:

  1. Class 10 Marksheet 

  2. Class 12 Marksheet 

  3. CLAT PG 2025 Admit Card

  4. LLB Marksheet
  5. Character Certificate/Conduct Certificate
  6. Transfer/Migration Certificate
  7. Caste Certificate (If applicable)
  8. Specially-Abled Certificate (If applicable)
  9. Domicile Certificate (If applicable)
  10. Any other supporting document to claim your seat if applied under a category such as Wards of Serving/Retired Defence Personnel, EWS, Sons/daughters of Ex-servicemen/Defence service personnel etc.

CLAT Counselling Fee Refund

The CLAT counselling fee of INR 50,000 paid at the time of registration is refundable. However, candidates should keep in mind the below points:

  • The fee will be fully refunded if candidates withdraw their seat before the last date
  • A deduction of INR 10,000 to the total counselling fee will be done if candidates withdraw their seat after the last date
  • If candidates are found ineligible during document verification then their admission will be cancelled. Such candidates will get refund INR 40,000 after deduction of processing charges. 

CLAT Colleges and Seat Intake 2025

All the National Law Universities (NLUs) in India (except   NLU Delhi) accept  CLAT 2025 scores of candidates for admission to five-year integrated LLB courses and LLM courses. Check out the list of courses offered through CLAT exam along with the total seat intake at the 23 participating NLUs:
CLAT Courses Total Seat Intake at NLUs

BA LLB (Hons) (Bachelor of Arts LLB Honours)

3,213 seats 

BSc LLB (Hons) (Bachelor of Science LLB Honours)

BCom LLB (Hons) (Bachelor of Commerce LLB Honours)

BBA LLB (Hons) (Bachelor of Business Administration LLB Honours)

BSW LLB (Bachelor of Social Work LLB Honours)

LLM (Master of Laws)

1, 217 seats 

CLAT Participating NLUs 2025

Every year, 24 NLUs participate in the counselling and seat allotment process of CLAT exam for UG and PG course admission. Here's the list of NLUs for CLAT exam:

CLAT participating National Law Universities (NLUs)

National Law School of India University, Bangalore 

National Academy of Legal Study & Research (NALSAR) University of Law, Hyderabad

The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata

National Law Institute University, Bhopal

National Law University, Jodhpur

Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur

Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar

Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow

Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala

Chanakya National Law University Patna

National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi

National Law University Odisha, Cuttack

National University of Study & Research in Law, Ranchi

National Law University & Judicial Academy, Assam

Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University (DSNLU) Visakhapatnam

The Tamil Nadu National Law School, Tiruchirapalli

Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai

Maharashtra National Law University, Nagpur

Maharashtra National Law University, Aurangabad

Himachal Pradesh National Law University, Shimla

Dharmashastra National Law University, Jabalpur

Dr B R Ambedkar National Law University Sonipat, Haryana

NLU Silvassa (w.e.f from 2023 session)

NLU Tripura (w.e.f 2024 academic session)

CLAT Counselling 2025 Important Dates

The schedule for CLAT 2025 counselling dates is as per the table below:

Event

Dates

CLAT exam day 2025

01-Dec-2024

Official CLAT answer key 

02-Dec-2024

Release of CLAT final answer key

07-Dec-2024

Declaration of CLAT result 2025

07-Dec-2024

CLAT 2025 Counselling Registration (Begins)

09-Dec-2024

CLAT 2025 Counselling Registration (Ends)

20-Dec-2024

CLAT First Allotment List 2025

26-Dec-2024 (10 am)

CLAT Second Allotment List 2025

10-Jan-2025

CLAT Third Allotment List 2025

24-Jan-2025

Publication of Fourth Allotment List

20-May-2025

Publication of Fifth and Final Allotment List 

24-May-2025

  Read More:

List of NLUs in India

NLUs Fee Structure

CLAT 2025 Helpdesk

Official Address Official Phone Number Official E-mail ID
CLAT Consortium of NLU
PO Bag 7201, Nagarbhavi,
Bangalore - 560 072
Karnnataka, India

08047162020

clat@consortiumofnlus.ac.in

 

Download Important Dates for Law Exams

167 Institutes accepting CLAT

  • 13.45 Lakh
  • 5 years
  • |
  • Full Time

Nalsar University of Law

Tilak Road, Hyderabad Public

Nalsar Uni
  • 7.75 Lakh
  • 5 years
  • |
  • Full Time
  • 3.66 Lakh
  • 5 years
  • |
  • Full Time
  • 6.00 Lakh
  • 5 years
  • |
  • Full Time

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