How is NLU Delhi different from other National Law Universities?

How is NLU Delhi different from other National Law Universities?

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Anupama
Anupama Mehra
Assistant Manager – Content
Updated on Jun 17, 2024 14:40 IST
National Law University, Delhi is not a part of CLAT Consortium unlike other 24 NLUs in India. Read here what makes NLU Delhi different than other NLUs and more.
NLU Delhi vs National Law Universities in India

National Law University, (NLU) Delhi, included among one of the most prestigious law universities in India. Apart from NLU Delhi, there are 24 National Law Universities (NLUs) in India. NLU Delhi offers law courses i.e. five-year Intergrated BA LLB (Hons.) course at the undergraduate level, One-year LLM course at the postgraduate level, and PhD courses at the doctorate level. For admission to the law courses, NLU Delhi conducts its own law entrance exam known as the All India Law Entrance Test (AILET), thus making it the only law school in India that does not accept the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT). Read here in detail about what makes NLU Delhi different than other NLUs in India and, why it does not accept CLAT scores. 

How is NLU Delhi different from other National Law Universities?

Even though NLU Delhi is a National Law University but it is not a part of the Consortium of NLUs, which raises the obvious question 'how is it different than other NLUs?. All the NLUs in India have been granted the status by the University Grants Commission (UGC). Thus, there is no major difference in the courses offered at NLU Delhi as compared to the other National Law Universities. Moreover, NLU Delhi is built on the five-year integrated law degree model as proposed and implemented by the Bar Council of India (BCI)

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Every year, the National Institute of Ranking Framework (NIRF) publishes Law Ranking and NLU Delhi features among the top law schools in India. In 2023, it was ranked among the top 2 law universities i.e. at second position after National Law School of India University, Bangalore with 1st rank and, was followed by National Academy of Legal Study & Research (NALSAR) University of Law, Hyderabad at 3rd rank.

Q:   After CLAT, which college is the best?

A:

Among the top NLUs that take CLAT scores into account are NLIU Bhopal, NLSIU Bengaluru, and NALSAR Hyderabad. In addition to NLUs, a large number of privately funded law schools also accept CLAT results for admission.  This means if you manage to secure even a decent rank or marks in the CLAT exam, you have a chance of getting admission to one of these colleges. Even among the participating NLUs, there is great diversity as far as seat intake and reservation criteria are concerned. Only recently,  RGNUL has updated its seat matrix and introduced the EWS category for UG and PG. Further, a New category – Backward Category of Punjab has been added for UG. 

Q:   Is AILET tougher than CLAT?

A:
CLAT offers a total of 2200 seats and almost 80,000 people take the exam in a year. Whereas AILET offers about 110 seats and almost 20,000 people take the exam. If we go by Statistics you have a better chance at cracking CLAT than AILET. Moreover, the recent trend has shown that AILET has more questions on static GK than Current Affairs unlike CLAT. If a comparative analysis is drawn between the two exams, it is observed that AILET asks trickier and more technical questions than CLAT.

Q:   How CLAT Rank and CLAT Score 2025 are related?

A:

Candidates must note that all participating institutes in CLAT will release a separate category-specific cutoffs for every course they offer. The CLAT Cutoff 2025 mentions the ranks of the candidates who are eligible for admission to the college. However, it does not releases the marks scored by the candidates. But, the higher the score, the better is the rank. 

CLAT cut-off 2025 will depend on various factors such as the total number of candidates, seat intake, the difficulty level of the exam, the category of the aspirant, and the performance of the candidate. In case the difficulty level of the exam is high then the cut-off marks and score are expected to go down 

Also read: 

NLU Delhi Admission News 2024

When & Why was NLU Delhi established?

NLU Delhi was established in 2008 by Act No 1 of 2008 of NCT Delhi in the National Capital Territory of Delhi with the initiative of the High Court of Delhi under the leadership of Prof (Dr) Ranbir Singh (also the Founder-Director/Vice-Chancellor of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad). The first batch by NLU Delhi was admitted in 2008.

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NLU Delhi was established in order to offer comprehensive and interdisciplinary legal education that is socially relevant. Along same lines, the official website of the law school informs: “The University works toward the dissemination of legal knowledge and its role in national development so that the ability to analyse and present contemporary issues of public concern and their legal implications for the benefit of the public is improved. These processes strive to promote legal awareness in the community and to achieve political, social and economic justice”.

Why NLU Delhi conducts a separate entrance exam?

Out of the 25 NLUs in India, NLU Delhi is the only one to conduct its own separate entrance test. Why does this happen? Elaborating on the same Shiksha’s Expert Vivek Subramanium said, “Almost all law entrance exams are conducted at around the same time, i.e., April to June. With the emergence of other law schools, which also sought to conduct their admission tests, students faced a hard time preparing for them. From time to time this issue to conduct a common entrance exam to reduce the burden of students to give multiple tests was raised, but given the autonomous status of each law school, there was no nodal agency to co-ordinate action to this regard”. He further informed that the matter drew national attention when a Public Interest Litigation was filed by Varun Bhagat against the Union of India and various National Law Universities in the Supreme Court of India in 2006. The Chief Justice of India directed the Union of India to consult with the National Law Universities to formulate a common test. The move was strongly supported by the Bar Council of India, but NLU Delhi stood its ground and continued conducting its own entrance exam.

Q:   What are the difference between CLAT and AILET?

A:

The key differences between CLAT and AILET are the following:

Colleges Accepting Scores:

  • CLAT: Accepted by 22 National Law Universities (NLUs) and 65 other participating institutions across India for undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) law programmes.
  • AILET: Only accepted by National Law University Delhi (NLU Delhi) for its UG and PG law programs. NLU Meghalaya conducts its own separate entrance exam.

Exam Pattern and Syllabus:

CLAT:

  • 5 sections: Legal reasoning, Logical reasoning, Quantitative techniques, English language comprehension, and Current affairs with General Knowledge.
  • Objective type Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) for both UG and PG exams.

AILET:

  • 3 sections: Legal reasoning, Legal aptitude, and English language.
  • Objective type MCQs for the UG exam, while the PG exam has both MCQs and descriptive questions.
  • No Quantitative techniques section unlike CLAT.
  • General Knowledge (GK) questions are asked in statement-based format compared to the passage-based format in CLAT.

Difficulty Level:

  • CLAT: Generally considered slightly easier due to a more predictable pattern and syllabus.
  • AILET: Often perceived as more challenging due to its unpredictable nature and the inclusion of descriptive questions in the PG exam.

Other Factors:

  • Exam Dates: CLAT and AILET are typically conducted on separate dates, usually in May and June respectively.
  • Application Process: Both exams have separate application processes through their respective websites.

Q:   Which one is better: CLAT or AILET?

A:

AILET and CLAT both are the two most sought-after law entrance exams of the country. AILET stands for All India Law Entrance Test and CLAT stands for Common Law Admission Test. While both tests serve the law aspirants, there are a few factors that make them different from each other. I think CLAT is way ahead in comparison to AILET. CLAT offers admission to 22 National Universities that participate in this test. On the other hand, AILET has just one participating institute, and that is the National Law University (NLU), Delhi. On the basis of level of competition, in CLAT, more than 50,000 students appear for nearly 4000 seats in all the national law  universities under it. This means that the success rate in CLAT revolves around 6%. On the other hand, AILET has 110 seats under it (for all the courses combined), and more than 20,000 students appear for this test. Which means the success rate is around 0.006%. This clearly indicates that the level of competition is huge for AILET. So, if you are appearing for both the exams, you are 1000 times more likely to get a seat under CLAT when compared to AILET.

Q:   Is AILET tougher than CLAT?

A:
Yes, the difficulty level of AILET is usually higher than CLAT as the competition is five times more for the limited seats of B.A. LL.B. And LL. M. courses available at NLU Delhi. Moreover, the exam pattern of AILET is also different than CLAT exam pattern. The cutoff marks are also higher for AILET conducted by NLU Delhi. CLAT cutoff marks vary every year but are moderate as there are 23 participating National Law Universities. Therefore, candidates can assume that AILET is tougher than CLAT exam.

Q:   How is NLU Delhi different from other National Law Universities?

A:

Even though NLU Delhi is a National Law University but it is not a part of the Consortium of NLUs, which raises the obvious question 'how is it different than other NLUs? . All the NLUs in India have been granted the status by the University Grants Commission (UGC). Thus, there is no major difference in the courses offered at NLU Delhi as compared to the other National Law Universities. Moreover, NLU Delhi is built on the five-year integrated law degree model as proposed and implemented by the Bar Council of India (BCI)

Q:   What is the difference between CLAT scorecard and CLAT merit list?

A:

Candidates must note that all participating institutes in CLAT will release a separate category-specific cutoffs for every course they offer. The CLAT Cutoff 2025 mentions the ranks of the candidates who are eligible for admission to the college. However, it does not releases the marks scored by the candidates. But, the higher the score, the better is the rank. 

CLAT cut-off 2025 will depend on various factors such as the total number of candidates, seat intake, the difficulty level of the exam, the category of the aspirant, and the performance of the candidate. In case the difficulty level of the exam is high then the cut-off marks and score are expected to go down. 

The instant question that comes to mind is – Why is NLU Delhi doing it differently from the rest of the NLUs? This was answered by NLU Delhi’s Founder Vice-Chancellor, Ranbir Singh in 2011 when he told a leading newspaper, “AILET was created in 2008 by NLU Delhi separately from the CLAT, which is the unified entrance exam to national law universities and others. The reason behind it was the poor administration of CLAT and the motivation to select students for whom NLU Delhi was not a lower preference”.

Read More:

List of National Law Universities in India - Ranking, Admission Procedure

About the Author
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Anupama Mehra
Assistant Manager – Content

"The pen is mightier than the sword". Anupama totally believes in this and respects what she conveys through it. She is a vivid writer, who loves to write about education, lifestyle, and governance. She is a hardcor... Read Full Bio