Law Entrance Exams in India: CLAT, AILET, SLAT & More Compared
India's law entrance landscape runs from the 26-NLU CLAT circuit to NLU Delhi's standalone AILET, Symbiosis's SLAT, and state-level CETs. This category breaks down which exam matches your target institutions, eligibility, and timeline.
Law Entrance
What Law Entrance Exams Actually Cover
There is no single "law entrance exam" in India — there's a cluster of them, each tied to a specific set of institutions rather than to the legal profession as a whole. Passing one doesn't automatically open the door to schools that require another. CLAT gets you into the Consortium's National Law Universities. AILET gets you into exactly one institution, NLU Delhi, and nowhere else. SLAT is the gate for Symbiosis's law schools specifically. State CETs like MH CET Law serve government and private colleges within that state's quota system.
What they share is the skill set they test: legal reasoning (applying a stated rule to a fact pattern, not reciting statutes from memory), reading comprehension under time pressure, current affairs with a legal or constitutional slant, and — in CLAT's case — basic quantitative aptitude. None of these exams expect prior legal education. They're built for 10+2 students, which is why "aptitude" rather than "knowledge" dominates the syllabus.
How the Exams in Law Entrance Category Relate to Each Other
Exam | Conducted By | Admits To | Format | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
CLAT (UG) | Consortium of National Law Universities | 26 NLUs, roughly 3,520 UG seats | 120 MCQs, 2 hours, offline OMR, −0.25 negative marking | Entry-level, the widest reach |
CLAT (PG) | Consortium of National Law Universities | LLM seats at the same 26 NLUs | 120 MCQs, all objective since the 2024 syllabus revision | Postgraduate |
AILET | NLU Delhi | NLU Delhi only, around 110 UG seats | 150 MCQs, 2 hours, offline OMR | Entry-level, single institution, steepest seat-to-applicant ratio |
SLAT | Symbiosis International (Deemed University) | Symbiosis Law Schools — Pune, Noida, Nagpur, Hyderabad | 60 MCQs, 60 minutes, computer-based, no negative marking; a personal interview carries roughly 30% of the final weight | Entry-level, private-university track |
MH CET Law | Maharashtra CET Cell | Government and private law colleges within Maharashtra's admission quota | State-conducted CET; format and dates set annually by the CET Cell | Entry-level, state-specific |
Other state CETs (TS LAWCET and similar) | Respective state authorities | State-quota law colleges | Varies by state | Entry-level, state-specific |
State judiciary entrance exams (PCS-J and equivalents) | State Public Service Commissions / High Courts | Civil Judge posts | Written papers plus interview; open only to LLB holders | Not a school-entrance exam — a recruitment exam taken after a law degree |
Two things worth being direct about. First, LSAT India — long listed alongside CLAT and AILET on comparison pages — was permanently discontinued by the Law School Admission Council starting with the 2025 admission cycle. It is not running in 2026 or 2027, and there's no announced replacement from LSAC. Colleges that used to accept it, including O.P. Jindal Global Law School, have moved to their own tests (JGLS now uses LNAT UK for its five-year programme and an in-house JSAT Law test for others). Any page or forum post still describing LSAT India registration dates is out of date. Second, judiciary exams get grouped with "law entrance" a lot, but they sit in a different category entirely — they're civil-service recruitment exams for people who already hold an LLB, not a route into law school.
Who Should Start Where
Aiming for a top-tier NLU straight after Class 12: CLAT UG is the primary target. Because CLAT and AILET share roughly 80% of their syllabus, most serious NLU aspirants prepare for both and sit both exams — they're usually scheduled about a week apart in early-to-mid December.
Want NLU Delhi specifically: AILET is the only route in — NLU Delhi does not accept CLAT scores at all, and vice versa.
Prefer a private-university law school with a lower first-attempt barrier: SLAT (Symbiosis) is the common alternative, with an interview component that rewards candidates who interview well, not just those who test well.
Maharashtra domicile, or targeting Maharashtra colleges specifically: MH CET Law, which runs its own state quota system separate from the national exams.
Already hold an LLB and want a masters at an NLU: CLAT PG, not CLAT UG.
Already hold an LLB and want to become a judge: a state judiciary exam (PCS-J or your state's equivalent) — an entirely separate preparation track from anything above, built around substantive law rather than aptitude.
How Law Schools and Employers Actually View These Exams
This varies more than aspirants are usually told, and it's worth saying plainly rather than overselling. Among the NLUs, brand recognition is uneven — NLSIU Bangalore, NALSAR Hyderabad, and NLU Delhi carry the strongest pull with top litigation chambers, corporate law firms, and judicial clerkships, while newer NLUs in the 26-university consortium are still building that reputation. A CLAT rank doesn't guarantee a firm's attention; the specific NLU you land at does more of that work. Private law schools reached through SLAT or state CETs vary even more widely by institution — some, like Symbiosis Pune, place students competitively with mid-tier NLUs, while lesser-known private colleges are viewed mainly on the strength of the individual student's record, rather than the entrance test they cleared to get there. For students exploring Programming alongside legal education, the value of developing relevant technical skills can also depend on the institution and the student's individual academic and professional profile.
Typical Career Paths Law Entrance Category Supports
Litigation and chamber practice, corporate/transactional law at law firms, in-house legal and compliance roles, the judiciary (via a separate post-LLB exam), legal policy and research roles, legal journalism, and academia. Which path is depends far more on the specific law school and how a student uses their five years there — moot court, internships, journal work — than on which entrance exam got them admitted.
What's Changing Right Now
The CLAT Consortium grew to 26 NLUs for the 2027 admission cycle with the addition of NLU Tripura and NLU Meghalaya, pushing total UG seats to roughly 3,520. CLAT PG has now fully dropped its old subjective-answer component in favor of an all-MCQ format, a change first introduced in 2024 and continuing unchanged. The Consortium also announced a fee-waiver window in April 2026 for SC/ST/PwD applicants from northeastern states who miss the standard deadline. Separately — and this is the bigger structural shift — the disappearance of LSAT India has pushed a meaningful slice of private-law-school aspirants toward SLAT, state CETs, or institution-specific tests that didn't previously have to absorb that demand.