CLAT 2025 exam is expected to be held on December 2025. The Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) holds the responsibility to conduct the exam. The Consortium releases and issues all information and other things necessary for the exam like admit card, answer key etc. The information released by the Consortium includes CLAT eligibility criteria, CLAT exam pattern and much more. These details are important and are disclosed to the aspirants to make them familiar with the exam. It helps the candidate to plan their studies accordingly and effectively and efficiently crack the exam.
Looking at the eligibility criteria for the exam, must be the first step of the candidate towards the CLAT exam. Only after the eligibility criteria are fulfilled can the candidate apply for the exam. Like all other details, CLAT 2025 eligibility criteria will be released by the Consortium of NLUs through the official notification on their official website. The eligibility criteria for Undergraduate and postgraduate programmes are a little different from each other. We will discuss the CLAT eligibility criteria in detail in this article.
CLAT 2025: Eligibility Criteria (Overview)
The CLAT eligibility criteria is defined in terms of the various aspects like Minimum educational qualifications, minimum qualifying marks and age limit. These three aspects are considered while laying out the CLAT eligibility criteria for UG and PG programmes.
| Criteria | CLAT Undergraduate | CLAT Post Graduate |
| Educational Qualification | 12 Standard or an equivalent examination/degree from a recognized board. | An LL.B Degree or an equivalent degree/ examination from a recognized university. |
| Qualifying Marks | 50% marks for General/OBC/NRI/PIO/OCI candidates.45% marks for SC/ST candidates | 50% marks or its equivalent grade for General/OBC/NRI/PIO/OCI candidates.45% marks or equivalent for SC/ST candidates. |
| Age Limit | NA | NA |
CLAT Eligibility: Educational Qualification and Minimum Marks
As discussed above, Consortium has laid out different eligibility criterias for CLAT UG and PG programmes. So, the eligibility criteria is as follows:
For Undergraduate Programmes
- The candidates must have obtained 45% marks in their 12th grade examination or an equivalent examination. 45% are the minimum required marks for candidates belonging to General/OBC/NRI/PIO/OCI category.
- The 12th grade or an equivalent examination is considered as the qualifying examination for the CLAT UG programmes (for all category students).
- However, there is a relaxation of 5% for the candidates belonging to SC/ST category. Their minimum qualifying marks in 12th grade or equivalent examination are 40%.
For Postgraduate Programmes
- To fulfill the eligibility criteria for CLAT PG, the candidate must hold an LLB degree or an equivalent degree.
- The candidates belonging to General/OBC/NRI/PIO/OCI category must obtain minimum 50% marks to fulfill the eligibility criteria.
- There is a relaxation of 5% in minimum marks obtained for candidates belonging to SC/ST category. They must have a minimum aggregate of 45% in their qualifying examination.
CLAT Eligibility Criteria: Age limit
Before last year, the consortium had included an criteria of age limit to the CLAT UG and PG eligibility criteria. The criteria was:
- Twenty years of age as of July 01 2025, for general/unreserved category candidates.
- Twenty-two years of age as of July 01 2025, for SC/ST/OBC/Specially-abled persons/ persons with disabilities (SAP/PWD) candidates.
However, for CLAT 2025, the consortium did not include any aspect of age and removed the upper limit to age for CLAT examination. Likewise, we are expecting that there will be no age criteria for CLAT 2025. The consortium is likely to not include age as a criteria for CLAT 2025 examination.
CLAT Eligibility Criteria: Nationality
India is home to various reputed law schools, therefore there are students from different nationalities of India who are interested in pursuing their legal studies from India. The Indian National Law Universities (NLUs) open admission for Non-Resident Indian (NRIs) and students of foreign nationality. A different category has been formed for such students. They fall under the NRI and Foreign National category. NRIs and students of foreign nationality can only avail admission to NLUs under these categories.
There is a different admission process for such students. They are expected to directly contact the university and inquire about the admission process for UG and PG programmes in law. Afterwards, the university will provide information like the eligibility, documents needed and other details of the admission process to the students.
Therefore, students of all nationalities can avail admission to Indian Law programmes at NLUS.
CLAT Score: Tie Breaker
Once the candidates have fulfilled the eligibility criteria, they can sit for the exam. At times, two or more candidates end up getting the same score. Then how do we decide who shall be given admission to the programme. The consortium has laid out three conditions to help break the tie in the score, The procedure for Tie breaking is a little for UG and PG programmes.
For Undergraduate programmes
If two or more candidates get the same CLAT UG score, then the tie in the score is broken by:
- The candidate who has obtained more marks in the legal aptitude section shall be given admission.
- If the first condition does not help, then the age of the candidates must be considered. The elder one out of them all must be provided admission.
- The last resort to break the tie is the computer based lottery system. The computerized lottery system chooses candidates at random and he/she will be granted admission to the course.
For Postgraduate programmes
CLAT score ties are dealt in the following ways in case of PG programmes:
- First criteria is age based. The older one is given admission in case of a score tie.
- If age criteria does not help, then a computerized lottery system is used as the last resort. The candidate chosen by the computer based lottery system is considered for admissions.
This is the tie-breaking mechanism opted for admissions through CLAT 2025. The candidate must be well aware of these important details to increase their chances of getting admission to participating institutions of CLAT 2025 examination. For further details on the CLAT 2025 exam.
