Consortium of National Law Universities, has commenced the activities related to the CLAT 2026-based Admissions Counselling Process at https://consortiumofnlus.ac.in/clat-2026/

All eligible candidates have been invited to participate in the Admissions Counselling Process for admissions to the five-year integrated undergraduate and one-year postgraduate programs commencing in the academic year 2026-2027 at National Law Universities participating in the Common Law Admission Test 2026 (CLAT 2026). Eligible candidates will receive an email invitation and an SMS to participate in the Admissions Counselling Process at their registered email address/registered mobile number and on their CLAT 2026 portal. Candidates must login to their CLAT account at https://consortiumofnlus.ac.in/clat-2026/ and validate that they have been invited for counselling during each round.

Registrations for the Admissions Counselling Process has been opened and will be closed at 10 pm on December 27, 2025. To register, Candidates must first Update their NLU Preferences after logging to their CLAT account by clicking the ‘Update NLU Preferences’ button. Candidates should provide a minimum of 15 preferences for UG and minimum of 5 preferences for PG. Candidates will be considered only for those NLUs for which they have provided the preference. Candidates can update the preferences any number of times, until the closure of the counselling registration. Candidates can only move up to the higher preferences and cannot go down in the preferences given.

In step 2, candidates should pay counselling registration fees online by 10 pm on December 27, 2025, through the ‘Make Payment’ button. The fee is Rs. 30,000/- for candidates from the General Category and Rs. 20,000/- for candidates from the ST/SC/OBC/BC/EWS/PWD categories. ‘Payment Successful’ message will be displayed after the payment is successful.

The Counselling Registration Fee for the admissions counselling process is refundable subject to the specified conditions.

There will be five rounds of admissions counselling. The first 3 rounds will be in January/February 2026. The fourth and fifth rounds will be conducted in May 2026 to fill up the seats based on the vacancies that remain vacant after April 24, 2026. After the fifth round of the admissions counselling process, the admission process of the Consortium will be closed. Member NLUs, however, may thereafter, admit candidates to fill remaining vacant seats, if any, by following their prescribed norms

A candidate who has been allotted a seat at any NLU may exercise any of the ‘Freeze,’ ‘Float,’ or ‘Exit’ options in a counselling round.

Freeze option: If the candidate is satisfied with the allotted seat, accepts it, and is not interested in participating in further rounds of seat allocation/counselling, the candidate may ‘Freeze’ the seat allocation. Candidate must pay the non-refundable Confirmation Fee within the stipulated time. A candidate who selects the Freeze Option in the First or Second or Third round of counselling must pay the remaining University Fee (after adjusting the Counselling Registration Fee and Confirmation Fee) to the NLU concerned by April 24, 2026. In order to ‘Freeze’ their seat in the Fourth or Fifth round of the Admissions Counselling Process, the candidate must pay the Confirmation Fee within the stipulated time in the Admissions Counselling as mentioned in the Admission Calendar.

Float option: If the candidate has not been allotted first preference NLU and chooses to leave ‘open’ the possibility of getting a higher preference NLU seat, candidate may choose the ‘Float’ Option. To exercise the Float Option in the First or Second or Third or Fourth round of counselling, the candidate must pay the non-refundable Confirmation Fee within the time stipulated. Under the Float Option, the candidate may hold the seat allotted to them, and if they are allotted a higher preference NLU seat in a subsequent counselling round, they shall move to that more preferred NLU and cannot go back to the previous allotted NLU. A candidate who has chosen the Float Option must, at the end of the Fifth round, opt either to ‘Freeze’ the allocated seat or ‘Exit’ the Admissions Counselling Process. Candidates who have opted for ‘Freeze’ option must pay the Confirmation Fee within the time stipulated. If a candidate is allocated a seat of highest NLU as per his list of preferences, he/she shall either ‘Freeze’ that seat, or ‘Exit’ the Admissions Counselling Process within that round of counselling. The ‘Float’ option shall not be available to migrate to a seat lower in preference in the candidate’s preference list. The ‘Float’ option will be available till the Fourth round of counselling and ‘Float’ option shall not be available for the Fifth and final round of counselling and the allotted seat in the Fifth & final round shall be considered as final. At this point, candidates will have to choose to either to “Freeze” or “Exit” the Admissions Counselling Process.

Exit option: If at any time after completing the Registration Process, a candidate does not want to participate in the Counselling Process, they may choose to ‘Exit’ the Admissions Counselling Process. If a candidate has chosen a Float or Freeze Option prior to the Exit option, the seat allocated to them will be reallocated to some other candidate and the Confirmation Fee will be forfeited. No candidate will be allotted a seat after choosing the Exit option.

Rules related to the Refund of the Counselling Registration Fee are given in the ‘Instructions for the admissions counselling process’ at the website. Schedule of various activities is also given in the Notification.