NLU List & CLAT Cutoffs 2027: All 26 NLUs, Category-Wise Closing Ranks & Marks vs Rank

If you are planning your CLAT counselling, two questions decide everything: which National Law Universities can you realistically reach, and what rank or score does each one need? This page pulls both together — the full NLU list for 2027 and the CLAT cut-offs that sit behind it — so you can build a preference list grounded in real numbers rather than guesswork. We cover how cut-offs are set, category-wise and NLU-wise closing ranks, a marks-vs-rank guide, previous-year trends, the counselling rounds and vacant-seat movement, and how to estimate where your own score lands. Where a figure is not yet official for 2027, we say so plainly and use recent years as the reference.

What Is the CLAT Cut Off?

A CLAT cut off is the last rank — and the corresponding score — that secures admission to a specific NLU, in a specific category, in a specific counselling round. It is not a single number: the same exam produces a different NLU cut off for every university, every category and every round. The Consortium of NLUs does not publish a fixed "pass mark"; instead, the cut off emerges from the merit list and the seat matrix once counselling begins. So when people search for the CLAT cutoff or the NLU cut off, what they really want is the closing rank for the colleges on their shortlist. Four things move those numbers each year: the paper's difficulty, the number of candidates, the seats on offer, and each NLU's reservation and domicile policy.

For context on the exam behind these ranks, our what is the CLAT exam and CLAT exam pattern guides explain the 120-question, five-section structure that produces your score in the first place.

The Complete NLU List 2027 (Admitting Through CLAT)

For 2027, the CLAT NLU list runs to 26 National Law Universities, following the recent additions of NLU Tripura (Agartala) and NLU Meghalaya. NLU Delhi is deliberately absent — it admits only through its own AILET exam, which we cover in our CLAT vs AILET guide. The table below lists the NLUs by city; always confirm the final participating list in the official CLAT 2027 brochure, since the roster grows as new NLUs are notified.

Note: NLU Delhi is not on this list — it is reached only through AILET, not CLAT.

Marks vs Rank: How Your CLAT Score Becomes a Cut Off

Cut-offs are published as ranks, but you sit the exam for marks — so the CLAT marks vs rank relationship is what turns your score into a college. The CLAT exam total marks are 120 (one mark per question, minus 0.25 for a wrong answer), and there is no fixed CLAT passing marks threshold — your CLAT score only matters relative to everyone else's. The indicative guide below is based on recent years; treat it as a planning tool, not a promise, because the score-to-rank map shifts with paper difficulty every cycle. For the exact marking logic, see our CLAT exam pattern page.

Indicative only, based on recent CLAT cycles. A tougher paper lowers the marks needed for the same rank; an easier one raises them.

CLAT Cut Off 2026 Category-Wise (General, OBC, SC, ST, EWS)

The CLAT cut off category wise is where many aspirants misjudge their chances, because the same NLU closes at very different ranks across categories. The CLAT 2025 cut off for general candidates at the very top NLUs sat inside the top ~150 ranks, while reserved-category closing ranks at the same universities ran far deeper — OBC often several hundred to a couple of thousand, and SC/ST frequently into the thousands or tens of thousands at mid-tier NLUs. State-domicile quotas relax this further for home-state candidates. The pattern below reflects recent cycles.

Category ranges are indicative, drawn from recent CLAT cut-offs; confirm current figures in each round's official merit list.

Domicile matters too: several state NLUs reserve a large share of seats for home-state candidates, so a domicile applicant can close at a much deeper rank than the All-India figure. As a recent example, the NLSIU Bengaluru General domicile closing rank ran near AIR 380 against an All-India close of ~112 — a big advantage if you qualify. Always check each NLU's domicile policy before ordering your preferences.

NLU-Wise CLAT Cut Offs: NLSIU, NALSAR, NUJS, NLU Jodhpur & More

Below are indicative General-category closing ranks for well-known NLUs, based on the most recent CLAT cycle (final counselling round). The NLSIU Bangalore cut off is consistently the tightest in the country, while the NLU Jodhpur cut off and other established NLUs sit a little deeper but remain highly competitive. Newer NLUs show the widest spread and the most movement across rounds.

CLAT 2025 General-category ranks after round-3 counselling — a reference for planning, NOT official 2027 cut-offs. Reserved-category and state-domicile closing ranks run considerably deeper. Confirm every figure against the Consortium's official 2027 merit lists.

CLAT Expected Cut Off 2027 & Previous-Year Trends

Until the 2027 merit list is out, the best guide to the CLAT 2026 expected cut off — and the 2027 one — is the trend line. Across recent cycles the picture has been remarkably stable at the top: the top three NLUs keep closing within roughly the top ~350 ranks, and a General rank under ~100 has reliably reached NLSIU. Looking back at the clat cutoff 2025, the clat cutoff 2026, the CLAT cut off 2024 and even the CLAT 2020 cut off, the same lesson repeats: top NLUs stay tight and close early, mid-tier NLUs move more across rounds, and newer NLUs swing widely by location and seat count. One structural shift to keep in mind — the paper moved from 150 questions to the current 120 in 2024, which reset the raw-score bands even though the rank pattern held. Our CLAT cut-off trends analysis digs into how to use these trends to build a preference list.

Expected CLAT cut-off marks by NLU tier (out of 120)

Because ranks are only published after counselling, aspirants plan against expected marks. The tiered ranges below reflect recent cycles — use them to set a target score, not as a guarantee.

Indicative expected marks based on recent CLAT cycles; EWS runs close to General, PwD lower. A tougher paper lowers these; an easier one raises them.

CLAT topper (AIR-1) marks by year

The topper-score trend explains why raw marks look lower now: the paper moved from 150 to 120 questions in 2024, and difficulty has crept up. This is the honest baseline behind every "expected cut off" number.

Counselling Rounds & Allotment Lists

CLAT cut-offs are not a single event — they evolve across five rounds of seat allotment. Round 1 (the first allotment list) is the tightest, because everyone lists their dream NLUs first; from Round 2 onward, withdrawals and upgrades free up seats and closing ranks drift deeper. By the time the CLAT 4th allotment list 2026 and the final round appear, newer NLUs and state-domicile seats often open to ranks that looked impossible in Round 1. The cut off you should plan against is therefore the final-round closing rank for each NLU, not Round 1. The cycle begins once results are declared — the CLAT 2025 result date was 16 December 2025 — so the 2027 timeline will follow the same rhythm; track it on our CLAT 2027 exam date and notification page, and see the full flow in our CLAT counselling process guide.

NLU Vacant Seats: The Overlooked Upgrade Path

Every year, aspirants ask about CLAT NLU vacant seats — the seats that remain unfilled after the main rounds when candidates leave for NLU Delhi (AILET), Jindal, Symbiosis or foreign universities. These vacancies drive the later rounds and are exactly why closing ranks fall as counselling proceeds. If your rank is mid-range, do not exit early: floating your allotment keeps you eligible for upgrades as vacant seats reopen. Watching the vacant-seat movement round by round is one of the highest-leverage things a well-ranked aspirant can do.

How Many Students Appeared for CLAT?

Competition context matters when you read a cut off. Recent cycles have drawn very large fields — the answer to how many students appeared for CLAT 2025 runs to roughly 60,000–65,000 UG candidates, broadly in line with the how many students appeared for CLAT 2024 figure. Against roughly 3,500–3,700 UG seats, that scale is what keeps the top NLUs so tightly contested: a few marks can move you hundreds of ranks near the top of the list. This is also why accuracy — not raw attempts — decides your rank; our CLAT previous year papers are the best way to train for it.

CLAT Rank Predictor: Estimating Where You Land

Before the official merit list, a CLAT rank predictor helps you translate an expected score into a likely rank and, from there, a realistic NLU shortlist. A rank predictor for CLAT works from the marks-vs-rank trend of past years, so treat any CLAT rank predictor 2026-style estimate as a planning range rather than a guarantee — the true score-to-rank map is fixed only once the Consortium normalises the actual paper. The practical use is to build three preference buckets (dream, target, safety) around your predicted band, then refine them once the answer key is out.

CLAT PG Cut Off (LLM)

The CLAT PG cut off follows the same logic at the postgraduate level, for one-year LLM admission across the participating NLUs. Recent cycles saw roughly 17,000+ candidates competing for around 1,590 LLM seats, with NLSIU the tightest (General closing near the top of the list) and mid-tier NLUs opening to deeper ranks. If you are an LLB graduate targeting an LLM, read the CLAT PG cutoff the same way as UG — final-round closing rank, category-wise, per NLU — remembering that NLU Delhi again stands apart with its own AILET LLM route.

How Delhi-NCR Aspirants Should Use These Cut-Offs

Cut-offs are only useful if they change what you do. The method our mentors run with students is simple: take your expected rank, then sort every NLU you would genuinely accept into dream, target and safety bands using the closing ranks above; keep 12–15 universities on the list, not three; and never rigidly chase "top-3 only," because that is how strong ranks end up with no seat. For Delhi-NCR students specifically, remember that NLU Delhi sits outside CLAT — so if the capital is your goal, pair this CLAT plan with AILET preparation. That combined strategy is exactly what our CLAT coaching in Delhi NCR programme is built around.