When Is CLAT Exam 2026? CLAT 2026 Date and the Next CLAT on 6 December 2026

Key takeaways

• CLAT is named after the admission year, not the exam year, so CLAT 2026 happened in December 2025.

• The next CLAT exam date is 6 December 2026 (CLAT 2027), for both UG and PG.

• CLAT is held once a year, in December, in the 2 PM to 4 PM slot.

• AILET 2027 follows one week later, on 13 December 2026.

• CLAT 2028 is expected in the first half of December 2027. It is not announced yet.

When is CLAT exam 2026? Which exam you actually mean

Most confusion around the CLAT date comes from the year in the exam's name. Every CLAT is named after the year in which you take admission. The exam itself is held in the December before that. So when someone types "when is CLAT exam 2026", they usually mean one of two different exams. The table below sorts out what each common search really refers to.

If you are in Class 12 right now, or you are taking a gap year after Class 12, the exam you are preparing for is CLAT 2027. That makes 6 December 2026 the only date that matters to you this year.

Why CLAT's name is a year ahead of its exam date

If you are new to the exam itself, start with what is CLAT exam and come back here for the dates. The Consortium of National Law Universities conducts one CLAT per admission cycle. The cycle is labelled by the academic session the exam feeds into. Results arrive in December, and counselling runs from late December into the following summer. Students then join their NLU in July or August of the named year. That is why CLAT 2026 was written in December 2025, and why CLAT 2027 will be written in December 2026.

So, CLAT ka exam kab hota hai? The simple answer is once a year, in December, on a Sunday afternoon. Students searching in Hindi often ask "CLAT exam kab hoga 2027". The answer is 6 December 2026.

CLAT 2027 exam date and full schedule: the CLAT exam in 2026

The Consortium announced CLAT 2027 in its July 2026 notification; our CLAT exam date 2027 notification page breaks down what that notice says. The CLAT 2027 exam date is Sunday, 6 December 2026, so the CLAT exam date 2027 aspirants need to plan around falls in December of this calendar year. The table below shows every stage of the cycle with its current status as of 3 October 2026. Dates marked tentative follow the pattern of the last cycle and will be confirmed by the Consortium.

CLAT exam timing: date and time on exam day

The CLAT exam date and time follow the same pattern every year. The paper is held in a single shift from 2 PM to 4 PM. Report to your centre well before the start; the exact reporting time is printed on the admit card. Eligible PwD candidates get compensatory time as stated in the notification. In recent cycles this has meant a 40-minute extension. Carry a printed admit card, a valid photo ID and a blue or black ballpoint pen. Mobile phones, smartwatches and calculators are not allowed inside the hall.

CLAT 2027 date vs registration last date

Many students remember the exam date and forget the deadline in front of it. According to the Consortium's UG instructions, the CLAT 2027 form must be submitted and paid by 31 October 2026, 11:59 PM. The application fee is ₹4,000 for General and OBC candidates and ₹3,500 for SC, ST, BPL and PwD candidates. Previous years' question papers cost an extra ₹500 if you choose them. The fee is non-refundable, and incomplete forms are not considered. Apply on the official site, consortiumofnlus.ac.in, and save your confirmation page. Our step-by-step CLAT 2027 registration guide walks through each screen of the form.

CLAT PG exam date 2027

The CLAT PG date is the same as the UG date, which surprises many first-time LLM applicants. CLAT PG 2027 is held on 6 December 2026, from 2 PM to 4 PM, at the same set of test centres. It has the same registration deadline of 31 October 2026. If you are in the final year of your LLB and searching for "CLAT PG dates", every date in the table above applies to you too. Only the paper and the eligibility are different.

CLAT 2026 exam date: what happened in the last cycle

The CLAT exam date 2026 is now history: the paper was written on 7 December 2025, and its counselling closed in May 2026. If you want the CLAT 2026 date for records, or you are checking what you missed, here is how CLAT 2026 actually ran. The registration deadline was extended once, so it is worth watching for official notices close to 31 October this year too.

About 92,000 candidates registered for CLAT 2026 and roughly 88,600 sat the paper, as covered in our CLAT 2026 toppers analysis. Notice what did not move: the exam date. The Consortium announced 7 December 2025 in July 2025 and held the paper on that day, even though the registration window was stretched by a week and the results were later revised after a High Court order. That timeline is the best guide to CLAT 2027. It shows roughly two weeks between admit card and exam, about nine days between exam and result, and a counselling process that runs for five months.

When is CLAT exam conducted every year? The date pattern

CLAT moved to a fixed December slot after the pandemic years. Since then, the exam has always fallen on a December Sunday afternoon. This pattern is the most reliable way to answer "when is CLAT exam held" for any future year.

Four of the last five exams fell in the first week of December. The exam date itself has been announced between May and July, and registration has opened between 1 July and early August. If someone searching for "CLAT exam dates 2024" was really looking for this pattern, the table above is the answer.

CLAT 2028 exam date: what to expect

CLAT 2028 has not been announced, and no official CLAT exam date 2028 exists yet. Anyone quoting an exact day is guessing. Based on the pattern above, expect the CLAT 2028 exam on a Sunday in the first half of December 2027. Expect the date to be announced between May and July 2027, with registration opening in July or August 2027. When is CLAT exam 2028 relevant? If you are in Class 11 now, it is your main selection attempt. Many Class 11 students also sit CLAT 2027 for real exam experience, and our 2-year Foundation programme for Class 11 is built around exactly that two-attempt plan.

Which CLAT is yours? Find your exam date in one line

Parents often ask when will CLAT 2027 be held relative to the board exams. It comes roughly two to three months before boards begin, so December prep and pre-board revision overlap. Plan school mocks around 6 December rather than the other way round. Class 12 students who appear for boards in March or April 2027 can apply now. You need to show your Class 12 result with the required marks at the time of admission. There is no upper age limit for CLAT UG. Check the full CLAT eligibility rules, including the 45% and 40% minimum marks, before you pay the fee.

CLAT 2027 vs AILET 2027 dates

Most NLU aspirants also write AILET for NLU Delhi, which runs its own test. AILET 2027 is on Sunday, 13 December 2026, 2 PM to 4 PM, exactly one week after CLAT 2027. The gap matters. Last cycle, AILET was first announced for the same day as CLAT before NLU Delhi moved it to 14 December 2025. This year you get a clean week to switch from the five-section CLAT exam pattern to AILET's format. If you are still deciding whether to write both, read our CLAT vs AILET comparison. For every other law entrance exam on one page, see our full law entrance exam calendar.

How to use the weeks left before 6 December 2026

From 3 October, there are about nine weeks until the CLAT 2027 exam date. In our Delhi NCR classrooms, the students who use these weeks best follow a simple order. They do not try to restart their preparation from zero.

1. Weeks 1–4 (now to 31 October): Finish the application first. Then take one full mock every week and log your accuracy section by section.

2. Weeks 5–7 (November): Move to two mocks a week. Use the correction window if your centre choices need fixing. Download the admit card the day it is released and check every detail.

3. Weeks 8–9 (to 6 December): Revise current affairs from the last 12 months and timed passage practice. Don't start any new material in this phase.

If you are unsure what each section tests, our CLAT syllabus 2027 guide breaks down all five subjects and the marking scheme. Students who want guided mocks and doubt-solving in these final weeks can join one of our current CLAT 2027 batches, or compare our CLAT and AILET coaching programs. For a section-by-section plan, read our full CLAT exam preparation strategy, and if you want classroom support close to home, see CLAT coaching in Delhi.

A note from the classroom: Every December, a few students tell me they "thought the exam was in 2027". The name confused them, and some learnt the registration deadline too late. Write 31 October and 6 December on your wall today. — Anand Sharma

Has the CLAT date changed? How to verify any update

Every season, screenshots claiming that CLAT has been postponed circulate on WhatsApp and Telegram. Treat any date change as real only if it appears on consortiumofnlus.ac.in as a dated notice or press release. Changes to the deadline are more common than changes to the exam date. In two of the last three cycles the registration deadline was extended by about a week (CLAT 2024 from 3 to 10 November 2023, CLAT 2026 from 31 October to 7 November 2025), while the exam date stayed fixed both times. Never plan around an extension; apply by 31 October. Check your registered email and the candidate portal too, because centre changes and admit card notices reach you there first. We update this page within a day of any official notice and change the date at the top so you can see when it was last checked.