Law students decry ‘exclusionary’ CLAT and counselling fees; demand cuts

Students say that the high fee for CLAT registration and admission counselling is creating nearly insurmountable economic obstacles for many prospective law students, particularly from economically weaker sections. Despite the submission of concerns, the Consortium of NLUs has neither responded nor taken action.

Hyderabad: Students from several National Law Universities (NLUs), including the NALSAR University of Law, have raised alarm over what they termed exorbitant and exclusionary fees for the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) and counselling.

As for the admissions, according to students, a single counselling fee of Rs 50,000 was required upfront to secure admission until CLAT 2022. However, the revised counselling process introduced in 2023 and 2024, although split into stages, continues to burden students and pose the risk of losing allotted seats due to tight payment deadlines.

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Currently, students need to pay a non-refundable confirmation fee of Rs 20,000. This is in addition to an initial counselling fee of Rs 30,000 (Rs 20,000 for reserved category). They termed this fee as unjust and exclusionary.

Drawing parallels between CLAT and other national-level entrance tests, students stated that JEE and NEET imposed significantly lower application fees and offer refundable counselling mechanisms.

For instance, JoSAA charges a single refundable seat acceptance fee of Rs 34,000 for general category (Rs 17,500 for reserved category), which is nearly half of CLAT’s combined counselling and confirmation fees, they said.

“The CLAT admission fees create nearly insurmountable economic obstacles for many prospective law students. Despite the submission of these concerns, the Consortium of NLUs has neither responded nor taken action,” they said.

Further, students highlighted that despite the Ministry of Education having submitted a report to the Supreme Court, recommending an amount of Rs 1,500, the CLAT continued to charge an application fee of Rs 4,000 for general (Rs 3,500 for reserved category) applicants.

Student bodies in law universities, including Savitribai Intersectional Study Circle at NALSAR, NALSAR Student Bar Council, NLSIU Savitri Phule Ambedkar Caravan, and NLIU Bhopal SPAC, DSNLU Student Council, recently submitted a representation to consortium of NLUs, UGC, BCI, and Ministry of Law and Justice seeking restructuring of the CLAT fee system and aligning it with national norms.

Apart from introduction of need-based waivers and ensuring financial transparency, the student bodies demanded a meeting with the Consortium of NLUs to explain issues in detail and work towards a fair and reasonable resolution.

“Legal education must remain as a right, not a privilege dependent on one’s financial capacity,” they added.