CLAT PG Exam Pattern 2026: Marking Scheme, Sections, Duration and Subject Wise Weightage

CLAT PG 2026 is a 120-minute offline exam conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities for LLM admissions at National Law Universities across India. The paper carries 120 passage-based MCQs for 120 marks, with every passage drawn from primary legal texts, court judgments, and statutes. With the CLAT PG 2027 notification expected from the Consortium shortly, students should use this confirmed 2026 pattern as the benchmark for upcoming preparation.

• CLAT PG 2026 is a 120-minute pen-and-paper test with 120 questions for 120 marks.
• The paper contains approximately 24 passage-based comprehension sets, with 5 questions each.
• A correct answer earns +1 mark; a wrong answer deducts 0.25 marks.
• Unattempted questions attract zero penalty — no marks are awarded or deducted.
• The exam covers 13 compulsory UG law subjects, including Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence, and Criminal Law.
• There is no sectional time limit — you manage the full 120 minutes freely across all passages.
• Reading speed and legal comprehension are the key differentiators; many answers are traceable within the passage itself.

CLAT PG Exam Pattern 2026: Overview

The CLAT PG 2026 exam follows a single-section, offline, pen-and-paper format with all 120 questions drawn from primary law sources via passage-based MCQs. The Consortium of NLUs has kept the structure stable since 2025. Every question carries equal weight — one mark — and tests legal comprehension from real court decisions, statutes, and regulations.

CLAT PG 2026 is a 120-minute offline test with 120 passage-based MCQs for 120 marks — one mark per question, with 0.25 marks deducted for every wrong answer.

CLAT PG Exam Pattern 2026: Important Dates

The CLAT PG 2026 cycle has concluded. The exam was held on December 7, 2025, and results were declared on December 16, 2025. All key events from the 2026 cycle are listed below in chronological order. The CLAT PG 2027 notification is expected from the Consortium around July 2026 — this table will be updated once official dates are released.

Source: Consortium of National Law Universities — CLAT 2026 Official Page

CLAT PG 2026: Detailed Exam Pattern

The CLAT PG 2026 paper is built around approximately 24 reading comprehension passages, each 150 to 200 words long. Every passage carries 5 MCQs, giving a total of 120 questions. Passages come from court decisions, statutes, regulations, and legal commentaries across all 13 compulsory UG law subjects. There are no separate timed sub-sections — the full paper runs as one continuous block.

Note: CLAT PG 2026 has no internal section breakup. The entire paper is one continuous block. You can attempt passages in any order during the exam.

Passages in CLAT PG 2026 are drawn from:

• Landmark Supreme Court and High Court judgments across law subjects
• Central Acts, Statutes, and subordinate legislation
• Legal treatises, commentaries, and academic articles on law
• International conventions and treaties (for Public International Law passages)

The CLAT PG 2026 paper ran to over 40 pages due to the passage-heavy format. Reading stamina is as critical as legal knowledge in managing the full 120-minute exam.

CLAT PG Marking Scheme 2026

CLAT PG 2026 applies a uniform marking scheme across all 120 questions. Every correct answer earns +1 mark. Every wrong answer deducts 0.25 marks. Unattempted questions carry zero marks — no penalty for skipping. Since all questions are single-correct MCQs, no partial marking applies.

Negative marking of 0.25 marks applies to every wrong MCQ answer in CLAT PG 2026 — avoid random guessing.

At −0.25 per wrong answer, four incorrect responses cancel one correct one. If you can eliminate two of the four options, the expected value of guessing turns positive. Skip a question only when all four choices are entirely unfamiliar. The zero-penalty rule for unattempted questions means leaving a blank is always better than a random attempt with no basis for elimination.

CLAT PG Subject-Wise Exam Pattern 2026

CLAT PG 2026 covers 13 compulsory undergraduate law subjects as defined in the Consortium’s official PG syllabus. The Consortium does not publish a fixed per-subject question count — distribution varies by year based on passage selection. The breakdown below reflects subject prominence based on the official syllabus and post-exam analysis of recent CLAT PG papers.

Constitutional Law

Constitutional Law is the highest-weight subject in CLAT PG. Passages typically come from Supreme Court decisions on fundamental rights, judicial review, the basic structure doctrine, federal structure, and constitutional amendments. Based on past exam trends, Constitutional Law typically contributes the largest cluster of passages in any given year.

Jurisprudence

Jurisprudence is consistently the second-most tested subject in CLAT PG. Passages draw from legal philosophy — natural law, legal positivism, legal realism, sociological jurisprudence, and critical legal theory. Familiarity with major legal thinkers such as Hart, Kelsen, Dworkin, Austin, and Rawls is essential for this section.

Criminal Law

Criminal Law passages address offences, defences, and procedure. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which replaced the IPC and CrPC respectively, now form the primary legislative base for criminal law passages in CLAT PG.

Law of Contract and Torts

Contract Law passages draw from the Indian Contract Act, 1872, the Specific Relief Act, and commercial dispute decisions. Torts passages cover negligence, strict liability, nuisance, and defamation. Together, Contract and Torts form a significant portion of the paper alongside the primary law subjects.

Administrative Law

Administrative Law passages cover delegated legislation, natural justice principles, and judicial review of administrative action. Passages are typically drawn from High Court or Supreme Court rulings on decisions by public authorities, tribunals, and regulatory bodies.

Family Law

Family Law passages address personal laws — Hindu, Muslim, and Christian — along with the Special Marriage Act and succession statutes. Questions typically arise from disputes on marriage validity, divorce, maintenance, adoption, and inheritance rights.

Property Law, Company Law, Public International Law, Tax Law, Environmental Law, and Labour and Industrial Law

These subjects appear as individual passage clusters on a rotating basis. In CLAT PG 2026, Tax Law featured as a full dedicated passage for the first time — underscoring that any subject from the 13-subject official list can appear without prior signal. Environmental Law and Public International Law have also featured in recent years. You should cover every subject in the official syllabus without treating any as safely skippable.

Source: CLAT PG 2026 Official Syllabus — Consortium of NLUs

CLAT PG Question Types 2026

CLAT PG 2026 uses a single question format: passage-based multiple-choice questions with four options and one correct answer. There are no subjective questions, no numerical or integer-type questions, no assertion-reason format, and no multiple-select questions. All 120 questions follow a comprehension structure tied to the legal passage provided.

Most CLAT PG 2026 questions are answerable from within the passage itself — strong comprehension skills outweigh deep subject-knowledge recall.

Within the passage-based MCQ format, questions in CLAT PG 2026 test four competencies:

1. Comprehension — answer is directly traceable in the passage text
2. Inference — answer requires drawing a logical conclusion from the passage’s argument
3. Application — apply the legal principle in the passage to a stated fact situation
4. Knowledge recall — requires recall of a legal fact alongside the passage cue (least common)

CLAT PG Exam Pattern: Changes in 2026 vs Previous Year

The Consortium officially confirmed no structural changes to the CLAT PG 2026 pattern compared to 2025. The 24-passage, passage-based MCQ format introduced in the 2024 reform cycle continued unchanged. The primary observable shift in 2026 was denser and longer passage content, making reading stamina a greater differentiator. Additionally, Tax Law featured as a dedicated full passage for the first time in 2026.

The most significant structural reform in recent CLAT PG history occurred in 2025, when the Consortium reduced the total question count from 150 to 120. That change carried forward unchanged to 2026. Students preparing for CLAT PG 2027 should note that this stable pattern makes prior year papers from 2025 and 2026 the most relevant practice material.

The CLAT PG pattern has been structurally stable for two consecutive years — students preparing for CLAT PG 2027 can use the 2026 pattern as a reliable reference.

How to Prepare Based on CLAT PG Exam Pattern

The CLAT PG 2026 pattern rewards reading speed, legal comprehension, and selective subject depth over rote memorisation. Since all 120 questions are passage-based, extracting legal principles from dense primary texts quickly is the core skill to build. The tips below follow directly from the exam’s structure and subject coverage.

1. Lead with Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence: These subjects consistently generate the most passages in CLAT PG. Cover landmark fundamental rights judgments, judicial review doctrines, and key jurisprudential thinkers before moving to secondary subjects.
2. Read primary legal texts regularly: Passages in CLAT PG come directly from Supreme Court judgments, statutes, and legal treatises. Practise reading original legal texts — not summaries — so you are comfortable with the style and density of exam passages.
3. Build 120-minute reading stamina: The 2026 paper ran to over 40 pages across 24 passages. Train by attempting full-length mocks in one unbroken sitting to build the concentration needed for the complete exam.
4. Cover all 13 subjects — do not skip any: Tax Law appeared as a full passage for the first time in 2026. The Consortium can increase any subject’s presence without advance notice — gaps in your preparation directly become scoring risks.
5. Apply a calibrated negative-marking strategy: At −0.25 per wrong answer, four errors cancel one correct response. Attempt confidently when you can eliminate two options. Leave a question blank only when all four choices are equally unfamiliar.
6. Practise OMR bubble-filling under time pressure: CLAT PG uses an OMR answer sheet. Use a ballpoint pen, darken bubbles firmly, avoid stray marks, and reserve at least 10 minutes at the end to verify your OMR against rough work before submission.
7. Solve CLAT PG papers from 2022 to 2026: The passage-based format is consistent across years. Timed full-length practice with prior papers sharpens reading speed, reveals subject-wise gaps, and acclimatises you to the Consortium’s passage and question style.