Law
Mar 16, 2026
Consortium of NLUs to Introduce Regional Language Options for CLAT 2027
K
Kavita Nair
Mar 16, 2026
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The Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) has announced a transformative shift in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) framework. Starting from the 2027 academic cycle, the exam will be offered in several regional languages in addition to English. This decision, announced following a high-level meeting in Bengaluru on March 14, 2026, aims to make legal education more accessible to students from rural backgrounds and those who have completed their schooling in vernacular mediums. For the 2026 exam, however, the format will remain exclusively in English.
The move comes after years of debate and multiple petitions in various High Courts regarding the linguistic barrier in legal entrance exams. The Consortium has formed a dedicated linguistic committee to oversee the translation of the complex logical reasoning and legal aptitude sections. Initially, the exam will be available in Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, and Marathi, with plans to include all 22 scheduled languages of India in a phased manner over the next five years. This is seen as a major win for inclusivity in the Indian legal system.
Justice (Retd.) V.K. Singh, a consultant for the Consortium, spoke about the challenges of this transition. 'Translating legal concepts into regional languages without losing their technical nuance is a gargantuan task. We are working with linguists and legal scholars to create a standardized glossary of legal terms in these languages. Our goal is to ensure that a student writing in Tamil faces the exact same level of difficulty as a student writing in English,' he explained. He also clarified that the curriculum within the NLUs would still primarily be in English to maintain international standards, but bridge courses would be introduced for students from regional backgrounds.
For current aspirants, the CLAT 2026 exam is scheduled for December 2025 (as per the new cycle), but the counseling for the 2026 intake is currently reaching its final stages. The Consortium also announced a 10% increase in the total number of seats across the 24 participating NLUs for the 2026-27 session, thanks to the expansion of campuses in Tripura and Uttarakhand. This increase is expected to slightly lower the cut-offs for the top-tier universities like NLSIU Bangalore and NALSAR Hyderabad.
Legal experts have hailed the decision as 'revolutionary.' Kavita Nair, a prominent human rights lawyer, said, 'Law should not be the preserve of the English-speaking elite. By allowing students to take the entrance exam in their mother tongue, we are opening the doors of justice to a much wider talent pool.' The Consortium will release a set of sample papers in the newly approved regional languages by August 2026 to help the first batch of bilingual aspirants prepare for the 2027 exam.
The move comes after years of debate and multiple petitions in various High Courts regarding the linguistic barrier in legal entrance exams. The Consortium has formed a dedicated linguistic committee to oversee the translation of the complex logical reasoning and legal aptitude sections. Initially, the exam will be available in Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, and Marathi, with plans to include all 22 scheduled languages of India in a phased manner over the next five years. This is seen as a major win for inclusivity in the Indian legal system.
Justice (Retd.) V.K. Singh, a consultant for the Consortium, spoke about the challenges of this transition. 'Translating legal concepts into regional languages without losing their technical nuance is a gargantuan task. We are working with linguists and legal scholars to create a standardized glossary of legal terms in these languages. Our goal is to ensure that a student writing in Tamil faces the exact same level of difficulty as a student writing in English,' he explained. He also clarified that the curriculum within the NLUs would still primarily be in English to maintain international standards, but bridge courses would be introduced for students from regional backgrounds.
For current aspirants, the CLAT 2026 exam is scheduled for December 2025 (as per the new cycle), but the counseling for the 2026 intake is currently reaching its final stages. The Consortium also announced a 10% increase in the total number of seats across the 24 participating NLUs for the 2026-27 session, thanks to the expansion of campuses in Tripura and Uttarakhand. This increase is expected to slightly lower the cut-offs for the top-tier universities like NLSIU Bangalore and NALSAR Hyderabad.
Legal experts have hailed the decision as 'revolutionary.' Kavita Nair, a prominent human rights lawyer, said, 'Law should not be the preserve of the English-speaking elite. By allowing students to take the entrance exam in their mother tongue, we are opening the doors of justice to a much wider talent pool.' The Consortium will release a set of sample papers in the newly approved regional languages by August 2026 to help the first batch of bilingual aspirants prepare for the 2027 exam.