National Law Universities Reservation Decoded - State Seats/NRI and more

National Law Universities Reservation Decoded- State Seats/NRI and more

This Article Decodes the Seat Matrix of all the National Law Universities or NLU's in India. This article is written for Students, Academicians and everyone concerned with Law education in India showcasing all the complex reservation structures in these National Law Universities.

These are the Top government institutes made for studying 5 year Integrated LLB after 10+2 or equivalent just like IITs, AIIMS, IIMs, IHMs, NIFTs, NIDs etc have been formed as the pioneer institutes for Engineering, Management, Hotel Management, Fashion Design, Design etc.

In this article one will know the detailed analysis of seats in these National Law Universities and the impact of special reservations like State Reserved Seats, NRI/NRI Sponsored seats and more. Students will know the actual criteria for each of these and the impact of it on students of every location in India.

*Please Note: In this article we are only covering the UG programme that is 5 year Integrated LLB offered at these NLUs. Also, the number of seats shown are as per the current brochures and notifications so keep following this for the latest numbers.

To know your chances in NLUs as per your Rank and Category for CLAT Counselling as well as NRI/NRI-Sponsored seats call 9310486685/9983775353

Download Past Year Papers of CLAT and other Law Entrance Exams for free: Download Here

So, Let’s begin!

Current Admission Criteria at the 26 NLUs or National Law Universities:

Currently there are 24 National Law Universities who are taking admissions via CLAT & One National Law University i.e. NLU Delhi is taking admission via its own entrance exam – AILET.and NLU Meghalaya taking admission from its own entrance exam.

NLUs Seat Matrix in Brief for present academic session:

National Universities- State Reservations !!!

Surprising it may seem but the maximum Reservation in NLUs at present is based on Seats Reserved for Students of the particular State where the NLU is situated. Making a National Law University bound by State Level Reservation!

The table given below shows the seat matrix of Total seats in 23 NLUs with State Reserved Seats & All India Seats.

Seat matrix : For academic session at present  

Please Note: The above table has also included the 25% State Domicile Reservation by NLU Jodhpur as passed by the Government of Rajasthan.

The National Law Universities have Reserved their Seats for  the students who belong to their own respective state where that particular NLU is situated ,this is called - STATE RESERVATION

So, Basically, What is this term State Reservation in NLUs??

State Reservation means favoring someone on the basis of his or her residence. It has been adopted by 25 of the 26 National Law Universities in India. With the help of state reservation, the state government can reserve certain seats for the students domiciled in that particular state where the National Law University is situated.

Out of these State Reserved seats some of the NLUs have kept the State Reserved seats only for the Reserved/Backward Class students of that particular state while some of them have even extended it to the Unreserved candidates having that state domicile.

The Reservation percentage differs for each NLU, in the above table you can notice that out of 3368 total seats – 1235 seats are State Reserved Seats which means a large percentage of the Total seats at NLU goes to those students who belong to that respective state.

Students can also see the detailed table at the end of this article for a detailed Seat Matrix showing how many seats have been reserved for State Candidates by each NLU.

The length of this type of reservation at present ranges from 25% Horizontal compartmentalized (eg: NLSIU Bangalore) to 66% Vertical in Maharashtra.

Horizontal and Vertical Reservation:

While some of these Institutes have kept State Reserved seats as Horizontally Reserved most of them have kept these as Vertically Reserved seats.

To explain the same Horizontal Reserved seats allow the total reserved seats to go maximum to that amount reserved for State students. Eg: In 100 Seats if 20% are horizontally reserved for State A students then the maximum number of students admitted to State A can never go beyond 20.

But if the same reservation is kept Vertical then a Minimum of 20 Seats will be reserved for State A students so the minimum number of Students admitted of State A will be 20 and go even higher than this harming the diversity of the Institute severely.

The Impact!

This Reservation is hugely Impacting the DIVERSITY of that respective University if they have these so-called “State Reservations”. Not only diversity but it is also impacting on the Quality. The number of students coming from the state itself will be more as compared to the students who are coming from all around the country. Then, the batch will start making groups of that particular kind of culture & they will hugely impact the whole batch of their University.

Surprising it may seem simple but this is the type of reservation creating the highest impact on the number of seats at NLUs. Unlike any other National level Government Institutes these National Universities have their own set of Reservations

Most of these National Universities have state reservations in them, unlike IITs, IIM & AIIMS in India, even for NITs they’ve their own set of Reservations and 50% of seats are Reserved for Home states & remaining 50% is for other states. But over here every NLU has its own set of criteria.

The Only Exception-

Exceptions: At present NLU Delhi does not have any seats reserved for students of Delhi. NLU Jodhpur became the latest NLU from this year (2024) to join the state reservations making it all 24 National Law Universities participating in CLAT having State Reserved seats. 

Even the exception has tried to join earlier!!

*National Law University, Delhi (NLU Delhi) had earlier announced 50% reservation for domicile students.

The late Padma Bhushan awardee Prof NR Madhava Menon, founder-director of NLSIU (also regarded as the founder of modern legal education in India), had shared this stance when asked about this issue. He opined,

“I am not in favor of it for the simple reason that it was conceived as a national institution. Doing anything to dilute that would not be welcome. Even otherwise, Karnataka students are coming in on merit in adequate numbers. It was not a demand from Karnataka when it was started. If the government wanted, another campus could have been built. But NLSIU, being a model institution for the rest of the country, should remain a national institution.”

Disadvantage to Students having no State Reservation!!

State & Union Territories Without any NLU

In India, not every State has its own NLU, Some states, and Union Territories are also there in India which do not have any NLU in their state. The students of these states are facing a huge disadvantage while taking admission, As the competition is high because they are only fighting for the Seats left for All India Candidates and do not have any seats reserved for them.

At present none of the Union Territories except Daman & Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli also do not have any National Law University, also they do not have any seat reserved in any of the 26 National Law Universities.

States with more than one NLU

An additional advantage we can see is that some states have more than one NLU with them. For instance, Maharashtra has 3 NLUs while Madhya Pradesh has 2 NLUs at present. Making it 542 NLU seats in Maharashtra and 256 NLU Seats in Madhya Pradesh. In the same country there are zero NLU seats in all the States mentioned in above Table and all Union Territories.

So overall this State Reservation is what is eating up the diversity, merit and the National stature of these esteemed National Law Universities and soon there needs to be found a solution for the same for taking these institutes at greater heights at International level just like the IITs, IIMs and other Central Universities of National Importance.

NRI / NRI Sponsored – Reservation for the ELITES

Seat matrix : For academic session at present

*Seats listed as Foreign Nationals/OCI/PIO/NRI/NRI Sponsored by NLUs are also included in this list.

The National Law Universities have Reserved Seats for those candidates who are either a non resident Indian or have a first degree relationship with NRI, while in some of the cases these seats are also provided to students who even have a distant relative who is ready to sponsor them –  These are called NRI SPONSORED SEATS !

In India the unreserved category always criticizes the reserved categories but over here nobody talks about this Reservation, because these NRI seats have higher fees as compared to normal seats, these fees are almost twice or four times the fees that a normal student pay.

Reservation Details:

These seats are reserved specifically for students who fill the CLAT Application Form as NRI/NRI Sponsored candidates.

For applying under the NRI-sponsored category, they must be sponsored by a “first degree blood relation or second degree blood relation who is an NRI/OCI Card Holder/PIO Card Holder”. They must also appear for the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT).

This is gaining high importance because as a matter of fact, out of the 53500 candidates who appeared for CLAT 2021 -10734 applied as NRI/NRI sponsored candidates.

Out of these 24 NLUs  8 of them do not provide NRI/NRI Sponsored Reserved seats, these include: NLSIU Bangalore, NLU Delhi, NALSAR Hyderabad, CNLU Patna, NLU Assam, MNLU Nagpur, NLU Aurangabad, DBRANLU Haryana. (*NLU Delhi only has seats reserved for Foreign National/OCI/PIO Candidates which is filled without the entrance exam)

Out of the 24 National Law Universities at present 15 provide Seats Reserved for NRI/NRI Sponsored students.

The Table below shows the seat matrix of NLUs giving NRI/ NRI Sponsored in detail:

The scope of this discussion has been limited to the National Law Universities (NLUs), “Foreign National/NRI/NRI Sponsored Reservation”, over the passage of time, has continued to shatter the dreams of several young, dynamic and promising Indian minds, irrespective of the disciplinary path they choose to tread.

Direct Admission In NLU : Foreign National Reservation

This is the ONLY way through which a student directly takes admission in National law universities , without giving any type of entrance examination whether it is CLAT or AILET .

Seats listed as Foreign Nationals/OCI/PIO by NLUs.

Most of them have already declared that if these vacancies are still left then these are ultimately converted to NRI/NRI Sponsored or Unreserved Seats or remain vacant.

There are a list of NLUs that are not providing Foreign National Seat Reservation: NLSIU, NALSAR Hyderabad, CNLU Patna, NLU Assam, MNLU Nagpur, NLU Aurangabad, DBRANLU Haryana

Women Reservation

As a welcome step , this time all the National Law Universities are giving Horizontal seats to Female Candidates which will increase the higher participation of women in the legal domain in various sectors.

The Reservation in all these National Law Universities ranging from 18-30 % Horizontally.

Supernumerary seats

These are the seats which are given in all the National Law Universities to students of Jammu & Kashmir and Jammu and Kashmir Migrants but there is special reservation provided to North East Students at NUJS Kolkata and 4 Seats (2 Boys and 2 Girls) are provided in Sports Category at GNLU, Gandhinagar.

As per Government of India many of these National Law Universities have upto 2- 5 Seats reserved for the students of Jammu & Kashmir or Jammu & Kashmir Migrants.

Overall one can surely say that there is a lot to be worked upon the structure of these National Law Universities and soon steps must be taken by the authorities to maintain the National character of these Institutes and also make them at par with International level Universities.

Below is the Table for all Students/Parents to check the detailed Seat Distribution in all the 26 NLUs, It is as per the latest available seat matrix by these Institutes:

*Please Keep visiting the above article for the updated seat Matrix as the above table is as per the latest seat matrix given by each NLU in its brochure and as per Government Notifications.

The above analysis definitely shows you all the complications that how their  Seats are divided into different categories, Stay updated in this article to know exactly how much seats are reserved for you.

We’ll see in the future how these National Law Universities play out further, We hope the Government authorities take proper initiatives to give everyone a proper chance and a Fair play.