LAW

The UG-CLAT 2023 would focus on evaluating the comprehension and reasoning skills and abilities of candidates. Overall, it is designed to be a test of aptitude and skills that are necessary for a legal education rather than prior knowledge, though prior knowledge occasionally may be useful to respond to questions in the Current Affairs section.

The UG-CLAT 2023 shall be a 2-hour test, with 150 multiple-choice questions carrying 1 mark each. There shall be negative marking of 0.25 marks for every wrong answer. These questions would be divided across the following 5 subjects:

• English Language
• Current Affairs, including General Knowledge
• Legal Reasoning
• Logical Reasoning
• Quantitative Techniques

In this section of the UG-CLAT 2023, you will be provided passages of about 450 words each. These passages will be derived from contemporary or historically significant fiction and non-fiction writing, and would be of a standard that a 12th standard student may be able to read in about 5-7 minutes.

Each passage will be followed by a series of questions that will require you to demonstrate your comprehension and language skills, including your abilities to:

• Read and comprehend the main point discussed in the passage, as well as any arguments and viewpoints discussed or set out in the passage;
• Draw inferences and conclusions based on the passage;
• Summarise the passage;
• Compare and contrast the different arguments or viewpoints set out in the passage; and
• Understand the meaning of various words and phrases used in the passage.

In this section, you will be provided passages of up to 450 words each. The passages will be derived from news, journalistic sources and other non-fiction writing. The questions may include an examination of legal information or knowledge discussed in or related to the passage, but would not require any additional knowledge of the law beyond the passage.

Each passage will be followed by a series of questions that will require you to demonstrate your awareness of various aspects of current affairs and general knowledge, including:

• Contemporary events of significance from India and the world;
• Arts and culture;
• International affairs; and
• Historical events of continuing significance.

In this section, you will be expected to read passages of around 450 words each. The passages may relate to fact situations or scenarios involving legal matters, public policy questions or moral philosophical enquiries. You will not require any prior knowledge of law. You will benefit from a general awareness of contemporary legal and moral issues to better apply general principles or propositions to the given fact scenarios.

Each passage would be followed by a series of questions that will require you to:

• Identify and infer the rules and principles set out in the passage;
• Apply such rules and principles to various fact situations; and
• Understand how changes to the rules or principles may alter their application to various fact situations.

The Logical Reasoning section of the UG-CLAT 2023 will include a series of short passages of about 300 words each. Each passage will be followed by one or more questions that will require you to:

• Recognize an argument, its premises and conclusions;
• Read and identify the arguments set out in the passage;
• Critically analyse patterns of reasoning, and assess how conclusions may depend on particular premises or evidence;
• Infer what follows from the passage and apply these inferences to new situations;
• Draw relationships and analogies, identify contradictions and equivalence, and assess the effectiveness of arguments.

The Quantitative Techniques section of the UG-CLAT 2023 will include short sets of facts or propositions, graphs, or other textual, pictorial or diagrammatic representations of numerical information, followed by a series of questions. You will be required to derive information from such passages, graphs, or other representations, and apply mathematical operations on such information.

The questions will require you to:

• Derive, infer, and manipulate numerical information set out in such passages, graphs, or other representations; and
• Apply various 10th standard mathematical operations on such information, including from areas such as ratios and proportions, basic algebra, mensuration and statistical estimation.

The Consortium plans to publish various preparatory materials for the UG-CLAT 2023, including:

• Guides to the question paper and sample questions;
• Model question papers; and
• Instructional materials and exercises for each of the subjects that the UG-CLAT 2023 comprises.

The Consortium will also provide candidates who have successfully completed their application to the UG-CLAT 2023 access to a learning platform where you may access the preparatory materials described above, as well as your scores on various exercises and model question papers.

In addition, you should develop your capacity to read and understand bodies of text, ensure you stay abreast of news and current affairs by regularly reading quality newspapers and periodicals, and improve your speed of answering questions on quantitative techniques by practising with materials such as 10th standard mathematics textbooks.

The PG-CLAT 2023 will feature an emphasis on the comprehension abilities of the students. It shall be of 120 minutes duration, with one sections:

• The first section would include 100 objective-type questions carrying 1 mark each. There shall be a negative marking of 0.25 marks for every wrong answer.
• The second section would require candidates to write 2 descriptive essays.
• Candidates who secure 40% (35% in case of SC, ST, and PWD) marks in the objective section will qualify for the evaluation of their answers in the descriptive section.

The paper will be based on the mandatory subjects of the undergraduate program and include Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence, Administrative Law, Law of Contract, Torts, Family Law, Criminal Law, Property Law, Company Law, Public International Law, Tax Law, Environmental Law, and Labour & Industrial Law.

In this section of the PG-CLAT 2023, you will be provided extracts from primary legal materials such as important court decisions in various fields of law, statutes or regulations. Each passage will be followed by a series of questions that will require you to demonstrate the:

• Ability to read and comprehend the issues discussed in the passage, as well as any arguments and viewpoints discussed or set out in the passage;
• Awareness of the issues discussed in the passage, as well as of legal issues and facts related to and arising out of the passage and the judgment or statute from which it is extracted;
• Summarise the passage; and
• Ability to apply your knowledge of the fields of law discussed in the passage.

In this section of the PG-CLAT 2023, you will be required to write essays answering Any 2 questions from amongst the list of questions supplied. Your answers must not exceed 800 words each, and you will be required to demonstrate the following in your response:

• Awareness of the legal, factual, and philosophical issues arising out of the questions you choose to answer;
• Ability to structure your answer, and clearly set out various arguments and perspectives related to the topic set out in the questions and to draw a conclusion based on the above.

As part of your preparations for the PG-CLAT 2023, you should:

• Read and refresh your knowledge of important judgments, and try to discern various issues discussed in such judgments;
• Refresh your knowledge of important constitutional and legislative provisions, particularly those that may have been discussed in recent judgments; it would also be useful to ensure you are aware of historical case law and amendments related to such provisions, so that you have a more complete awareness of such provisions and the issues related to them;
• Practice writing essays of the type indicated above, with clear presentations of issues, factual matters, arguments and conclusion.