It is considered one of the TOP 10 toughest entrance examinations in India with the acceptance rate being as low as 3 percent.

After a few such meetings, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the Vice-Chancellors of the seven National Law Universities on 23 November 2007 to conduct a common admission test.

Nonetheless, the matter has not been resolved completely as there are other national law universities that were not taking part in CLAT.

[9] The Consortium of National Law Universities was established on 19 August 2017 with the aim of improving the standard of legal education in the country and justice system through legal education with Prof. R. Venkata Rao, erstwhile Vice-Chancellor, NLSIU as President and Prof. Faizan Mustafa, Vice-Chancellor, NALSAR, as Vice-President.

[10] CLAT examination gained further prominence when in 2023, for the first time, Delhi University's Faculty of Law inaugurated its own 5 Year Integrated LLB Programme.

[12][citation needed] The eligibility requirements are as follows: Senior Secondary School/Intermediate (10+2) or its equivalent certificate from a recognized Board with not less than 45% marks in aggregate (40% in case of SC and ST candidates).

The candidates who have passed the qualifying degree examination through supplementary/ compartment and repeat attempts are also eligible for appearing in the test and taking Admission provided that such candidates will have to produce the proof of having passed the qualifying examination with fifty-five/fifty percent marks, as the case may be, on the date of their admission or within the time allowed by the respective universities.

[citation needed] The first CLAT Core Committee consisting of Vice-Chancellors of the seven participating NLUs at that time decided that the test should be conducted by rotation in the order of their establishment.

[18] CLAT-2011 candidates were disappointed with the standard of exam, as up to 12 questions in the various sections had underlined answers due to the oversight of the organisers and students also found the paper lengthy in comparison to the time limit provided (i.e. 2 hours).

[19] CLAT-2012 was marred by a number of controversies, which includes allegations of setting questions out of syllabus and out of the pre-declared pattern.

[21] The declared question-answer keys contained several errors, which resulted in petitions being filed by the aggrieved students in different High Courts.

[28] However, the Supreme Court of India struck down the separate entrance test conducted by NLSIU and ordered it to re-join CLAT.