CLAT 2027 is unchanged. Five sections, 120 questions, 120 minutes, +1 and −0.25. If you are sitting the paper on 6 December 2026, nothing in the reform discussion alters what you are preparing for.
CLAT 2028 is undecided. A three-section paper with no General Knowledge section has been proposed. It has not been adopted, and the body that will consider it further had not been constituted when this was written.
Everything else on this page follows from those two sentences.
What was actually decided, and by whom
The Consortium's Advisory Board formed a committee of independent academics. Its terms of reference covered question quality, the structure of the paper, the syllabus, and a comparison with tests like the LSAT and the LNAT. The Report was submitted in February 2026 and published in July 2026 for public feedback.
The Governing Body met on 18 July 2026 and decided two things, published in a press release on 21 July.
For CLAT 2027: no change to the syllabus, the pattern or the sections, for either the UG or the PG paper. The Convenor and paper setters were asked to take the Report's suggestions on question format and quality on board "in a feasible manner".
For CLAT 2028: further consideration, by a committee to be constituted by the Office of the Chief Justice of India, with the Consortium weighing that and the public feedback.
The Report had proposed 2027 as the first year of the new system. The Governing Body replaced that timetable. That is the whole of what has been settled — the CLAT 2028 page sets out the proposals with page references.
What it means by cohort
Sitting CLAT 2027, in December 2026. Nothing changes structurally. One thing does change in a way worth acting on: the paper setters have been asked to improve question format and quality. In practice that points towards deeper inference and fewer questions answerable by locating a stated fact in the passage. Shift practice accordingly — unstated assumptions, multi-step reasoning, options that are true but do not follow.
Sitting CLAT 2028, currently in Class 11. You have to prepare for two possible papers, and the honest news is that the overlap is large. Reading comprehension, argument analysis, legal aptitude and quantitative technique are in both, and in the proposed version they are all of it. Prepare those hard and you are covered either way.
The one genuine decision you face is General Knowledge, and the answer is to keep it, cheaply. Fifteen minutes a day, one source, notes you actually revisit. If GK survives and you stopped reading in Class 11, you cannot rebuild two years of context in three months. If it goes, you have lost fifteen minutes a day and gained a reading habit that helps the comprehension sections anyway.
Sitting CLAT 2029 or later, currently in Class 9 or 10. By the time you sit, the question will be settled. Build reading speed and argument analysis, which no version of this exam has ever stopped rewarding, and revisit the pattern question when you reach Class 11.
The proposed paper, in one table
| CLAT 2027 (confirmed) | Proposed for a later cycle | |
|---|---|---|
| Sections | Five | Three: Logical Reasoning and Legal Aptitude; Language and Comprehension; Quantitative Techniques |
| General Knowledge | Included | Proposed for removal (p. 31) |
| Questions | 120 | 10–15 a section (p. 32) |
| Duration | 120 minutes | Two hours (p. 32) |
| Essay | None | None yet, with a roadmap for later cycles (pp. 47–50) |
| Status | Confirmed by the Governing Body | Proposal, referred onward, not adopted |
Page numbers are the Report's own, so each row can be checked against the published PDF.
How to read what you will be told about this
Three claims are circulating that the published documents do not support.
"The CLAT 2028 pattern has been announced." It has not. A proposal has been published and referred for further consideration.
"GK has been scrapped." It is proposed for removal. It is in the 2027 paper in full.
"CLAT 2028 will be on this date." No CLAT 2028 date has been notified. Any date you see is somebody's inference.
The test to apply is simple: ask which document says it, and at what page. The Report and the press release are both public. A claim that cannot be traced to one of them is somebody's reading, and possibly somebody's guess.
What to do this week
If you are in the 2027 cohort, the pattern question is a distraction and the calendar is not. The CLAT 2027 hub has the cycle in order, with the confirmed dates separated from the estimated ones.
If you are in the 2028 cohort, start with a baseline rather than a plan. The free Diagnostic Test is a full-length paper on the current pattern; the reading speed and reasoning it measures are the part that transfers to whichever paper you eventually sit.