7 Best Law Colleges in India Apart from NLUs

Top Law Colleges India: Even the top govt schools like IIT Kharagpur, Rank 6, and JMI Rank 8, feature amongst the top legal schools according to NIRF 2025, though NLUs dominate the list. Eligibility criteria for admission are at least 45% in the 10+2 for the five-year LLB. For admission, good scores in tests such as CLAT or college-specific exams are required. A merit seat guarantees access to top corporate recruiters and a good return on investment.

While the NLUs are doubtless the cream amongst the law schools in India, there are enough good universities offering good LLBs, LLMs, and integrated degrees. Aspiring lawyers should aim at getting a good Return on Investment by targeting universities with top facilities, top-notch student records, and ample placement opportunities. Qualifying for major entrance tests, including the most popular CLAT, LSAT India, AIBE, or college-specific entrance tests like DUET, whichever the university that they target accepts, is the primary route toward these merit seats.

However, there is another route for getting in, through the management quota seats for those who may not get a top merit score, but then the fees are considerably higher. A decent college professional law degree is well worth its price, no matter by what means one gets in, considering the fact that the student can expect a respectable job thereafter. The best campus recruiters for top law schools include the top legal firms, corporate bodies such as O P Khaitan & Co., Talwar Thakore & Associates, and Satyam, and regulatory bodies such as SEBI, assuring lucrative career options to their graduates.

There are, of course, a number of other very prestigious and high-achieving government-funded legal institutions. But the cream, so to speak, of legal education is constituted by the NLUs. These, then, are the Top 7 government law schools according to the NIRF Law Rankings 2025-including other Central Universities and INIs but specifically excluding those that identify as NLUs-such as NLSIU, NLU Delhi, NALSAR, etc.

Law Colleges in India: Eligibility and Admission Process

Eligibility Criteria

Undergraduate: 5-Year B.A./B.B.A. LL.B.: Should have passed the 10+2 examination from a recognized board or its equivalent. Minimum aggregate: Normally 45% for the General Category, though there may be exemptions in case of restricted categories down to 40% in case of SC/ST.

Postgraduate: 3-Year LL.B.: The candidate needs to graduate from any recognized university in any academic background, such as B.A., B.Sc., B.Com., and B.Tech. A minimum aggregate score, in most cases, falls in the bracket of 45-50%.

The candidate must have a 3-year or a 5-year LL.B. degree from an accredited and BCI-approved university in order to apply for the LL.M. course. The minimum aggregate marks sufficient for the LL.B. degree is 50% to 55%. 

Admission procedure Obligatory 

Entrance Exams: Most well-reputed colleges, NLUs, IIT Kharagpur and private universities require qualification via a national-level entrance test, which is mostly CLAT for NLUs and affiliates or AILET for NLU Delhi. 

Application and Registration Procedure: Online registration in the respective entrance test is the first step. Candidates will further have to apply individually to the universities accepting their test scores before the last dates. 

Centralized Counselling/Shortlisting: Candidates securing cutoff percentile will be shortlisted for centralized counselling, such as CLAT counselling for NLUs, or institutional WAT and PI rounds. 

Final seat allotment will be done based on a composite score reflecting rank obtained in the entrance exam and performance in PI/WAT rounds. It is then followed by verification of documents and depositing admission fees to confirm the merit seat.