Overview
NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, is one of India's premier National Law Universities, ranked third in the NIRF 2025 law list with a score of 79.50. Established on 5 July 1998 by a statute of the State of Andhra Pradesh, under the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University Act, it sits on a fully residential campus at Justice City, Shameerpet, and holds a NAAC A++ accreditation. Alongside NLSIU, NALSAR is regularly counted among the very best law schools in the country, and the 2025 batch recorded 100 percent placement. This profile covers its ranking, courses, eligibility, admission, seats, cutoff, fees, hostel, scholarships and placements so you can decide whether to make it a top preference.
Why NALSAR Hyderabad is among the top NLUs
NALSAR holds third place in the NIRF 2025 law ranking, behind only NLSIU Bengaluru and NLU Delhi, and it has stayed in the top three for years. It performs strongly on teaching and resources, research, graduation outcomes and perception, which keeps its cutoff among the highest of any NLU and its recruiter interest deep. The university carries a NAAC A++ grade and is recognised by the UGC and the Bar Council of India.
Courses offered at NALSAR Hyderabad
The flagship programme is the five-year integrated BA LLB (Hons), admitted through CLAT and structured around 200 credits across law and social science courses. NALSAR also offers a one-year LLM with specialisations such as corporate law and intellectual property through CLAT PG, a separate two-year LLM in Insolvency and Bankruptcy Law, an MBA through its Department of Management Studies, and PhD research programmes in Law and in Social Sciences, Humanities and Public Policy. Most CLAT aspirants target the five-year BA LLB, which is the focus of the sections below unless stated otherwise.
NALSAR Hyderabad eligibility criteria
For the BA LLB (Hons), you must have passed class 12 or an equivalent examination from a recognised board with at least 45 percent marks, or 40 percent for candidates in the SC and ST categories. Candidates awaiting their class 12 results may apply and appear for CLAT, subject to producing their marksheet at admission. There is no upper age limit for the five-year course. For the LLM, you need an LLB degree, three-year or five-year, from a BCI-recognised institution with at least 50 percent marks, or 45 percent for SC and ST candidates.
NALSAR Hyderabad admission process and how to apply
Because NALSAR admits BA LLB students only through CLAT, you do not apply to the university directly. Register for CLAT on the Consortium of National Law Universities website during the application window, appear for the exam, and after results take part in the centralised CLAT counselling, placing NALSAR high in your preference order. If a seat is allotted, you report to the Justice City campus for document verification and hostel allotment before the academic year begins in July. Admission is purely on CLAT merit, with no management, donation or NRI quota. The LLM follows the same route through CLAT PG. The university address is NALSAR University of Law, Justice City, Shameerpet, Medchal District, Hyderabad, Telangana, and its official website is nalsar.ac.in.
NALSAR Hyderabad seats and seat matrix
NALSAR offers 132 seats in the BA LLB (Hons) and 66 seats in the one-year LLM. Of every intake, 75 percent of seats are open to all-India candidates and 25 percent are reserved for Telangana domicile students. Within both pools, seats are reserved vertically for the General, OBC, SC, ST and EWS categories, while horizontal reservations run across all categories, with 30 percent of seats for women and 5 percent for persons with disabilities. NRI and foreign national seats are supernumerary, meaning they are additional to the totals below. The category-wise split for the BA LLB is as follows.
| Category | BA LLB seats |
|---|---|
| General | 66 |
| Other Backward Classes | 26 |
| Scheduled Caste | 19 |
| Economically Weaker Section | 13 |
| Scheduled Tribe | 8 |
| Total | 132 |
NALSAR Hyderabad CLAT cutoff
NALSAR has one of the highest cutoffs of any NLU, second only to NLSIU. In the general all-India category it closed at rank 159 in CLAT 2025 and rank 167 in CLAT 2024, so a seat typically needs a rank within the top 150 to 160 and a score of roughly 95 or more out of 120. Reserved categories close at more relaxed ranks, and the Telangana home-state quota is more accessible than the all-India list. The approximate general-category closing ranks by category are below, but treat them as indicative, since they shift each year with the applicant pool, seat revisions and counselling movement.
| Category | Approximate all-India closing rank |
|---|---|
| General | Around 150 to 160 |
| EWS | Around 550 |
| OBC | Around 900 to 1200 |
| SC | Around 3000 to 3500 |
| ST | Around 6000 |
To check whether your expected rank is in range, use the CLAT college predictor, and see the NLU cut-offs page for round by round closing ranks.
NALSAR Hyderabad fees, year by year
The BA LLB (Hons) at NALSAR costs about 3.12 lakh rupees in the first year, a figure that bundles tuition, user charges, a mess advance, a one-time admission payment and a refundable deposit. From the second year the recurring fee is about 2.62 lakh rupees, rising by roughly 5,000 rupees a year. Across the five years the all-inclusive cost with hostel and mess comes to roughly 13.5 to 15.5 lakh rupees, of which tuition alone is about 8.25 lakh rupees. That total makes NALSAR one of the more affordable options among the premier NLUs, especially set against its placement outcomes.
| Year | Approximate fee (General category) |
|---|---|
| Year 1, all inclusive | About 3.12 lakh rupees |
| Year 2 | About 2.62 lakh rupees |
| Year 3 | About 2.63 lakh rupees |
| Year 4 | About 2.64 lakh rupees |
| Year 5 | About 2.65 lakh rupees |
| Five-year total, with hostel and mess | About 13.5 to 15.5 lakh rupees |
To compare NALSAR against the other NLUs on total cost, see the NLU fees comparison.
NALSAR Hyderabad hostel and campus
NALSAR is fully residential, so every student lives on campus and hostel is mandatory from the first year. Because hostel and mess are built into the annual fee, there is no large separate hostel bill on top, and the mess advance is included in the first-year payment. The campus spreads across about 50 acres at Justice City, Shameerpet, next to Shameerpet Lake and about 26 kilometres from the centre of Hyderabad. It offers modern hostels, a well-stocked library, a moot court hall, an auditorium, a health centre and sports facilities, and its proximity to the Telangana High Court, law firms and companies gives strong access to internships throughout the course.
Scholarships at NALSAR Hyderabad
NALSAR offers merit scholarships of up to 50 percent of fees, along with need-based financial aid for students from families with an annual income below about 8 lakh rupees, plus access to state and central government scholarships for eligible categories. Read each year's official aid notification for the current eligibility bands and amounts.
NALSAR Hyderabad placements: average, highest and recruiters
NALSAR has one of the strongest placement records of any NLU, and its 2025 BA LLB batch recorded 100 percent placement. The highest package for the 2025 batch was about 65 lakh rupees a year, an international law firm offer, and the average package was about 19 lakh rupees a year. In the NIRF 2025 data the median undergraduate package was about 17.5 lakh rupees a year, among the very highest of all NLUs. Placement is coordinated by a student-run Recruitment Coordination Committee, and most students receive tier-one law firm offers, often as pre-placement offers earned through internships from the second year. Regular recruiters include Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, which led the 2025 table, along with AZB and Partners, Khaitan and Co, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Trilegal, Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan and J Sagar Associates. Graduates also move into chambers, companies, the judiciary, policy and international roles. For how NALSAR compares with the other premier NLUs, see the NLU placements comparison.
| Placement metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Highest package, 2025 batch | About 65 LPA (international) |
| Average package, 2025 batch | About 19 LPA |
| Median UG package, NIRF 2025 | About 17.5 LPA |
| Placement rate, 2025 batch | 100 percent |
Related NLUs
Comparing your options is the smart way to build a CLAT preference list. See the profiles of the other premier NLUs: NLSIU Bengaluru, NLU Delhi, WBNUJS Kolkata and GNLU Gandhinagar. If you are deciding between the top two, read the NLSIU vs NALSAR comparison, or return to the NLU profiles hub for the full list.
How to get into NALSAR Hyderabad
Because NALSAR closes within roughly the top 150 general-category ranks, a seat here calls for a focused CLAT strategy rather than general preparation. That means high accuracy across the comprehension-heavy English, current affairs, legal reasoning, logical reasoning and quantitative sections, and enough mock-test practice to hold a top rank under time pressure. Law Prep Tutorial Delhi trains aspirants specifically for these top-NLU cutoffs. Explore the college predictor to see your realistic NLU options, then return to the NLU profiles hub to build your full preference list.