The cost of legal education: Fees at Indian law schools in 2026

The cost of legal education in India’s premier law colleges continues to climb and the question of who can actually afford to study law is as relevant as ever.

3 years on from Bar & Bench’s 2023 survey of fee structures across National Law Universities (NLUs) and private law schools, we take a look at the numbers again.

We examined first-year fees for BA.LL.B. students in the general (unreserved) category at NLUs and non-NLUs rated among the top institutions by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings. Refundable deposits, hostel fees and mess charges were excluded.

The average annual academic fee at an NLU, which stood at ₹1,86,392 in 2023, has risen to ₹2,20,747 in 2026 - an increase of over 20% in three years. For students from low and middle income families already struggling to fund law entrance exam coaching, this trajectory places the dream of a premier legal education further out of reach.

The table below captures fees across 26 NLUs.

As demonstrated by the table, the average annual fee charged by NLUs now stands at ₹2,20,747. The highest fee continues to be charged by the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, at ₹3,18,200 per annum - up from ₹2,73,000 in 2023, a rise of over 16%.

The lowest fee among NLUs are charged by Dr. BR Ambedkar National Law University (DBRANLU), Sonipat and Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University (RMLNLU), Lucknow, at ₹1,43,000 and ₹1,45,000 per annum respectively. Interestingly, these NLUs also depart from the usual NLU governance structure. While most NLUs have the Chief Justice of India (CJI) or the Chief Justice of the respective High Court as Chancellor, RMLNLU has the Chief Minister as Chancellor and DBRANLU has the Governor in that role.

This year's survey covers 25 NLUs, including a few not featured in the 2023 edition - National Law University Tripura (NLUT), Agartala; Dr. Rajendra Prasad National Law University (RPNLU), Prayagraj; National Law University Meghalaya (NLU Meg), Shillong; National Law University (NLU Delhi); and Maharashtra National Law University (MNLU), Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Their fees range from ₹1,56,000 (NLUT) to ₹2,91,400 (RPNLU).

The answer might lie in how NLUs are structured and funded, or rather, how they are not. In a 2021 Rajya Sabha response by the then Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju laid out the position plainly - NLUs are not controlled by the Central government, the Ministry of Education, or state governments. They operate under state legislature-passed Acts, with their own management structures for policy decisions. Apart from initial seed money, not much funding is provided to NLUs by state governments. There is usually no funding from the Central government either.

The practical consequence of this is that NLUs are expected to self-sustain. Fees are set internally, governed by each university's Executive Council, with no central body setting caps or guidelines and no requirement to publicly justify hikes. Each NLU essentially prices itself according to its own administrative and other requirements. The 20% average fee rise across NLUs in three years is, in large part, a direct result of this structural vacuum.

The table below captures fees at select non-NLU law schools.

Among non-NLUs, Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), Sonipat, remains the most expensive at ₹7,00,000 per annum, a slight increase from ₹6,76,000 in 2023. India International University of Legal Education and Research (IIULER), Goa charges ₹3,78,122 for students with a CLAT rank between 1 and 5,000.

Among the Symbiosis Law School campuses, fees range from ₹3,95,000 (Hyderabad) to ₹5,06,000 (Pune). In contrast, the Faculty of Law at the University of Lucknow charges just ₹52,160 per year.

A 20% rise in three years means NLU fees are climbing faster than the income growth of most Indian middle-class households, for whom a five-year law degree is already a financial stretch.

For a five-year BA.LL.B. programme, this now translates to a total tuition fee of over ₹11 lakh at an average NLU before accounting for hostel and mess expenses. At NLSIU, the tuition fee alone is around ₹15 lakh. At JGLS, a student would pay over ₹35 lakh across five years in tuition fees.

The question of what this investment actually buys is worth sitting with. According to Bar & Bench's RecTracker, some top firms hired roughly 550 fresh graduates in 2025. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas hired the most at 170, followed by Khaitan & Co at 106 and Trilegal at over 80. Starting salaries at these firms ranged from ₹15.7 lakh to ₹25 lakh per annum. NIRF placement data shows median salaries at top NLUs between ₹16 lakh and ₹20 lakh. These numbers might make loan repayment feasible, but only for the students who land those roles.

However, those roles are only a fraction of the total pool. Nearly 4,000 students enter five-year programmes at NLUs through CLAT each year. This number is only expected to rise as existing NLUs expand intake and new universities become part of the system. The top law firm recruitment numbers, while impressive, represent a tiny fraction of that pool.

This might have a direct impact on career choices. Students who take loans to pay for legal education often get pushed towards corporate law jobs to repay debt. As a result, fewer graduates may choose litigation, public interest law, or the judiciary. The figures also add to concerns that India’s top law schools are increasingly becoming accessible mainly to the elite.

Looking further ahead, even those limited corporate opportunities might shrink. Legal AI tools are beginning to automate tasks that have traditionally absorbed junior associates in large numbers. If that trend accelerates, the number of high-paying entry-level roles available to NLU graduates could shrink further while graduating cohorts grow.

A 20% fee increase over three years begs the question - what relief is available to students who cannot cover these costs?

NLSIU, whose annual fee of ₹3,18,200 making it the most expensive NLU in this survey, perhaps has the most detailed financial aid policy in the system. It offers aid to students with a gross family income below ₹8 lakh per annum, dispensed across nine defined slab ranging from a 25% tuition waiver to a full waiver of tuition, residence and a stipend. The policy assesses need without any academic performance filter for students in the early years of the programme. However, the number of students who receive aid under this policy is not publicly disclosed.

NALSAR offers merit-cum-means based scholarships as opposed to purely need-based scholarships. From the second year onwards, scholarship recipients must have secured a minimum CGPA of 6.0 to remain eligible. The aid amount is calculated using a formula that gives a percentage of the tuition fees based on the student’s income bracket. The Vice-Chancellor (VC) additionally holds discretionary power to grant full or partial fee remission in case of severe hardship.

GNLU's internal scholarship, the Academic Star Scholarship, works differently from both. It is automatic and rank-triggered rather than application-based. Students with CLAT ranks 1-20 receive a 100% tuition waiver while ranks 21-40 receive 50%. Notably, it also runs alongside the Aditya Birla Scholarship Programme, meaning some top-ranked students may qualify for both forms of financial support at the same time.

NLU Delhi operates a discretionary VC fee waiver for financially needy students through a Financial Assistance Committee, with no published eligibility criteria. Separately, the Delhi government funds five annual scholarships for SC/ST students at NLUD covering both tuition and boarding.

Below these institutions, internal aid thins sharply. HNLU, NUJS and a handful of others have scholarship committees or internal funds, but with unpublished criteria that require direct institutional contact to navigate.

The Aditya Birla Scholarship, at ₹1.80 lakh per annum renewable through graduation, is available at 5 institutions - NLSIU, NALSAR, WBNUJS, GNLU and NLU Jodhpur. Eligibility is restricted to the top 20 CLAT admits at each institution, who then compete through an essay and interview round. 8 scholars are selected across all 5 NLUs each year.

A new entrant is the Arunkumar & Ramniklal Mehta (ARRA) Scholarship, from the Rosy Blue Foundation, launched in May 2025 and currently available only at NLSIU. It targets top-20 CLAT admits at NLSIU with a family income below ₹35 lakh. This ceiling permits coverage to most Indian middle-class households and offers full funding covering tuition, living and maintenance expenses.

The Ministry of Minority Affairs' Post-Matric Scholarship scheme, allocated ₹1,065 crore in 2023–24, saw just ₹5.31 crore actually spent in that year. In 2025–26, disbursement was zero. The Merit-cum-Means Scholarship for professional and technical courses, which law students from minority communities could access, dropped from ₹400 crore in utilisation in 2020–21 to ₹19.41 crore by 2024–25.

These figures were disclosed by Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju in a written response to the Rajya Sabha in August 2025. The Ministry attributed the freeze to an ongoing fraud investigation. The revival proposal has been cleared by the Expenditure Finance Committee twice without reaching the cabinet.

For SC and ST students, the Central Sector Scholarship of Top Class Education, administered by the Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment and Tribal Affairs, covers full tuition fees and an academic allowance of ₹86,000 in the first year and ₹41,000 in subsequent years, at institutions notified by the Ministry, including NLUs. Slots per institution are limited, eligibility is income-capped at ₹8 lakh per annum, and selection among eligible applicants is merit-based.

The problem seems to be that most scholarships do not match the fee structures at top law schools. The NLUs with relatively stronger internal scholarship systems also happen to be some of the most expensive.

As a result, students with real financial need who do not get into the top NLUs mostly have to rely on government scholarships. But many of these schemes for minority students are currently not functional.

The fixes may be hard to implement but not hard to identify. More consistent and adequate state government funding to NLUs could reduce their dependence on tuition fees to cover operating costs.

A central regulatory framework - long proposed but never enacted - that sets fee revision guidelines and mandates transparency would bring some uniformity to a system that currently operates on institutional discretion. When a question regarding the same was raised in Lok Sabha in 2019, then Union Minister of Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad had stated that there was no such proposal before the government. That position does not seem to have changed since.

The most impactful change could be to award scholarships before the academic year begins - in amounts that actually cover the cost of the education - and to extend meaningful support beyond SC, ST and PwD categories to EWS and OBC students from low-income families.

The Central government's minority scholarship schemes, currently frozen amid a fraud investigation, need to be revived with stronger disbursal mechanisms.

None of this is new. These recommendations have been made before, including by those within the legal education system. What is missing is the institutional will to act on them.