What is UGC NET (Law) and How to crack it?

Priyanka
Jun 06, 2022

The National Testing Agency (NTA) conducts the UGC NET (Law) twice a year for the students in their final year pursuing LLM and LLM graduates or a related stream who wish to explore their career options in law. Qualifying the exam makes one eligible for the post of Assistant Professor, Junior Research Fellow (JRF), and various other jobs relating to the academic profession in the reputed organisations.

The article aims to provide detailed information on the UGC NET (Law) exam, career opportunities after clearing the exam, and study tips towards the end. Read on!

Career opportunities after clearing the exam

Candidates can pursue research in their respective postgraduate disciplines after passing the exam. They can enroll in Ph.D. programmes at various universities and IIMs by selecting universities from the NET Coordinating Institutes. They are also awarded a five-year fellowship after registering for a Ph.D.: Rs. 31,000/month+HRA (HRA availability varies by the institute) for the first two years, and Rs. 35,000/month+HRA for the next three years. Qualified candidates can also work as researchers in a variety of organizations. Alternatively, such candidates can set up their own research laboratories. Candidates who pass the UGC-NET exam are also eligible for lucrative positions offered by Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).

Eligibility Criteria

Education Qualification

Masters in Law or related subjects with a minimum of 55% (For General) and 50% (For OBC/SC/ST/PwD/Transgender).

If you are in the qualifying year of your master’s or have passed the exams but are in the result awaited category, you can also apply for UGC NET. But, as per the NET Exam eligibility, the PG results must be declared within 2 years from the release date of the UGC NET Result declaration.

Age limit

For Assistant Professor, there are no?age limit criteria.

For NET JRF, the age limit is 31 years (For General) and 36 years (for OBC/SC/ST/PwD/Female/Transgender).

Note: Candidates who are pursuing an L.L.M. Degree get 3 years of relaxation in age.

Months in which the exam is usually conducted

The NTA conducts the UGC NET twice in a rolling year. Usually, the examinations are conducted in the months of June and December for the eligibility for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and Assistant Professor in Indian universities and colleges. However, due to the pandemic, December 2020 and June 2021 cycles were merged and now the December 2021 and June 2022 have been merged.

Paper Pattern, usual timings, and marking scheme

UGC NET Law has two papers - Paper I and Paper-II. Paper I is common for all UGC NET applicants and Paper-II of UGC NET law is subject-specific. The paper pattern and marking scheme have been discussed below in detail:

Exam Pattern	Paper I	Paper II
Total Marks	100	200
Number of Questions	50	100
Syllabus	Teaching & Research Aptitude, Communication, Mathematical Reasoning & Aptitude, Comprehension, Logical Reasoning, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), People, Development & Environment, Data Interpretation, Higher Education System	Jurisprudence, Constitutional and Administrative Laws, International Laws, Law of Crimes, Law of Torts and Consumer Protection, Commercial Law, Family Law (Hindu and Muslim law), Environmental and Human Rights Law, Intellectual Property Rights (Each unit contains 10 topics)
Duration (no break between paper I and II)	1 hour	2 hours
Marking pattern	2 marks for each correct answer (no negative marking)
Language	English and Hindi
Mode of examination	Online mode- Computer-based test (CBT)
Usual Examination timings	First Shift: 09.00 AM to 12.00 PM Second Shift: 03.00 PM to 06.00 PM
Minimum marks needed to clear the exam	General: 40% aggregate marks in both the papers taken together Other Backward Class-Non-Creamy Layer (OBC-NCL)/Persons with Disability (PwD)/Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST): 35% aggregate marks in both the papers taken together

Validity of the exam score

Once you clear NET and JRF, you have 2 years of validity of the score for applying to colleges for research fellowship. The score has lifelong validity if you want to apply as an assistant professor.

Types of questions asked

Questions in the exam are usually asked in the following forms:

Article/Section numbers
Questions based on illustrations
Situation based questions
Definitions
Judgments

List of important documents

Apart from basic information like email ID, personal phone number for registration, and permanent address with PIN code, candidates should also keep the other necessary documents and details to make the application procedure convenient, such as:

Certificate from the University/board
Identity proof issued by the government such as Aadhar Card, Ration Card, Voter Id, PAN Id
Masters Degree Certificate (If your master’s degree result is not declared at the time of applying for the exam, it can be mentioned in the form itself.)
Category/EWS/PWD Certificate (If Applicable)
Scanned Photograph and Signature
Exam information brochure for Code of UGC NET exam (For law, the code is 58)
Code of post-graduation course (available in information brochure)

Procedure to apply for the exam

The application form can be filled only through online mode, as per the following procedure:

Visit the NTA Official Website and click on the “Registration of Online Application Form for UGC-NET ”

Fill out the application form (personal details, contact details, address, etc.). Note that the details must be appropriately filled otherwise the application form may get rejected.

Upload scanned photographs & signature. It must be noted that:

Both the files must be in JPG/JPEG format only.
The size of the photograph must range from 10 KB to 200 KB and it must have the candidate's name and the date of the day when the picture was clicked.
The size of the signature must range from 4 KB to 30 KB and it should be in running handwriting on white paper with a black pen.

Pay the Examination Fee: The fee payment procedure under the UGC NET application is completely online. One can pay through Debit or Credit Card or through Net Banking or Paytm. If the confirmation page is not generated after the payment, it means that the transaction has been cancelled. In such cases, the amount will be refunded to the candidate’s account. However, the candidate will have to make another transaction for the UGC NET online payment.

Print Confirmation Page: Once your form is successfully submitted, you can download the application form and take the printout for future reference. It is important to keep the print/softcopy of the online submitted UGC NET application as it is required at the time of downloading the UGC NET Admit Card.

List of important books for Paper II

UGC NET/SLET Law by Pankaj Jaiswal
CBSE UGC NET Law by R Gupta (Contains all previous year questions)
Trueman’s UGC NET Law by Suman Chauhan
PSA Pillai for IPC
Avtar Singh and R.K. Bangia for Law of Contracts
R.K. Bangia’s Law of Torts
IP Massey on Administrative Law
Constitutional Law of India by Narendra Kumar
For Company Law, MCA website can be referred as it provides all the latest amendments
K. Jain for Public International Law or commentaries upon international law by Phillimore
Paras Diwan’s Family Law (for Hindu Law) and Syed Khalid Rashid’s Muslim Law
For other laws like Refugee Law, Human Rights, Arbitration, Labour, IBC, Tax, IPR, Environment, etc. bare acts can be referred and a simple google search can be conducted for latest judgments and notes.

Study tips to crack the exam

Examine the syllabus of UGC NET (Law) properly and mark separately all the topics/subjects which you know well and which need practice. Start your preparation by studying the subjects you know well.
Prepare a systematic timetable.
Make your own short notes so that you can revise them at the last minute.
Solve previous years’ papers to learn the exact paper pattern, types of questions asked, and difficulty level, and identify the areas where you need improvement. One can also solve judicial service exam question papers. Practice the papers rigorously!
Revise on a daily basis.
Focus on the most important subjects first like Constitution, Jurisprudence, IPC, and international law.
Allot most of your revision time to the subjects, which contain more weightage.
Time management is very important for clearing the exam. Practice mock tests and review them properly to increase your speed and accuracy.
Have a balanced approach regarding preparation for Paper I and II.
Make a list of landmark and important case laws along with the judgment year and final decision.
Devote at least 5-7 hours/day for preparation.
Focus on bare acts. Then, refer to books.
Prepare minimum 6 law subjects thoroughly for Paper II.
Read the newspaper daily.
Start learning from practicing i.e. start by solving MCQs.
Start preparing 3 to 6 months before the exam.
In case of any doubts or difficulties, seek help from teachers or seniors.
Have faith and don’t lose your confidence.

All the best!