Checked 29 September 2026. CET Cell registered/appeared statistics for A.Y. 2021-22 to 2025-26, and CAP dashboards read 29 September 2026 (2026-27 still in progress). 2026-27 CET counts are not published yet.
94,506 candidates registered for MAH LLB 3-year CET for academic year 2025-26 and 74,621 sat it — the highest in five years, up from 68,875 registered in 2021-22. The 5-year CET drew 35,074 registrations and 27,372 candidates. Against that, the 2025-26 LLB 3-year CAP had 23,859 seats in 218 colleges. This guide sets the CET Cell's own counts side by side, so you can see how competitive each course really is and why most colleges still fill.
CET Cell statistics and LLB 3 Yrs CAP 2025-26 dashboard.
Five years of candidates
CET Cell, CET-wise registered and appeared candidates. Academic year = the admission year the CET was held for.
| Academic year | LLB 3-yr registered | LLB 3-yr appeared | LLB 5-yr registered | LLB 5-yr appeared |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 68,875 | 56,588 | 24,973 | 16,066 |
| 2022-23 | 78,479 | 56,445 | 29,011 | 19,738 |
| 2023-24 | 76,425 | 64,138 | 22,526 | 19,295 |
| 2024-25 | 80,125 | 68,144 | 34,766 | 26,754 |
| 2025-26 | 94,506 | 74,621 | 35,074 | 27,372 |
From the CET Cell's CET-wise status tables. Counts for A.Y. 2026-27 (the CETs of April and May 2026) had not been published when we checked on 29 September 2026.
Our arithmetic: LLB 3-year appearances rose 32% from 2021-22 to 2025-26 (56,588 to 74,621), and LLB 5-year appearances 70% (16,066 to 27,372). Roughly one registered candidate in five does not turn up — 21% of LLB 3-year registrants were absent in 2025-26 — which matters for your percentile only indirectly: the percentile is computed among those present in your session.
Seats and admissions
| Figure | LLB 3-yr 2025-26 | LLB 3-yr 2026-27 | LLB 5-yr 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colleges in CAP | 218 | 224 | 167 |
| Total intake | 23,859 | 23,516 | 13,495 |
| CAP intake / admitted | 19,975 / 19,894 | 19,678 / 13,432 | 11,289 / 7,484 |
| EWS + J&K intake / admitted | 1,679 / 819 | 1,676 / 760 | 977 / 400 |
| Management quota intake / admitted | 2,205 / 2,204 | 2,162 / 0 | 1,229 / 0 |
| Admitted (all quotas) | 22,917 | 14,192 | 7,884 |
From the LLB 3 Yrs and LLB 5 Yrs CAP portal dashboards, read 29 September 2026. The 2026-27 columns are mid-process: the institute-level round and management-quota admissions were still open.
CET Cell statistics and the LLB 3 Yrs CAP 2025-26 dashboard.
Our reading of that funnel: about three candidates sat the CET for every LLB 3-year seat in 2025-26 (74,621 against 23,859), but only about 1.9 verified CAP applicants per seat — and in the end 96% of seats were filled (22,917 of 23,859). Competition is fierce at the top two dozen colleges and mild across most of the other 200: that is the shape the cut-off guide shows too.
Reading the growth
The LLB 3-year CET grew in every year but one: appearances were flat between 2021-22 and 2022-23 (56,588 and 56,445) while registrations rose, then climbed by 7,700, 4,000 and 6,500 a year. Seats did not keep pace in the same way — the CAP had 218 colleges and 23,859 seats in 2025-26 and 224 colleges with 23,516 seats in 2026-27. We cannot see from these figures why demand grew; what they do show is that the number of candidates per seat has risen, which is the pressure behind the high closing percentiles at the best-known colleges.
Turnout: how many registrants actually sat
| Academic year | LLB 3-year: appeared ÷ registered | LLB 5-year: appeared ÷ registered |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 82.2% | 64.3% |
| 2022-23 | 71.9% | 68.0% |
| 2023-24 | 83.9% | 85.7% |
| 2024-25 | 85.0% | 77.0% |
| 2025-26 | 79.0% | 78.0% |
Our arithmetic from the CET Cell's registered and appeared counts.
Turnout has hovered around four in five for the 3-year CET, with a dip in 2022-23, and has been more volatile for the 5-year CET. A registrant who does not sit is simply absent from the percentile calculation, because the percentile is computed among candidates present in each session. The practical point is different: many people register "just in case" — which is why registration counts overstate the competition you actually face.
How LLB compares with the CET Cell's other tests
CET Cell, CET status A.Y. 2025-26. The BBA/BCA figure excludes the additional CET held later (32,839 appeared).
The LLB 3-year CET is the fifth-largest test the CET Cell runs, larger than the MCA and management-undergraduate CETs, and it grew faster than most of them over five years. Its candidates are graduates, many of them working; the 5-year CET draws Class 12 students, a pool that competes with CLAT and other national law tests.
How big was the 2026 merit list?
The cut-off pages print merit numbers, which lets us estimate list sizes (our reading). The highest Maharashtra merit number in the Round I lists we read was 40,902, and the highest All India (OMS) merit number was 1,668. Set against 42,866 verified LLB 3-year CAP applications in 2026-27, that suggests a Maharashtra list of roughly 41,000 and an All India list of under 2,000. Anyone applying from outside Maharashtra is competing in a far smaller pool for far fewer seats.
| Intake head on the dashboard | What it is |
|---|---|
| CAP | Seats allotted centrally by merit and preference in the CAP rounds — the bulk of seats (19,678 of 23,516 for LLB 3-year 2026-27) |
| EWS + J&K | A separate head for EWS and Jammu & Kashmir / Ladakh migrant seats, shown with its own intake and admitted counts |
| Management | Seats filled by the institute at its level; the 2026-27 admitted count was 0 on 29 September because those admissions come at the end |
Heads and figures from the LLB 3 Yrs CAP 2026-27 dashboard; the descriptions are ours, read from how the dashboard splits intake.
What the statistics do not tell you
Three limits on these numbers are worth stating plainly. First, the CET Cell's tables give registered and appeared counts only: they do not publish how many candidates scored above a given mark, so no percentile-to-rank table can be built from them. Second, the counts are per academic year of admission, not per calendar year of the test — the CET held in April 2026 belongs to A.Y. 2026-27, whose figures were not out when we checked. Third, the CAP dashboards are live: the 2026-27 admitted figures on this page were read on 29 September 2026, in the middle of the institute-level round, and will be higher by the 7 October deadline. When those final counts appear, the "seats filled" share for 2026-27 can be compared with 2025-26's 96%.
3-year or 5-year: the pools compared
| Measure (latest available) | LLB 3-year | LLB 5-year |
|---|---|---|
| Candidates appeared (A.Y. 2025-26) | 74,621 | 27,372 |
| Colleges in CAP (2026-27) | 224 | 167 |
| Total intake (2026-27) | 23,516 | 13,495 |
| Verified CAP applications per seat (2026-27, ours) | 1.8 | 1.3 |
Our ratios: 42,866 ÷ 23,516 and 17,525 ÷ 13,495, from the 2026-27 CAP dashboards read 29 September 2026.
On those ratios the 5-year route is the less crowded one per seat. But the two are not interchangeable: the 5-year course is for students straight after Class 12 and takes five years; the 3-year course needs a degree first.
What this means for you
Three practical conclusions
- A seat somewhere is likely for a verified CAP applicant; the contest is for the few colleges with 95+ closing percentiles.
- Register for CAP and get your documents verified — one registrant in four in 2025-26 never reached a verified application.
- The LLB 5-year pool is growing faster than the 3-year pool; if you are choosing between the routes after Class 12, factor that in alongside the 5-year paper's heavier reasoning.
Where other pages get this wrong
The CET Cell's own figures give 74,621 LLB 3-year candidates for A.Y. 2025-26 and about 23,900 LLB 3-year seats through CAP.
Commonly published instead: Round numbers such as "1.5 lakh candidates" or "only 10,000 seats".
Use the CET Cell's published statistics and the CAP portal dashboard; both are linked below.
Practise it, don't just read it
A top-two-dozen college is a percentile contest. Build your marks section by section.
The ProSyllabus MAH LLB CET library has a quiz for each section of the paper — Legal Aptitude and Legal Reasoning, General Knowledge and Current Affairs, Logical and Analytical Reasoning, English and, for the 5-year paper, Basic Mathematics. The first one is free.
How many students appear for MAH LLB 3 year CET?
74,621 appeared for A.Y. 2025-26, out of 94,506 registered — the highest in the five years the CET Cell's statistics cover.
How many students appear for MAH LLB 5 year CET?
27,372 appeared for A.Y. 2025-26, out of 35,074 registered.
How many LLB seats are there in Maharashtra?
The LLB 3-year CAP 2025-26 had 23,859 seats in 218 colleges; the 2026-27 LLB 5-year CAP shows 13,495 seats in 167 colleges.
Is MAH LLB CET tough?
For the top colleges, yes — GLC Mumbai closed at the 99.72 percentile in 2026's first round. Across all colleges about three candidates sat the CET per seat and 96% of seats were filled in 2025-26.
How many seats are filled in MAH LLB 3 year CAP?
22,917 of 23,859 seats (96%) in 2025-26, per the CAP portal dashboard. The 2026-27 count was still rising on 29 September 2026.
How many candidates are on the MAH LLB merit list?
The 2026 Round I cut-off lists printed Maharashtra merit numbers up to 40,902 and All India merit numbers up to 1,668, so roughly 41,000 and under 2,000 (our reading).
How many law colleges are in Maharashtra CAP?
224 colleges were in the LLB 3-year CAP 2026-27 and 167 in the LLB 5-year CAP 2026-27, per the portal dashboards.
Sources
- official — CET Cell — CET-wise registered and appeared candidates, A.Y. 2021-22 to 2025-26
- official — LLB 3 Yrs CAP portal 2025-26 — admission dashboard
- official — LLB 3 Yrs CAP portal 2026-27 — schedule and admission dashboard (read 29 Sep 2026)
- official — LLB 5 Yrs CAP portal 2026-27 — schedule and admission dashboard (read 29 Sep 2026)
official = a document published by the conducting body. reported = a news or coaching site we could not check against an original. Where sources disagree this page says so rather than picking one.
