Making an Informed Decision before you start your Journey
During my UG, I interned under several advocates at the District Court as well as High Court level. After exploring every field that Law has to offer, I decided to go for the judicial services examination. Litigation was never the first choice in my mind. I was always passionate about becoming a judge because I saw various Hon’ble High Court and Supreme Court Judges coming to the college for some seminars and conferences during my time at college. I was amazed by their charismatic personality and the kind of power and respect that society commands. Right from that day, I decided that I also wanted to be a judge, and I also wanted to give back to society in the best possible manner. But I advise each and every law student that before you choose any field, you should explore because until you explore, you cannot make an informed decision. It is very necessary that you take some litigation experience during your internship as well as you should also do judicial clerkship because this will help you decide whether you want to do litigation or whether you want to come on the other side of the dais.
How I Prepared for the exam, what factors I took into consideration and what is the ideal time to start preparation
I am a person who always prefers self-study over coaching. Although self-study takes a good amount of time to understand the concepts compared to getting spoon-fed in the coaching institutions, I think it helps you in the long run because when you try to solve everything by yourself, your mind develops a habit to work a lot. But it differs from person to person whether he/she wants to prepare by doing self-study or want to join some coaching institution.
I started with reading Bare Acts of major laws and simultaneously reading standard commentaries on the subject. Multiple revisions are the key to understanding and remembering this vast course. Once you have covered all the major subjects, you can shift your attention towards the minor subjects and local laws. For Prelims, you should try to solve as many multiple-choice questions as possible and once you clear prelims, you can make a specific strategy for mains. The strategy involves going through the past year papers, understanding the exam pattern, and trying to develop the answer writing habit. You will realize the value of good content and standard commentaries at this stage because if you have good content in your mind, you will not encounter many problems while taking down that content on paper. After covering the course thoroughly, you can join some mock test series and give as many mocks as possible. This will develop your answer writing habit, and your mentor can focus on your stronger as well as weaker areas where you need to work. Every person has his own rules for success, and I hope during this journey you will also be able to find your own ways, which you can tell people later on.
If you want to succeed in competitive exams, then you need to be very disciplined, regular and patient in your approach. These are the qualities that are required from a judge and which will help you to clear any exam which you target. Also, there is a need to refrain from using any kind of social media during the preparation phase. I deliberately kept with myself a very normal keypad phone so that I could devote most of the productive hours to my studies and simultaneously focus on my fitness and sports-related activities. The major problem is our generation is wasting a lot of time using social media. I advise you as a senior that stop yourself from using social media for a year or two; believe me, when you will come back, you will have a lot more followers than you expect.
Sources for Judiciary Exam
Bare Acts for every Law mentioned in the course.
Once you have read bare acts then move towards standard commentaries on the subject. By standard commentaries I mean the student edition of the book. Here I am providing a list which I found useful. But again its your personal choice depending upon the author’s way of writing the book, your budget & any other relevant consideration.
- Kelkar or Takwani for CrPC,
- Pillai or R&D for IPC,
- Poonam Pradhan on Family and Property Law,
- Takwani for CPC,
- Vepa P Sarthi or Batuk Lal for Evidence)
- Avtar Singh or Bangia for Contract
- Avtar Singh for Specific Relief Act
- Takwani for Limitation Act
- Bangia or R&D for Torts
- Khergamvala for Negotiable Instruments Act
- I.P Massey on Administrative Law
- A.K. Jain (Ducci) for Constitution, Interpretation of Statutes, Sale of Goods, Partnership, Registration, LLP.
- For acts like Domestic Violence, Motor Vehicle, Consumer Protection, Probation of Offenders Act, Juvenile Justice, Arbitration, Local State Specific Acts Bare acts are sufficient along with important cases.
- If you have habit of making notes then do make notes
- Follow Live Law or Bar & Bench regularly
For practising Mcq’s you can buy:
- M.A. Rashid’s Book on MCQ’s for Judicial Services
- Singhal Publications Previous Year Pre-Paper Solved Book
For practising Mains Answer Writing
- Solve Past Year Papers
- Test Series prepared by any coaching or your course teacher
It is important to get your answer scripts checked by your teachers or seniors.
For Judgement, Order Writing & Charge Framing you can refer to Singhal’s Book on Judgement Writing or any other book that you find useful.
Approach
Always start with major subjects and then move towards minor. If you are targeting different judiciaries then it will help you a lot because Major Laws are same everywhere. You just need to prepare the state specific and some minor acts in addition.
Answer Word Limit
Most of the time they provide you with the word limit. If not provided then follow this:
For 2 Mark- Max. 20-30 Words
For 3- 50 Words
For 5- Around 120-150 Words
For 10- Roughly 2-3 pages
Try to keep your answers short and to the point. The paper is lengthy and if you will give more time to a particular question then chances are that you will lose some other question of higher weightage. Completing the paper itself is big achievement. Save you time and energy for long answer.
Importance of Case Laws
They help you earn brownie points. But don’t worry even if you have the tendency to forget. It is okay as long as you are remembering the section or rule number and applying the correct reasoning and giving the correct interpretation. But try to remember the cases on important topics. Some questions are totally based on a particular case. So to solve these type of questions you need to remember the case.
Mocks
The more the number of mocks you would give the better will be answer writing. But before moving towards answer writing try to complete the course thoroughly atleast two-three times. Always analyse your mocks. Best way is to tally them with what is provided in the commentaries.
Answer Writing
First give introduction of the topic asked in answer. Then provide the law applicable. Next step is to analyse or interpret the law and mention the case law on the point and finally provide a conclusion or critic depending upon the question. Try to give maximum in the least amount of words.
Interview Stage
Interview is the third stage of this prestigious exam. The interview panel consists of Hon’ble High Court Judges. They already know that since we have cleared the mains exam, we are sound enough in law, so what they want to test is whether you have those qualities required out of a judge. Patience, impartiality, ability to listen to the other side, acting on the spot, rational thinking, a reasonable mind, a common sensical approach and empathy are qualities that they look for. Apart from this, they will be testing you on the other aspects of life. The interview will not be restricted to the Law portion, but it will revolve around what you did in your college days, what are your interests and what you do in your free time. They will also be presenting to you some actual situations that how you will deal with those situations as a judge. My advice to all the aspirants is to be genuine before the panel, don’t try to give false answers or try to manipulate the panel because they already know whether you are speaking truth or lie. At least be true to yourself. If you don’t know about any questions, just say that I apologize; I don’t know. There is no need to get nervous before the interview; the panel ensures that you feel comfortable before them so that you can answer the questions in the best possible manner.
BY- HARSHIT SHARMA