In a significant move, the Supreme Court has relaxed the rule for applying for judicial service, reducing the required experience from three years to one. The decision was made in a majority judgment of 2:1, with Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice A.G. Masih upholding the court’s May 2025 judgment mandating legal practice to apply for entry into judicial service.
The court has ruled that successful applicants with a year’s legal practice will undergo a one-year intensive training at the State judicial academy concerned, followed by a final year of law clerkship with senior judicial officers and High Court judges. This decision came in review petitions filed against the May 2025 verdict.
The majority opinion, authored by Chief Justice Kant, noted that candidates who had applied for the post of Civil Judge (Junior Division) in the interregnum would be ‘deemed’ to have completed the required one year of active legal practice. They would not be asked to furnish ‘certificates of proof of practice’. Those among them who clear the exams would be designated as trainee judicial officers and will undergo the compulsory one-year training at the academy, followed by a second year of structured law clerkship.
This arrangement will benefit candidates who had applied during the transitional period while the review of the May 2025 judgment was still pending, and will be operative till March 31, 2027. However, the rule of one-year prior legal practice would come into force in earnest from April 1, 2027. From this date, only candidates who can produce the ‘certificate of proof of practice’ would be eligible to apply for appointment as Civil Judge (Junior Division).
Justice Vinod Chandran, who was part of the Bench which delivered the May 2025 judgment, dissented with the majority view, dismissing the review petitions. He emphasized the importance of experience at the Bar for students right out of college, stating that they should have a feel of the affairs of man and the travails of a litigant before deciding their destinies.
