Preparing for Judicial Service Examinations

Taking the Judiciary exams can be a tasking endeavour. I am an aspirant who is preparing for the exams without any coaching and here are a few pointers that I have observed from the preparation. These are helpful for people looking to start their preparation.

Haryana Judiciary

CIVIL LAW 1 – 200 marks

1.     Code of Civil Procedure

2.     Indian Contract Act

3.     Indian Evidence Act

4.     Indian Partnership Act

5.     Specific Relief Act

6.     Sales of Goods Act

7.     Punjab Courts Act

8.     Haryana Rent Act

CIVIL LAW 2 – 200 marks

9.     Hindu Law – HMA, HSA, HAMA, HMGA

10. Mohamedian Law and Customary Law

11. Law of Registration and Limitation

CRIMINAL LAW – 200 marks

1.     Indian Penal Code

2.     Criminal Procedure Code

3.     Indian Evidence Act

English – 200 marks

Hindi – 100 marks

This is the syllabus for this year’s Haryana Judiciary exams. The syllabus remains same for both the prelims and the mains with the prelims having an extra section of constitutional governance/polity and current affairs. For most of the judicial service exams, there are three stages:

1.     Prelims

2.     Mains (Usually 4-5 different exams)

3.     Interviews

Each stage has an elimination method. I am taking the example of Haryana. A cut off is given after the prelims and people 10 times the number of advertised posts go to the next round. The marks of the prelims are not counted in the merit and only the mains + interviews count towards the total. This year, there were around 53 posts advertised for General category and they took 530 candidates for the mains out of the 12-13000 people who appeared. The mains has five written exams with the syllabus given above (attaching the law exams for this year below). After the mains, people 3 times the advertised posts are taken (this year they took only 64 as opposed to the 150 they could have taken). The interview then eliminates these people.

Starting the Preparation :

·      Ideally, one should start preparing for the mains first. The prelims and mains have roughly 1-2 months between them and if you start preparing after the prelim results are out, you will most likely not be able to cover the whole syllabus.

·      The prelims still can be managed within a couple of months of study before the exam and if you are thorough with the mains prep, then you would cover a majority portion of the prelims as well.

·      Since some people have1-2 years remaining, it is an ideal time to start preparing for the mains. The basics need to be very strong for the mains and for that you need to read good reference books plus take notes

Therefore, if you have say 1 year before you sit for the exams, my personal approach would be to   (Step by Step) :

1.     Read a couple of prelims and mains exams for two different years

2.     Read bare acts cover to cover once (Casually just to know what all is there).

3.     Re- Read the bare acts carefully. Every word is important. (Thinking about the provisions, words used, and scheme of the acts)

4.     Now read the basic AK Jain books for ALL the acts (He has covered all the relevant acts in his books)

5.     TAKE NOTES (Note taking is THE KEY to any competitive exam)

6.     Once you have been through the AK Jains, you would have a basic idea about the major provisions and their interpretation. Also, you have the notes from the AK Jains. This is when the real prep starts and now you should start reading the good quality books (Some are given below) and UPGRADE YOUR NOTES

7.     Basically all this would ensure that you have comprehensive and great notes. This thing takes time and you should be thorough is preparing them. Notes taken on laptop/ipad work better because you can always update them easily and later can insert new case laws

8.     Once you have notes, collect all the past year exams of different states. Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Himachal, UP, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and try solving them from time to time. For the new things that come up, include it in your notes.

Now for different stages of the exam and their preparation.

PRELIMS

The prelims would need major focus on the provisions of the Bare Acts. Usually only a limited number of cases are asked in the prelims (say 5 questions out of 100). The wordings of the sections, the content in them, the number of the sections everything has to be studied.

Usually there are two types of questions which are asked,

1.     Content Based

2.     Section Based

(1) Content Based

These questions are usually preferred and are the ones that need some application of logic/mind/basic knowledge of the provisions. I prefer these questions because they don’t test your cramming power. Delhi usually asks these types of questions. Other States have a mix and match of both types. An example would be –

·      Quantum Meriut is based on the rule of –

(a) Rule of Equity and Justice

(b) Rule of Law

(c) Law of Fact

(d) Both 1 and 2

·      A is a tradesman in Calcutta. B carries on business in Delhi. B's agent in Calcutta, buys goods of A and requests A to deliver them to East Indian Railway Company, Bombay. A delivers the goods accordingly in Calcutta. A may sue B for the price of the goods in

(a) Calcutta, Delhi and Bombay

(b) Calcutta or Delhi

(c) at all stations of Indian Railways

(d) None of the above

There can be questions like which of the following is correct/incorrect.

So for these types of questions your preparation of the mains could be a major advantage. Apart from that, you need to know the content of the sections rather than the number of the sections. Since we have a lot of sections to cover, the first step should be to focus on the important sections in each act and thoroughly learn/understand their contents. For example 2, a person might know that the question deals with S. 20 CPC but he might not know what the section says about place of suing and he wont be able to answer.

Hence, for these types of questions you need to know the content of all the important sections of the Acts. EXTREMELY IMPORTANT for the prelims is to LEARN, UNDERSTAND EACH AND EVERY illustration to the Section. More often than not the examiners give the exact illustrations to the Sections and if you know what illustration deals with which section, you can answer easily.

(2) Section Based

For people like me who cannot cram, this part is tricky. Basically, you have to learn by heart each and every word in the important sections. The examiner would ask you specific section numbers, words used in sections and what not. The trick here is to ensure that you atleast know the important sections and hope the examiner questions you from these only. Otherwise, any word from any section of any act can be asked. This years Punjab Prelims was a total shocker for many because they had asked only 2 questions out of 125 of this kind last year and this year they had 100/125 section based questions. A lot of people with good prep could not clear the prelims.

• Alteration of charge is given under S 216 of CrPC. That the court may direct new trial in case alteration or addition of charge prejudices the accused is given under

(a) S. 216(3)

(b) S. 216(4)

(c) S. 216(5)

(d) Section 216 does not provide for new trial.

• ‘Inquiry’ is defined under CrPC

(a) S. 2(b)

(b) S. 2(g)

(c) S. 2(j)

(d) S. 2(p)

• Maximum Detention under Section 58 CPC can be for –

(a) 2 Months

(b) 3 Months

(c) 6 Months

(d) 1 Year

• Particulars in the pleading should not be given under 0.6, R. 4 in the cases of

(a) Misrepresentation

(b) Fraud

(c) Undue Influence

(d) Coercion

For this question, you need to know that O.6, R.4 contains 5 cases where you need to give particulars. Coercion does not come in those 5 and hence is the answer.

So things like these can only be crammed using some way or the other. Re-reading the acts time and time again can only help here. You would have a general idea only after some 5-6 readings of the Act. The number of sections, number of things they contain all should be remembered. Everyone has a method of cramming and I personally make some short lines to remember stuff. For example, for the last question, I picked up the first letters on the things contained in the Rule and made a line like –“ Manchester United’s Wicked Foot Ball” (Misrepresentation, Undue Influence, Wilful Default, Fraud, Breach of trust). Everyone can relate to different things and make lines that they remember. This method has worked for me till now.

The numbers, amounts, should be specifically remembered for the important sections. Ex- Amount of compensation for arrest (Rs. 50,000 under S. 95 CPC). Also, dates of major amendments should be remembered. Haryana had a question on when was plea bargaining introduced in CrPC in this year’s prelims.

Hence, the only good method is to read the bare acts carefully word by word and then keep on reading them again and again.

MAINS

Mains is a different ball game altogether and your syllabus is reduced in the sense that you don’t have to keep track of each and every section of the acts and can focus on the major ones only. Some states like Haryana and Punjab give you the bare acts in the mains and your task is relatively easy.

There are three things that can help you get through mains

1.  Clear basic concepts plus knowledge of interpretation of sections
2. Perfect expression in the exam plus good choice of words
3. Presentation in the exam and time management

The approach towards mains is that you have to ensure that all the major sections are thoroughly read and you understand the various interpretation that the SC/HC has given on the same. A seemingly simple section having simple terms might have a lot of interpretation on it. Your notes taken from good books+ak jain would be extremely helpful here and if you were good with your notes, you need not worry much here.  There are some major things that you need to know about a section

• Object and purpose
• Principles
• Indegrients
• Application
• Scope

Now there can be two different kinds of questions that are asked in mains.

1. Theory Based
2. Application Based

(1) Theory Based

These are questions that deal with the basic principles/ general concepts and you have to write the case law plus principle of the section. These are generally low scoring and if you write with a good expression plus good content, you will be able to get extra marks from others. Content can only be made better by good notes and hence the stress on note making. Haryana usually has a mix of theory and application based questions but this year they had a lot of theory questions in the exams. Delhi usually has a full out application based question paper.

• State law relating to constructive criminal liability. Refer to decided cases and relevant provisions.

• Discuss various stages of crime. How is stage of attempt punishable under IPC ? (IAS 2014)

(2) Application Based

These are like the Hypotheticals that we get in college exams. These are high scoring questions. You need to know the principles, indegrients of the section thoroughly for these questions. Usually a lot of fact situations are picked from recent case laws from the past year and one needs to have up to date knowledge about the landmark cases. Some examples are

• A is cited as a witness for the prosecution. A has however been not examined as prosecution witness. He is summoned as defence witness. During A’s cross examination, he is sought to be confronted with his statement recorded u/s 161 CrPC. The defence objects. Give finding as to relevancy and use of statement of A recorded u/s 161 CrPC.

• A assaulted his wife by kicking her repeatedly on non vital parts of her body. She fell down and became unconscious. In order to create and appearance that she committed suicide, he took up the unconscious body and thinking it to be a dead body hung it up by a rope. The post mortem examination showed that death was due to hanging. Decide the culpability of A. (IAS 2014) (Here the facts are taken from the Kapil Goudan Case)

So you need deep understanding of the law for mains and need to read a lot of case law on the sections. Your note making will be the only method to prepare for this part and the basics should be strong. Illustrations will also be helpful here as they directly give the illustrations to sections with a tiny decide at the last.

Language

Ask anyone who has cleared the judicial service exams and the only KEY to the exam lies in these language exams. A person should not be only good at English or hindi. If you want to clear the exam, you have to be good at both. Start preparing now and the exam will be easy to crack. Everyone at the mains level would know the law and depending on the presentation/expression/content only a small difference would come in the marks in law exams. The real merit is determined on basis of the language exams and persons having good command on the same can easily get through. Needless to say, all your law prep is useless without the prep for language.

- Dev Chaudhary