The Supreme Court on Friday modified its earlier decision on the eligibility of candidates seeking entry into the judicial service, reducing the mandatory legal practice requirement from three years to one year.
The Court, however, has retained the requirement that candidates must undergo practical training before they are appointed as regular judicial officers.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Augustine George Masih and K Vinod Chandran passed the order while deciding a batch of review petitions challenging the Supreme Court’s May 2025 judgment. Justice K Vinod Chandran dissented and favoured upholding the earlier judgment in full.
The Court has provided a transition period until March 31, 2027.
Law graduates applying for judicial service examinations during this period will not have to show any prior experience of practising law. They will instead be treated as having completed one year of practice for the purpose of eligibility.
They will, however, have to complete the training and clerkship prescribed by the Court after selection.
Candidates selected during the transition period will initially be appointed as Trainee Judicial Officers.
They will first undergo one year of intensive training at the State Judicial Academy. The Court has said that this training will effectively count as one year of practice at the Bar.
After this, they will undergo another one year of structured law clerkship.
The first six months of the clerkship will be under the Principal District Judge or members of the Higher Judicial Service. The remaining six months will be spent working under a sitting judge of the concerned High Court.
This entire one-year clerkship will also be treated as equivalent to one year of legal practice.
Candidates will receive emoluments during both the training and clerkship periods.
At the end of the clerkship, the High Court judge supervising the trainee will submit an evaluation report on the candidate’s performance and suitability. If the report is satisfactory, the trainee will be appointed to the regular judicial post and will receive the applicable salary and service benefits.
For candidates applying on or after April 1, 2027, the rules will change.
They will have to establish at least one year of active legal practice before applying for judicial service.
Even after meeting this requirement, selected candidates will still have to undergo the one-year judicial academy training and one-year clerkship prescribed by the Court.
The practice requirement will have to be supported by a certificate of practice. The Court said such a certificate can be issued only after the candidate’s participation and presence in actual judicial proceedings have been properly recorded.
The Supreme Court has directed all High Courts to amend their judicial service rules within three months to bring them in line with the new scheme.
The arrangement will initially remain in force for five years, after which the Supreme Court will examine how the system has worked and decide whether any further changes are required.
The Supreme Court’s May 2025 judgment had made three years of legal practice a mandatory eligibility condition for candidates appearing for the Civil Judge (Junior Division) examination.
The Court had said the requirement would apply prospectively and would not affect recruitment processes that had already begun. It had also directed that successful candidates must undergo at least one year of training before being allowed to preside over courts.
Several review petitions were subsequently filed against the judgment.
The petitioners questioned the need for making prior legal practice compulsory and referred to earlier Law Commission reports that had not supported such a requirement. Concerns were also raised about the impact of the rule on fresh law graduates, particularly candidates from economically weaker and disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Supreme Court has now retained the basic idea that judicial officers should have practical exposure to law, but has reduced the mandatory pre-recruitment practice period and introduced a structured system of training and court-based clerkship to provide that experience.
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