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The Supreme Court has waived the three-year practice requirement for candidates applying for Civil Judge (Junior Division) examinations pursuant to recruitment notifications issued between May 20, 2025 and March 31, 2027.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice K Vinod Chandran (dissenting) said all law graduates would be eligible to apply during this transitional period, notwithstanding the three-year practice requirement.

The Court said such candidates would be deemed to have completed one year of active practice for the purposes of their applications. They will not be required to furnish a separate certificate of practice for the deemed period.

“In light of the above discussions, we consider it appropriate to issue the following directions which would apply to all recruitment notifications, advertisements issued through the post of Civil Judge Junior Division in the transitional period, namely from the date the judgment was in May 25 pronounced and up to 31st March 2027. The directions are – all law graduates shall be eligible to apply notwithstanding the 3-year practice requirement. Having regard to the fact that more than one year has elapsed since the judgment under review was pronounced, such candidates shall, for the purposes of their applications, be deemed to have completed one year of active practice. There shall not be required to furnish a separate certificate of practice in report of the said deemed period”, the Court held.

Candidates selected pursuant to these recruitments will, however, be appointed initially as Trainee Judicial Officers. They will undergo one year of intensive training at the concerned State Judicial Academy, followed by one year of structured law clerkship. The clerkship will include six months under the supervision of the Principal District Judge, District and Sessions Judge or a member of the Higher Judicial Service, and six months under a sitting judge of the concerned High Court.

The Court said the training and clerkship periods will be treated as equivalent to two years of practice at the Bar for the purposes of the three-year requirement.

The direction has been issued as a transitional arrangement after the Court restored the three-year practice requirement in its May 20, 2025 judgment. The Court held that the sudden restoration of the requirement without a transitional arrangement had caused hardship to law graduates when had prepared for judicial examinations under the earlier regime.

“The sudden restoration of the requirements without any transitional arrangement has visited hardship upon law graduates who had prepared their professional lives on the basis of the regime that prevailed for over two decades”, the Court observed.

The Court has otherwise retained the requirement of prior practical exposure, but reduced the requirement to one year for recruitments after the transitional period. For recruitment notifications issued on or after April 1, 2027, candidates will have to possess at least one year of actual practice before appearing for the Civil Judge (Junior Division) examination. The selected candidates will have to undergo training for one year and clerkship for one year thereafter ( 6 months under District Judge and 6 months under High Court judge).

Case no. – W.P.(C) No. 001110/2025

Case Title – Bhumika Trust v. Union of India and connected cases

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