Delhi Judicial Services syllabus
Preliminary Examination Syllabus
This 2-hour, objective-type paper includes a 0.25 negative marking penalty. It evaluates candidates on:
- General Knowledge & Aptitude: Current legal events, landmark Supreme Court rulings, and general awareness.
- English Language: Grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.
- Core Laws:
- Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) / Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS)
- Code of Civil Procedure (CPC)
- Indian Penal Code (IPC) / Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS)
- Indian Evidence Act / Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA)
- Arbitration and Conciliation Act
- Constitution of India
- Limitation Act
- Commercial Courts Act
- Indian Contracts Act
- Specific Relief Act
- Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO)
- Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) Act
- Legal Maxims
- Delhi Rent Control Act
- English Language
- Legal General Knowledge
Main Examination Syllabus
The Mains exam consists of four descriptive papers with 3 hour each. Totaling to 850 marks and 12 hour total time.
Paper 1: General Legal Knowledge & Language (250 Marks)
Paper 1 is divided into 2 sections.
Section 1 - General Legal Knowledge
- Current Legal Affairs: Landmark judgments delivered by the Supreme Court of India and High Courts.
- Legal Developments: Recent socio-legal developments, newly enacted central legislation, and high-profile ordinances.
- Constitutional Trends: Contemporary debates, legal issues, and changes in constitutional governance.
Section 2 - Language
- Essay Writing: Detailed descriptive essays analyzing general topics, social legal issues, or constitutional themes.
- Précis Writing: Reading a complex, long legal passage and summarizing it concisely with clear, accurate language.
- Translation (English to Hindi): Translating a substantive passage from English to Hindi using the Devanagari script.
- Translation (Hindi to English): Translating a court order or vernacular testimony passage from Hindi to English.
Paper 2: Civil Law I (200 Marks)
This paper focuses primarily on substantive civil law and personal laws. Questions are generally problem-based, testing analytical logic over rote memorization.
- Substantive Laws:
- The Indian Contract Act, 1872: General principles, damages, bailment, pledge, agency, and special contracts.
- The Specific Relief Act, 1963: Discretionary remedies, specific performance, injunctions, and declaratory decrees.
- The Transfer of Property Act, 1882: Sales, mortgages, leases, exchanges, gifts, and actionable claims.
- The Sale of Goods Act, 1930: Conditions, warranties, transfer of property, performance, and rights of unpaid sellers.
- The Indian Partnership Act, 1932: Nature, mutual relations, incoming/outgoing partners, and dissolution of firms.
- Family/Personal Laws:
- Hindu Law: Marriage, divorce, adoption, minority, guardianship, succession, and Hindu joint family/coparcenary properties.
- Mohammedan Law: Marriage, dower, divorce, parentage, legitimacy, guardianship, gifts, wills, and inheritance.
- Torts & Local Rent Acts:
- Law of Torts: General defenses, vicarious liability, strict/absolute liability, negligence, nuisance, and defamation.
- The Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958: Eviction of tenants, standard rent, controllers' jurisdictions, and local land laws.
Paper 3: Civil Law II (200 Marks)
This paper evaluates procedural civil regulations, evidentiary compliance, and specialized corporate/remedial civil legislations.
- Core Civil Procedure & Evidence:
- The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC): Complete procedural machinery from the institution of suits, pleadings, execution of decrees, appeals, references, reviews, to revisions.
- The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (Civil Aspect): Relevancy of facts, oral and documentary evidence, burden of proof, and presumptions.
- Limitation & Registration:
- The Limitation Act, 1963: Computation of limitation periods, condonation of delay, legal disability, and prescription.
- The Registration Act, 1908: Compulsorily and optionally registrable documents, effects of non-registration, and procedures.
- Commercial & Alternative Dispute Resolution:
- The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996: Domestic arbitration, enforcement of awards, and conciliation proceedings.
- The Commercial Courts Act, 2015: Jurisdiction of commercial courts, summary judgments, and specialized litigation procedures.
- The Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 (LLP): Formation, conversion, partner liability, and corporate civil defaults.
- The Trade Marks Act, 1999 & The Copyright Act, 1957: Fundamental intellectual property parameters and civil remedies for infringement.
Paper 4: Criminal Law (200 Marks)
This paper covers substantive and procedural criminal jurisprudence. It places major emphasis on practical applications like formatting charges, checking evidentiary admissibility, and framing judicial judgments.
- Core Penal Laws:
- The Indian Penal Code (IPC): General exceptions, criminal conspiracies, offenses against the human body, offenses against property, and offenses against public tranquility.
- The Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC): Arrest mechanisms, investigation, framing of charges, trial procedures before different courts, judgments, bail, appeals, and revisions.
- The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (Criminal Aspect): Confessions, dying declarations, expert testimonies, admissibility of electronic records, and examination of witnesses.
- Special Criminal Enactments:
- The Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881: Specifically section 138 onwards regarding dishonor of cheques, trials, and statutory defenses.
- The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO): Procedures, special offenses, protections, and fast-track penal updates.
- The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015: Procedure for children in conflict with law and child welfare boards.
- The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005: Protection orders, residence orders, and reliefs.
- The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 (POSH): Composition of local/internal committees and penal processes.