Supreme Court Reduces Judicial Service Practice Requirement to One Year

The Supreme Court of India on 21 August 2026 reduced the minimum practice requirement for entry into the judicial service from three years to one year.

A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, along with Justices A.G. Masih and Vinod Chandran, delivered the verdict while disposing of review petitions against the earlier three-year rule. Selected candidates will undergo one year of training and one year of clerkship after selection.

The court had earlier mandated three years of practice as a prerequisite for appearing in examinations for the lower judiciary. Review petitions challenged the practical impact of that requirement on the pool of candidates and the filling of vacancies.

The judgment balances the need for basic courtroom exposure with the reality of large numbers of vacant judicial posts across states. It retains a structured post-selection training and clerkship phase intended to compensate for the shorter pre-entry practice period.

State judicial services and high courts will now implement the revised eligibility criterion for future recruitment cycles. The decision is expected to expand the number of eligible law graduates who can sit for the examinations without first completing three full years at the bar.

Vacancies in the subordinate judiciary have remained a persistent concern for case-pendency reduction targets. The shortened practice requirement is one of several measures under discussion to accelerate recruitment without abandoning the principle that judges should enter the service with some practical legal experience.