Four new civil judges – Manu Prinja, Sumit Thakur, Som Dev and Vikas Kapoor – have been selected following the conduct of the Himachal Pradesh Judicial Services Exam, 2018.
All four were selected after the personality test round held on May 25 this year. The results of the written rounds of the Himachal Pradesh Judicial Services Exam, 2018 were released earlier this month.
Of the newly selected candidates, Manu Prinja scored the highest in the written exams with 488 marks. His aggregate score stands at 598 marks.
Prinja briefly spoke to Bar & Bench regarding his reasons for pursuing the judicial services and how he went about preparing for the same. He said,
“The judiciary has always been an attractive job. As I read the Constitution, I fell more and more in love with the justice system. I wanted to serve it. There were two options, either be an Advocate or a Judge.“
He eventually opted for the judicial services, with the support of his parents and friends. A graduate of the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law (RGNUL), Patiala who obtained his LL.M. from the Panjab University of Law, Chandigarh, Prinja cleared the judicial services exam this year without any coaching.
What may have given Prinja the edge in clearing the exams was his familiarity with the Bare Acts. He recommends the same plan of action to future aspirants hoping to clear the judicial services exam as well.
“Get acquainted with the Bare Acts. I did not take any coaching. I did it through self-study, which was a long shot. It took me a couple of years to get acquainted with each and every part of every Bare Act in the syllabus.
Memorise almost all the Bare Acts. Mostly, in exams you will get a Bare Act. The clearer you are with the Bare Act – it’s easier to apply the law then. it doesn’t really matter if you know a lot of case laws or know a lot of jurisprudence, because it is not a test of that. It is a test of the law. I think everyone should stick to the Bare Act.”
The highest aggregate score among the newly selected candidates has been attained by Vikas Kapoor with a score of 530. He obtained 415 marks in the written exam and 115 marks for the interview round.
Sumit Thakur obtained an aggregate score of 591, scoring 483 marks for the written exam and 108 marks in the interview. Som Dev has an aggregate score of 558, with 448 marks for the written exam and 100 marks for the interview round.
View the Notification concerning appointment of civil judges by the Himachal Pradesh Public Services Commission:
View the Results of the Himachal Pradesh Judicial Services Exam 2018: