The Punjab Civil Services (Judicial Branch) examination has a shape of its own — a 125-question screening paper, a compulsory Punjabi paper in Gurmukhi that ends more candidacies than any substantive law paper, and a civil syllabus built on Punjab's own statutes. This page sets out what the examination actually asks for, and how we teach it.
Candidates who prepare from a generic judiciary syllabus lose marks in three predictable places. All three are Punjab-specific.
Paper V is Punjabi in the Gurmukhi script, and you cannot be called to the viva without clearing it — however well you have done elsewhere. Candidates who studied outside Punjab routinely underestimate this.
The Punjab Courts Act and the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 sit inside Paper I alongside the central codes. Neither appears in a standard LL.B. syllabus.
Paper II carries customary law alongside Hindu and Mohammedan law — a subject most law graduates have never formally studied, and one where Punjab has a distinct body of precedent.
A single objective paper, used only to screen. The marks do not carry forward into your final tally — but the cut-off is real and the negative marking is unforgiving.
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Format | 125 objective questions, one paper |
| Duration | 2 hours |
| Marks | 500 — each question carries 4 marks |
| Negative marking | 0.20 deducted for each wrong answer |
| Qualifying marks | 150 general · 100 reserved categories |
| Shortlist | Roughly ten times the number of vacancies |
Coverage runs across the main subjects of law, Indian legal and constitutional history, governance, current affairs, and reasoning and aptitude. The breadth is the difficulty: a question on constitutional history sits next to one on the Contract Act, and there is no sectional time.
Five papers, three hours each. This is where selection is actually decided, and where answer-writing technique separates candidates who know the law from candidates who score for it.
| Paper | Subject | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Paper I | Civil Law — I | 200 |
| Paper II | Civil Law — II | 200 |
| Paper III | Criminal Law | 200 |
| Paper IV | English | 200 |
| Paper V | Punjabi (Gurmukhi script) | 150 |
| Viva-voce | Conducted in English | 100 |
Code of Civil Procedure · Punjab Courts Act · Indian Contract Act · Sale of Goods Act · Indian Partnership Act · Specific Relief Act · Transfer of Property Act, 1882 · East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 · Indian Evidence Act.
Hindu law · Mohammedan law · customary law · the Registration Act and the Limitation Act. Personal and customary law carry disproportionate weight here relative to the time most candidates give them.
The penal code, the code of criminal procedure and the law of evidence — now the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, taught against the provisions they replaced.
An essay of roughly 1,000–1,100 words, précis writing, comprehension, vocabulary and correction of sentences. Two hundred marks, and the paper candidates most often leave unrehearsed.
Punjabi in the Gurmukhi script, at roughly matriculation standard. No book is prescribed. Translation, explanation of a passage, and composition. Qualifying, and non-negotiable.
One hundred marks, conducted in English, directed at general awareness, alertness and outlook rather than at black-letter recall. Reached only after clearing the written aggregate.
The rule is blunt: no candidate is called to the viva-voce without qualifying in the Punjabi paper, whatever the aggregate. A candidate can clear every law paper comfortably and go no further.
Two groups get caught. Candidates who studied law outside Punjab and have not written formal Punjabi since school. And candidates who speak Punjabi fluently at home but have never written it in Gurmukhi — spoken fluency does not produce a clean translation or a structured essay under examination conditions.
It is an entirely fixable problem, and an early one. Started twelve months out, at a couple of hours a week, it is comfortably clearable. Started at the mains stage, it is the reason a year is lost.
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Degree | LL.B. from a recognised university, or an equivalent qualification recognised under the Advocates Act, 1961 |
| Age — general | 21 to 37 years |
| Age — SC/ST/BC (Punjab) | Up to 42 years |
| Age — government employees | Up to 45 years |
| Age — widows and divorced women | Up to 42 years |
| Language | Punjabi to matriculation standard — reading, writing and speaking |
Age is reckoned as on the date fixed in the advertisement, and relaxations are governed by the notification in force. Verify every figure against the current advertisement before relying on it.
Punjab candidates sit inside our Judicial Services Foundation batch for the central law that every state examination shares, and take dedicated sessions for everything Punjab adds on top.
Civil and criminal procedure, contract, property, evidence, personal law and constitutional law — taught once, examined by every state. This is the bulk of the syllabus and the bulk of the class calendar.
Punjab Courts Act, East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949, and customary law as applied in Punjab — taught separately, with question practice drawn from previous papers.
A standing weekly slot for Gurmukhi writing, translation and composition, marked and returned, running the whole length of the course rather than being crammed before the mains.
No. The examination is open to any candidate holding a recognised law degree who meets the age and language requirements. What is restricted to Punjab candidates is the reservation and the associated age relaxation for SC, ST and backward-class categories. Candidates from outside the state compete in the general category and must still satisfy the Punjabi language requirement.
The eligibility standard is matriculation level in reading, writing and speaking, and Paper V is set at broadly that level — translation, explanation of a passage, and composition in the Gurmukhi script. It does not demand literary Punjabi. It does demand that you can write the script accurately and construct a clean passage under time, which is a different skill from speaking the language at home.
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam came into force on 1 July 2024, and offences from before that date continue to be tried under the old codes. Published syllabi are still catching up with the change. We teach the new scheme alongside the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act, with a section-mapping table between them, so you can answer whichever the paper puts in front of you.
No. The preliminary examination is a screening stage only. It decides who is admitted to the mains — roughly ten times the number of vacancies — and then drops out of the reckoning. Selection is decided on the main written papers and the viva-voce.
Yes, and most of our candidates do. The central law is common across state judiciary examinations, so the overwhelming majority of your preparation serves every attempt you make. What is state-specific is the local statutes and the language paper. Punjab and Himachal Pradesh pair reasonably well on substantive law, though the language papers differ — Punjabi in Gurmukhi for Punjab, Hindi in Devanagari for Himachal Pradesh — so plan the language work for both rather than assuming one covers the other.
Broadly, a minimum in each individual paper together with an aggregate across the written papers, with a lower aggregate for reserved categories, and separate qualification in the Punjabi paper before the viva-voce. The precise figures are set by the notification for each cycle and have varied, so treat any number you read online — including on this page — as indicative and confirm it against the current advertisement.
Yes. Every class runs live on Zoom or Google Meet at the times published in the batch calendar, with the batch capped so that students are actually called on. Printed modules are couriered to your address. There is no campus to attend and no requirement to be in Delhi or Chandigarh — a substantial part of our Punjab cohort prepares from home.
Two free live online classes, with the faculty who will actually take your batch. No payment, no obligation.