Rajasthan Judicial Service Syllabus: Prelims, Mains and Interview

The Rajasthan Judicial Service syllabus is built around the law that a Civil Judge applies every day: civil procedure, contracts, property, evidence, criminal procedure and the penal law, plus Hindi and English for language proficiency. The Rajasthan High Court names the papers and the statutes in its advertisement for each Civil Judge cadre recruitment. Candidates then prepare the acts in full.

The High Court does not publish a topic-by-topic syllabus beyond the statutes named in the scheme. The lists below are built from the scheme and statutes reported for the 2025 cycle, and each act is broken into practical study areas. Use them as a working checklist, not as an official list, and compare them with the next advertisement.

Table of Contents

Syllabus at a Glance

Key Changes to Know

• New criminal codes: The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS), the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (BSA) now appear in the scheme beside the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act. Study both sets and the section-wise mapping between them.

• Judgment writing: The Main Examination law papers include order and judgment writing and framing of charges. Many candidates treat these as an afterthought.

• Prelims weightage: Law carries 70 per cent and Hindi and English carry 15 per cent each. Some older pages show a general knowledge section that is not part of the scheme as reported for 2025.

• Older pages: Pages written before 2024 may list only the IPC and CrPC. Follow the official notification for the cycle you are applying to.

Preliminary Examination Syllabus

The Preliminary Examination draws its law questions from the same acts as the two Main law papers, so a single round of study serves both stages. The paper is objective and carries no negative marking, which makes broad coverage more valuable than deep study of a few acts.

Law (70 per cent)

High-weight areas in most papers are the Code of Civil Procedure, the Evidence law, the criminal procedure code and the penal code. The cheque dishonour provisions of the Negotiable Instruments Act form a small part of the syllabus, but they matter because such cases fill a magistrate's daily list.

English proficiency (15 per cent)

• Grammar: Tenses, articles and determiners, active and passive voice, direct and indirect speech, coordination and subordination.

• Modals: Obligation, request, permission, prohibition, intention, condition, probability, possibility, purpose, reason and contrast.

• Vocabulary: Synonyms and antonyms, and phrasal verbs and idioms where the paper tests them.

Hindi proficiency (15 per cent)

• Word formation: Sandhi and its dissolution, samas, upsarg and pratyay.

• Word types: Tatsam, ardha-tatsam, tadbhav, deshaj and videshi words; noun, pronoun, adjective, verb and indeclinable.

• Vocabulary: Synonyms, antonyms, word pairs, words with similar sounds and different meanings, and choosing the appropriate word.

• Grammar and usage: Gender, number, person, tense, mood and voice; sentence formation and correction; punctuation; idioms and proverbs; administrative and legal terminology.

Main Examination Syllabus

The Main Examination is descriptive. You are expected to apply the law to facts, draft a clear order and write in a structured way. Marks come from accuracy of the legal provision, quality of reasoning and clarity of language.

Law Paper I: civil law (100 marks)

• Procedure: Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, including framing of issues, evidence on affidavit, decree drafting and execution.

• Substantive civil law: Contract Act, Transfer of Property Act, Specific Relief Act, Limitation Act, Partnership Act and Registration Act.

• Personal law: The four Hindu Acts named above and Mohammedan law.

• State laws: Rajasthan Rent Control Act, 2001; Rajasthan Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1961; Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, 1956.

• Constitution and evidence: The Constitution of India, the Evidence law (Indian Evidence Act and BSA) and interpretation of statutes.

• Order and judgment writing: Writing a civil order or judgment from given facts.

Law Paper II: criminal law (100 marks)

• Procedure: CrPC and BNSS, including investigation, cognizance, bail, charge, trial, appeal and inherent powers.

• Substantive criminal law: IPC and BNS.

• Evidence: Indian Evidence Act and BSA as they apply to criminal trials.

• Special laws: Negotiable Instruments Act (Chapter XVII), Juvenile Justice Act, Probation of Offenders Act, POCSO, Domestic Violence Act, workplace harassment law, Indecent Representation of Women Act, Rajasthan Excise Act and the Information Technology Act, 2000.

• Framing of charges and judgment writing: Drafting a charge and a criminal judgment from a fact situation.

Essay papers (50 marks each)

The Hindi essay and the English essay are written in two hours each. The specific topics are not published. Reported themes in coaching material range from Rajasthan and legal issues to current affairs and the justice system, but treat that as guidance, not a list.

Act-Wise Depth: What to Read in the Major Acts

The statute list tells you what to read. It does not tell you how deep to go. Use this guide for the acts that carry the most weight across both stages.

Code of Civil Procedure, 1908

• Sections: Learn the main sections on jurisdiction, res judicata, res sub judice, transfer of cases, appeals, reference, review and revision.

• Orders and Rules: Pay equal attention to the Orders on parties, pleadings, summons, interim injunctions, discovery, framing of issues, judgment and execution, because procedure is applied through the Orders as much as through the sections.

• Drafting: Practise a plaint, a written statement and a decree sheet at least once.

Evidence law

• Relevancy: Admissions, confessions, dying declarations, expert opinion and character evidence.

• Proof: Burden of proof, presumptions, documentary evidence, oral evidence and examination of witnesses.

• Two Acts: Keep the old section numbers and the BSA numbers side by side in one table.

Criminal procedure and penal law

• Procedure: Registration of FIR, investigation, arrest, bail, cognizance, charge, trial types, judgment, sentencing, appeals and the inherent powers of the High Court.

• Substantive law: General exceptions, abetment, conspiracy, offences against the body, property and public tranquillity, and offences relating to marriage.

• Changes: For the BNS and BNSS, note which offences were renumbered, merged or newly added.

Contract, property and relief

• Contract: Offer and acceptance, consideration, void and voidable agreements, remedies for breach, indemnity and guarantee, bailment and agency.

• Property: Transfer of property in its different forms, and the rights and duties of parties under a lease or a mortgage.

• Relief: Specific performance, injunctions and declaratory relief under the Specific Relief Act.

Overlap Between Prelims and Mains

Most of the law you study for the prelims is reused in the mains. This table shows what to study once and what needs separate work.

Interview: Is There a Syllabus?

No topic list is notified for the interview. It carries 35 marks and, as reported for the 2025 scheme, assesses personality, general awareness, legal knowledge and familiarity with Rajasthan, including its dialects and social customs. Keep your own application form details ready, revise important recent judgments and read a newspaper daily.

How to Cover the Syllabus

A twelve-month plan works well if you start from scratch. Adjust the phases to the time you have.

1. Months 1 to 3, core acts: Read the Code of Civil Procedure, the Evidence law and the criminal procedure code with a commentary or a trusted guide. Start a Hindi and English grammar routine of 30 minutes a day.

2. Months 4 to 6, substantive law: Cover the penal law, Contract Act, Transfer of Property Act, Specific Relief Act and the personal laws. Add the Rajasthan acts.

3. Months 7 to 8, practice: Begin act-wise tests, topic tests and previous year papers.

4. Months 9 to 10, writing: Write one civil and one criminal answer a week, and practise judgment writing and framing of charges. Add essays in both languages.

5. Months 11 to 12, revision: Take full-length mocks in the exam format, analyse each paper the same day and revise your error log.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Skipping state laws: The Rajasthan acts are specific to the state, so they are easy to leave for the end and hard to catch up on.

• Reading without writing: The Main Examination rewards written practice, so reading alone leaves a gap.

• Ignoring language papers: A weak essay can cost marks in a stage where every mark moves the rank.

• Using one source for everything: Cross-check any topic list against the bare act and the latest advertisement.

The official site, https://hcraj.nic.in, remains the final reference for the scheme.