The Supreme Court of India has advertised 20 vacancies of Court Master (Shorthand), a gazetted post in its Registry, placed in Level 11 of the Pay Matrix — Rs 67,700 to Rs 2,08,700, with an initial basic pay of Rs 67,700 plus allowances.
Online registration opens on 25 October 2026 and closes on 15 November 2026 at 11.55 p.m.
Before anything else, read the eligibility. This is not an entry-level recruitment. It asks for five years of regular service as a Private Secretary, Senior PA, PA or Senior Stenographer, and a shorthand speed of 120 words per minute. A fresh graduate with a typing certificate cannot apply, however good the pay looks.
The post at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Post | Court Master (Shorthand) — gazetted, Supreme Court Registry |
| Vacancies | 20 (tentative) |
| Advertisement No. | F.6/11/CM(S)/2026-SC (RC) dated 15 October 2026 |
| Pay | Level 11 — Rs 67,700 to Rs 2,08,700, initial basic Rs 67,700 plus allowances |
| Eligibility reckoned as on | 1 October 2026 |
| Registration opens | 25 October 2026 |
| Last date | 15 November 2026, 11.55 p.m. |
| Fee | Rs 1,500 general; Rs 750 SC/ST/OBC-NCL/ex-servicemen |
| Where | New Delhi |
Who can apply
Qualification
- A degree of a recognised University in India
- Proficiency in Shorthand with a speed of 120 w.p.m. in Shorthand (English)
- Knowledge of computer operation with a typing speed of 40 w.p.m. on computer
Experience — the real filter
A minimum of five years' regular service in the cadre of Private Secretary, Senior PA, PA or Senior Stenographer in Government, Public Sector Undertakings or Statutory bodies.
Note what that excludes. Private-sector secretarial experience does not count. Contractual or outsourced service in a government office is not "regular service" in one of those cadres. If you cannot produce a service certificate showing five years in one of the four named cadres, the Rs 1,500 is wasted.
Age
- As on 1 October 2026, not below 30 years and not above 45 years
- Usual relaxation for SC, ST, OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) and ex-servicemen as per the rules
- Up to five years over and above the prescribed limit for dependants of freedom fighters
- No upper age limit for departmental candidates of the Supreme Court Registry
- No age relaxation for candidates working in other Government Departments, PSUs, Statutory bodies or Nationalised Banks
That last pair of rules is the one most people misread. Being a government stenographer elsewhere earns you no age concession here. Only the Supreme Court's own staff get the open-ended limit.
Reservation for SC, ST and OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) applies in accordance with Rule 4A of the Supreme Court Officers and Servants (Conditions of Service and Conduct) Rules, 1961.
The examination — all four stages
| # | Test | Duration | Max marks | Qualifying |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Objective Type Test — 100 questions | 1 hour | 100 | 50 |
| 2 | Shorthand (English) Test at 120 w.p.m. | 7 min dictation + 45 min transcription | 100 | 50 |
| 3 | Typing Speed Test on computer, minimum 40 w.p.m. | 10 minutes | 20 | 10 |
| 4 | Interview | — | 30 | 15 |
Total 250 marks, and every stage carries its own minimum qualifying mark. You cannot carry a strong shorthand score into a failed objective paper.
The objective paper, question by question
This is the part worth preparing from, because the breakdown is unusually specific:
| Subject | Questions |
|---|---|
| General English | 25 |
| General Knowledge | 25 |
| Provisions relating to the Judiciary in the Constitution of India | 25 |
| Supreme Court Rules, 2013 | 15 |
| Knowledge of Computer operation | 10 |
| Total | 100 questions in 1 hour |
Forty of the hundred questions are law-specific — the judiciary provisions of the Constitution and the Supreme Court Rules, 2013. That is where this paper is won, and it is the portion a career stenographer is least likely to have read. The judiciary provisions mean Articles 124 to 147 in the main, covering the establishment and constitution of the Supreme Court, appointment and removal of judges, its jurisdiction, and the binding nature of its law. The Supreme Court Rules, 2013 are published on the Court's own website and are a finite document — fifteen marks for reading something you can actually finish is the best return in this paper.
How the shorthand test is graded
Dictation runs 7 minutes at 120 w.p.m., transcription is allowed 45 minutes, and mistakes permissible are 5 per cent of the total words dictated. Grading is on a fixed scale:
| Mistakes | Marks awarded |
|---|---|
| Without mistake | 100% |
| Up to 1% | 90% |
| Up to 2% | 80% |
| Up to 3% | 70% |
| Up to 4% | 60% |
| Up to 5% | 50% |
Read that scale carefully, because it changes how you should practise. The qualifying mark for this test is 50, which is exactly what a 5 per cent error rate earns. In other words, 5 per cent error is a bare pass, not a comfortable one — and anything beyond it is a fail. Meanwhile each percentage point of accuracy you gain is worth a full 10 marks. Accuracy pays far better here than raw speed above 120.
The typing test allows 2 per cent mistakes of the total words typed, over 10 minutes, at a minimum of 40 w.p.m.
Fee and how to apply
- General / Unreserved: Rs 1,500
- SC / ST / OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) / ex-servicemen: Rs 750
- Plus bank charges. Non-refundable.
Payment is online only, through the payment gateway provided by UCO Bank. The advertisement is explicit that fee will not be accepted in any other mode, that no postal application form shall be accepted, and that an unsigned application will be summarily rejected.
- From 25 October 2026, open the online application link published on the Supreme Court's website, www.sci.gov.in. Applications are accepted through online registration only.
- Fill the form against your service record — the cadre you have served in, and the exact dates, because the five-year requirement is checked against a service certificate.
- Pay the fee through the UCO Bank gateway.
- Furnish the Undertaking the form requires, confirming you have read the terms and that false information will cancel your candidature without notice.
- Submit before 15 November 2026, 11.55 p.m.
Admission at every stage — objective test, shorthand test, typing test and interview — is purely provisional. All documents establishing eligibility are checked at the document verification stage, so a candidate can clear all four tests and still be rejected on a service certificate that does not support the claim.
Is it worth applying?
If you hold five years in one of the four named cadres and can take English dictation at 120 w.p.m., this is one of the best-paying recruitments open to you anywhere in the country. Level 11 with a Rs 67,700 starting basic is above what most direct graduate recruitments in central government offer, and the post is gazetted.
Twenty vacancies against a nationwide pool of eligible stenographers is tight, but the eligibility bar does the filtering that a huge applicant count usually does elsewhere. The genuine competition here is much smaller than the pay would suggest, because very few people hold both the 120 w.p.m. shorthand and the five years of regular service in those specific cadres.
If you do not hold the experience, do not apply. The Registry reserves the right to cancel, restrict, enlarge, modify or alter the selection process, and the number of posts may change — but none of that will relax the five-year requirement.