The Supreme Court of India engages a panel of roughly 90 Law Clerk-cum-Research Associates every year on a one-year contractual assignment, at a consolidated Rs 1,00,000 per month. It is the best-paid entry point into the Court for a fresh law graduate, and one of the few Supreme Court roles a final-year student can apply for.
Where the cycle stands right now: applications for the 2026-27 term closed on 7 February 2026. The advertisement for a cycle is published in January and closes in early February — it was 20 January to 7 February for 2026-27, and the same window the year before. On that pattern the 2027-28 advertisement is due in January 2027. This page sets out what the assignment involves and what the last advertisement required, so you can have the documents ready rather than discovering the rules in the three-week application window.
What the assignment actually is
Read this part before the eligibility, because it disqualifies more people than the age limit does. From the advertisement of 20 January 2026 (No. F.21(LC)/2026-SC(RC)):
- It is a full-time, purely contractual assignment. It confers no right to claim regular appointment or continuance in the Supreme Court.
- The Registry may terminate it at any time with the prescribed notice.
- A Law Clerk cannot accept any other assignment during the term.
- A Law Clerk shall not practise as an Advocate in any court during the term.
So this is a year out of practice, not a year alongside it. The compensation is the point: Rs 1,00,000 a month, and a year of reading and research inside the Supreme Court.
Who is eligible
| Condition | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Qualification | Law graduate before taking up the assignment — a Bachelor's degree in Law, including an integrated degree, from an institution recognised by the Bar Council of India for enrolment as an Advocate |
| Students | Eligible to apply if in the fifth year of a five-year integrated course, or the third year of a three-year LLB, subject to furnishing proof of the law qualification before taking up the assignment |
| Age | Not below 20 and not above 32, as on the closing date (7 February 2026 for the last cycle) |
| Skills | Research and analytical skills, writing ability, and computer knowledge including retrieval from e-SCR, Manupatra, SCC Online, LexisNexis and Westlaw |
The student clause is the one worth circling. You do not have to wait until you graduate — a final-year student can sit the examination and furnish the degree proof later, before actually taking up the assignment.
How the selection works
Three phases, under the "Scheme of Engaging Law Clerk-cum-Research Associates on Short-Term Contractual Assignment in the Supreme Court of India — January 2024, as amended":
| Phase | What it tests |
|---|---|
| Part I | Multiple-choice questions on the ability to understand and apply the law, plus comprehension |
| Part II | Subjective written test covering writing and analytical skills |
| Part III | Interview |
Parts I and II are held on the same day in two sessions, with a break between them. Part I is taken online; the Part II question paper appears on the computer screen and is answered in pen and paper.
The filters are narrow, and they are the reason most candidates never reach the interview:
- Part I qualifying mark is 60 per cent. That is a high bar for a multiple-choice paper.
- Negative marking of 0.25 for each incorrect answer.
- If a large number clear Part I, only the top 1:10 against tentative vacancies have their Part II scripts evaluated at all — so clearing 60 per cent does not guarantee your written paper is even read.
- Candidates who clear both are called for interview in the ratio 1:3 against tentative vacancies.
Against a panel of about 90, a 1:3 interview ratio means roughly 270 interview calls from a national applicant pool.
Where the examination is held
Parts I and II run in 23 cities: Ahmedabad, Ambala, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Dehradun, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jodhpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram and Visakhapatnam.
The number of centres may be increased or decreased according to the number of applications, on the directions of the Chief Justice of India or the Committee of Judges on Law Clerks.
Fee, application and the traps in the instructions
| Item | 2026-27 cycle |
|---|---|
| Application / test fee | Rs 750 plus bank charges, non-refundable |
| Payment | Online only, through the UCO Bank payment gateway |
| Registration opened | 20 January 2026 |
| Closing date | 7 February 2026 |
| Written test | 7 March 2026 |
| Candidate portal | sci.gov.in/judicial-clerkship/ |
Three instructions in the advertisement are worth knowing before you start the form:
- An application once submitted cannot be withdrawn or modified. Check everything before the final submit.
- If you submit more than one form, only the last one is entertained. No request to revert to an earlier application is accepted.
- "Applications which do not comply with the instructions shall be summarily rejected." That is the advertisement's own capitalised wording.
Admit card issuance confers no right to selection, and a candidate found to have given false information or to not meet an eligibility condition has their candidature cancelled with no correspondence entertained.
The objection fee here is refundable — unlike SSC's
Model answer keys for Part I were uploaded on 8 March 2026 and stayed open for objections until 11:59 p.m. on 9 March 2026, at Rs 100 per objection. The clause that distinguishes it:
"…subject to payment of fee of ₹100/- per objection, which will be refunded in case the objection is found to be valid."
That is the opposite of the position at the Staff Selection Commission, where the CGL examination notice describes the representation fee as expressly non-refundable. If you have been told "challenge fees always come back when you are right", that is true here and false there — the rule belongs to the recruiting body, not to Indian examinations generally. Objections by letter, application or e-mail are not entertained.
What happened in the 2026 examination
The 2026 cycle did not run cleanly, and candidates searching for this page in the months since are mostly looking for the outcome.
The written tests were held on 7 March 2026. On 21 April 2026 the Recruitment Cell issued this:
"The Agency entrusted with the conduct of the Law Clerks' Examination has admitted its mistake in evaluation of Part-I paper. Hence, the Agency has sought for 72 hours to rectify the mistakes."
On 22 April the Court confirmed that re-evaluation of the answer scripts of 8,229 candidates who sat Part-I was under way. On 24 April it went further — the agency "has admitted its lapses and is re-evaluating 8229 answer scripts", and the result would follow once Part-II evaluation was complete, "in case more number of candidates clear Part-I Paper".
In other words the re-evaluation could only add candidates to the Part-I pass list, and the Part-II scripts of any additional qualifiers then had to be marked before a result could be declared. All three notices are mirrored below.
Preparing for the 2027-28 cycle
Nothing is announced yet, and this page will be updated when the advertisement appears. On the two most recent cycles the pattern has been identical — advertisement around 20 January, closing 7 February, written test in early March — so the practical preparation is:
- Confirm your age against the likely closing date. The limit is 32 on the closing date, which for a January advertisement means early February.
- If you are in your final year, you can apply now and furnish the degree later — do not wait a year unnecessarily.
- Get working familiarity with e-SCR, SCC Online and Manupatra. The advertisement lists database retrieval as an essential qualification, not a nice-to-have.
- Prepare for a 60 per cent MCQ cut-off with negative marking, which rewards accuracy over coverage.
- Keep the scanned photograph and signature ready; the form cannot be modified after submission.
Other Supreme Court recruitments currently covered on this site: Junior Court Assistant, Junior Court Attendant, Senior Personal Assistant and Court Master (Shorthand).
Every figure on this page is from the Supreme Court advertisement of 20 January 2026 and the Recruitment Cell notices of 21 and 24 April 2026, each mirrored below. The 2027-28 dates are not announced; the January expectation is inferred from the 2025-26 and 2026-27 cycles and is marked as such.