The Supreme Court of India has advertised 65 tentative vacancies of Senior Personal Assistant under Advertisement No. F.6/11/SPA/2026-SC (RC) dated 12 October 2026. The online form went live on 20 October 2026 at 10:00 a.m. and closes on 10 November 2026 at 11:55 p.m.
This is a Group ‘B’ Non-Gazetted post in Level 8 of the Pay Matrix, ₹47,600 – ₹1,51,100, with an initial basic pay of ₹47,600 plus allowances. The posting is at the Supreme Court Registry in New Delhi. For a post that asks for no prior experience at all, Level 8 at entry is unusually high — and there is a reason for that, which the next section explains.
The one line that decides whether you can apply
The qualification has three parts, and almost everybody reading this will clear two of them and fail the third:
- A degree of a recognised University in India — any stream.
- Proficiency in Shorthand (English) at 110 w.p.m.
- Knowledge of computer operation with a typing speed of 40 w.p.m.
110 words per minute in English shorthand is the whole job. This is a stenographer’s post, not a general graduate post. If you have never learnt shorthand, you cannot pick it up between now and 10 November — a working steno speed takes months of daily dictation practice. That is not a reason to be discouraged; it is the reason the pay starts at Level 8 while a graduate-entry clerical post in the same Registry starts at Level 6.
If you do have shorthand, this is one of the best-paid steno recruitments open in India right now, and the competition is a fraction of what an SSC Stenographer notification attracts.
Three Supreme Court recruitments are open at once — pick the right one
The Registry has put out several advertisements within weeks of each other and candidates are applying to the wrong one. Here is how they differ.
| Senior Personal Assistant | Junior Court Assistant | Junior Court Attendant | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advertisement | F.6/11/SPA/2026-SC (RC) | F.6/2026-SC (RC) | F.3/2026-SC (RC) |
| Vacancies | 65 | 250 | 130 |
| Qualification | Degree + 110 w.p.m. shorthand + 40 w.p.m. typing | Degree + 35 w.p.m. typing | Class 10 pass, Class 12 maximum |
| Pay Level | Level 8 (₹47,600) | Level 6 (₹35,400) | Level 3 (₹21,700) |
| Age | 18–30 | 18–30 | 18–27 |
| Last date | 10 November 2026 | 28 October 2026 | 25 November 2026 |
| Negative marking | None | 0.25 per wrong answer | 0.25 per wrong answer |
Full details of the other two are here: Supreme Court Junior Court Assistant 2026 — 250 posts and Supreme Court Junior Court Attendant 2026 — 130 posts.
There is no negative marking — and that changes how you sit the paper
General Instruction 16 of the advertisement says it in one line: “There will be no negative marking in Objective Type Test.”
Read that against the other two Supreme Court papers above, both of which deduct 0.25 for a wrong answer. In this paper, a blank answer and a wrong answer are worth exactly the same thing — zero. So there is never a reason to leave a question unanswered. Attempt all 100, in the last two minutes if nothing else. Candidates who have trained themselves on SSC-style negative-marking discipline routinely leave 10–15 questions blank out of habit and give away marks for free.
The four tests, and what each one actually costs you
Total marks are 250 across four tests, and you must separately qualify every one of them.
| Test | Duration | Max marks | Qualifying |
|---|---|---|---|
| Objective Type Test (100 questions) | 1½ hours | 100 | 50 |
| Shorthand (English) Test, 110 w.p.m. | 7 min dictation + 45 min transcription | 100 | 50 |
| Typing Speed Test on Computer, 40 w.p.m. | 10 minutes | 20 | 10 |
| Interview | — | 30 | 15 |
Notice the weighting. The shorthand test alone is worth 100 marks — the same as the entire objective paper. Preparation time that goes into General Knowledge at the cost of dictation practice is badly allocated.
How the shorthand test is marked
You are not marked on how it reads. You are marked on a fixed ladder against the number of mistakes, where the permissible maximum is 5% of the total words dictated:
| Mistakes | Marks awarded |
|---|---|
| Without mistake | 100% of 100 marks |
| Up to 1% mistake | 90% of 100 marks |
| Up to 2% mistakes | 80% of 100 marks |
| Up to 3% mistakes | 70% of 100 marks |
| Up to 4% mistakes | 60% of 100 marks |
| Up to 5% mistakes | 50% of 100 marks |
Cross that 5% line and you are out, whatever the rest of the transcript looks like. Two mercies are written into the advertisement: a missed full stop counts as half a mistake, and a capital letter typed for a small one, or the reverse, is also half a mistake. Everything else is a full mistake.
Do the arithmetic before your next practice session. Seven minutes at 110 w.p.m. is about 770 words, so 5% is roughly 38 mistakes to stay in, and you need to be near the top of that ladder, not the bottom, to be competitive — under 8 mistakes to hold 90%.
How the typing test is marked
Ten minutes, English, minimum 40 w.p.m., with mistakes permissible at 3% of the total words typed. A wrong word or figure is a full mistake. A capital typed for a small letter or the reverse is half a mistake, and so is a punctuation mark omitted, added or substituted by another.
It is only 20 marks, but it is a qualifying 20 marks — miss 10 and the shorthand paper you have already written stops mattering.
Two numbers that matter more than the qualifying marks
50 out of 100 is a floor, not a target. General Instruction 18 provides that where a large number of candidates score the qualifying 50 or more, shortlisting for the second stage follows a 1:10 ratio against the tentative vacancies — about 650 candidates — strictly on the merit list of the objective test. Everyone else is out at 50 marks exactly, having “qualified”.
The interview ratio is 1:3 — about 195 candidates — among those who clear all three preceding tests.
The exam is in two places, not one
The Objective Type Test is held in 69 cities listed in Annexure-A, and you choose them in order of preference on the form. For readers in the Telugu states, the list is short: Hyderabad and Warangal in Telangana, and Guntur and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. There is no Vijayawada, no Tirupati, no Karimnagar — the Junior Court Attendant paper runs in 131 cities, this one does not.
The Shorthand (English) Test and the Typing Speed Test are conducted only in Delhi/NCR. The interview is either online or physically at Delhi. No TA/DA is payable for any test or the interview, and no request for a change of city, centre or date is entertained. The Registry can also shift you to another city for administrative reasons.
Budget for at least one Delhi trip, and plan it the day the stage-2 result is out rather than the week of the test.
Dates to put in your phone
- 20 October 2026, 10:00 a.m. — online form opens
- 10 November 2026, 11:55 p.m. — last date to submit
- 7 December 2026 — Objective Type Test (tentative)
- 8 December 2026 — answer keys uploaded
- 8 to 9 December 2026, till 11:55 p.m. — objection window, online only, ₹100 per objection, refunded if the objection is found valid
Dates for the shorthand test, the typing test and the interview are notified later on www.sci.gov.in and by SMS and e-mail. Use a mobile number and email ID you will still control in six months.
Problems candidates hit — and what to do
“I have a degree but no shorthand. Can I apply anyway?” No. Proficiency in Shorthand (English) at 110 w.p.m. is a prescribed qualification, not a skill test you attempt for practice. You would be rejected at document verification even if the portal accepted the form and the fee, which is non-refundable. Apply for Junior Court Assistant instead — that one needs only 35 w.p.m. typing.
“I am 31. Is there any relaxation for me?” Only if you fall in a listed category. The upper limit is 30 years as on 1 October 2026, with usual relaxation for SC, ST, OBC (Non-Creamy Layer), Physically Challenged and Ex-Servicemen candidates under Government of India rules, up to five years for dependants of freedom fighters, and no upper limit at all for departmental candidates of the Supreme Court Registry. Candidates working in other Government Departments, PSUs, statutory bodies or nationalised banks get no relaxation.
“I submitted the form twice by mistake.” Only the form submitted last is considered. No correspondence asking the Registry to accept an earlier form is entertained, and an application once submitted cannot be withdrawn or modified — so make the last one the correct one.
“My name is spelled differently on different documents.” Name, father’s name, mother’s name and date of birth are accepted only as entered in the High School / Class X certificate. Any change of name or surname must be supported by a Gazette Notification, produced at document verification.
“I work in a nationalised bank. Do I need anything extra?” Yes — a No Objection Certificate from your employer at document verification. And if you are unemployed when you apply but take a job during the process, you must inform the Branch Officer, Recruitment Cell at recruitment.cell@sci.nic.in without fail, or the Registry will draw an adverse inference.
“When will my admit card arrive by post?” It will not. No admit cards are sent by post. You download yours from the Supreme Court website against your application number — which is why the advertisement tells you to retain that number carefully.
“What are the working hours like?” Be clear-eyed about this one. General Instruction 23 requires selected candidates to submit an undertaking that they will, without demur, work even at odd hours and on holidays. A Senior Personal Assistant works to a judge’s or a senior officer’s schedule, not to a fixed one.
How to prepare in the time you have
About seven weeks separate the closing date from the objective test. Split them by what the marks are actually worth.
- Daily, non-negotiable — 45 minutes of dictation at 110 w.p.m. and 15 minutes of typing at 45 w.p.m. so 40 feels slow. These two tests carry 120 of the 250 marks and both are pass-or-out.
- Provisions relating to the Judiciary in the Constitution (25 marks) — Articles 124 to 147 on the Supreme Court and the corresponding High Court articles. The single biggest block in the paper, and the most predictable.
- Supreme Court Rules, 2013 (15 marks) — nobody’s general-competition coaching covers this, which is exactly why it is worth your evenings. The Rules are published on the Supreme Court’s own website.
- General English (25 marks) — grammar, synonyms, antonyms, error spotting. This work doubles as transcription accuracy, so it pays twice.
- General Knowledge (25 marks) — polity, recent judgments and appointments, and the last six months of current affairs.
- Computer operation (10 marks) — basic office applications and fundamentals. A weekend is enough.
In the last fortnight, sit full 90-minute mocks and answer every single question, since there is nothing to lose by guessing. Then spend the rest of each day on dictation.
Always read the official advertisement before applying. We have mirrored the complete 9-page PDF on our own server — the download link is in the Important Links section below — so you are reading exactly the document the Supreme Court Registry published, not somebody’s summary of it.