Judgement Writing Tips for Judicial Services Exam

Judgement Writing is considered to be the backbone of the Judicial Services Exam. In any Judiciary Mains examination, Judgement writing is a separate section while holds equal importance as other sections. 

If you are an aspirant of Judicial services or preparing for the mains session of any state, then you are at the right place. This post provides you with complete details on preparing for Judgement Writing for various Judiciary Exams. 

You might be having queries or doubts on judgement writing, which the subject expert shall clarify in this post. You can also watch a video on Judgement writing tips by Shubham Upadhyaya, the product head at Judiciary Gold. 

Tips to Attempt Judgement Writing in Judiciary Exams

• The first and foremost requirement is to have in-depth knowledge of all substantive and procedural laws such as Civil Procedure Code, Contract Act, Sale of Goods Act, etc., from Civil law and Criminal Procedure Code, Indian Penal Code for Criminal law.
• Thorough knowledge of the Indian Evidence Act is another important thing that can help you write an impressive judgment and fetch good marks.
• Judgment Writing is like a Mathematics problem that involves step marking. Hence, sticking to a proper format of a court's judgment and attempting each stage of the judgment will exponentially increase your marks.
• Avoid the temptation to use technical Legal Jargon or vocabulary. Use simple language that anyone can understand.
• Go through the skeleton of Judgment mentioned here and practice previous year's Judiciary exam questions in the same format.
• While attempting the judgment, diligently read all the facts given in the question and mark the critical points to ensure that you do not miss out on them.
• Prepare a rough format of the judgment by taking out a minute not to skip any vital piece of information.
• Make sure to keep in mind essential aspects that are different in a civil law judgment and a criminal law judgment.
• Be crisp and write what is necessary. Avoid repetition and do not worry about the length of the answer, as you will get marks if you have mentioned all the relevant points.
• Contrary to popular belief, the final decision in given facts (for example, acquittal or conviction in a criminal case) is not the most significant part of the mains answer in the judiciary exams. Your judgment will fetch marks if you have mentioned all the relevant points, discussed all critical issues, and have given logical and sound reasoning for your decision.

Skeleton of a Judgement for Judiciary Mains Exam

Go through the detailed structure of judgment writing for judicial services. 

• Introduction: This should ideally be a 4-5 line paragraph highlighting the introduction to the case mentioned in the question. Under a Criminal case, it would be brief about the subject of Prosecution. Under a civil case, it will briefly lay down the plaintiff's case.
• Facts Admitted: You need to mention all the undisputed facts and established in the case to clarify the lack of necessity. This lets you look for the proof from the party which bears the burden to prove the same.
• Framing of Charges/ Framing of Issues: In a criminal case, framing charges is an important responsibility bestowed upon a magistrate, whereas in a civil case, its place is taken by the framing of issues. While charges are framed in connection with the offence alleged to be committed, issues are framed in a civil dispute connected with the conflict between the parties therein.
• Appreciation of Evidence: At this stage, all the evidence given in the question is measured up, implying that you have to analyse and specify if facts that were attempted to be proved by the presented evidence have been sufficiently established or not. In addition, you also have to evaluate whether a particular piece of evidence is accepted or not?
• Marshalling of Evidence: This stage is usually confused with that of appreciation of evidence, but herein once all the evidence is appreciated (i.e. which evidence is accepted and which is not), all evidence that substantiates a particular fact is put together. For example In a criminal case of affray, proof of all eyewitnesses about the incident have to be clubbed together so that the facts that all such witnesses commonly establish can be considered sufficiently proved.
• Findings/ Decision: This is the last heading of the answer on Judgment Writing. Here, you have to briefly summarise all your findings in the case and mention the decision. Under civil cases, while this decision (operative part of the judgment) is whether the plaintiff's suit is decreed or not? In criminal cases, such a decision is either of conviction or acquittal of the accused and also stretches to the question about the quantum of sentence decided by the court for the charged in the event of a sentence.

Based on your scores in the mains exam, you shall be shortlisted for the interview round. There are few tips you need to follow for the Civil Judge Interview to be shortlisted for final selection.