The High Court of Kerala has recently released the official notification regarding the Kerala Judicial Services Examination 2022. A total of 42 vacancies have been released for the post of Munsiff - Magistrate. The candidates will be shortlisted for the viva voce/interview through a two stages exam process consisting of prelims and mains exam.

Examination Pattern and details

Kerala Judicial Service Eligibility

Before applying, the candidates must go through the following Eligibility details:

A. Direct Recruitment

The candidates must be eligible on the grounds of nationality, age, and education.

• The candidate who applies for the post should be of good character.

• Should have sound health and have no bodily infirmities which declare him unfit for the appointment.

B. Recruitment By Transfer

1. Unless he/she is a holder of a degree in Law which is recognized by the Bar Council of India. No officer shall be eligible who is in the service for the appointment as Munsiff-Magistrate by transfer.

2. The degree is recognized by the Bar Council Of India for the purpose of enrolment as an advocate and is an approved probationer in one or more from any categories of the Feeder enumerated as SI.Nos (1) to (8) below.

3. The candidate must not have completed 54 years of age as of the last date to complete stage II of application.

4. A person who is qualified otherwise for the transfer appointment, but isn’t holding any of the enumerated posts below at the time of his/her application for the appointment of the transfer,  will be eligible for the appointment. Only if the candidate has held any one or more posts at the same time.

5. The held post should be for the prescribed period of years and holding a post in a higher scale of pay in any of the future appointed offices is to be made.

The feeder categories of officers for Recruitment by Transfer are as given below:

• Assistant Public Prosecutor Grade I & II

• Assistant Registrars, Personal Assistant to the Chief Justice, Additional Personal Assistant to the Chief Justice,  LIbrarian, Court Officers, Filing Scrutiny Officers, Section Officers & Under Secretaries in the Advocate General’s Office.

• InI the advocate General’s office which is under Secretaries, Section Officers and Librarians.

• Librarian, Section Officers in the Law Department, Government Secretariat. 

• Assistant Registrars and other officers of the High Court in the same salary of Assistant Registrar to the High Court Judge of Kerala.

• Sheristadars of Special Courts/ District Courts/ Sub Courts/ Additional District Courts/Family court/ Chief Judicial, office of the Motor Accident claims Tribunals, The office of the Transport Appellate Tribunal and Wakf Tribunal, Senior Superintendents of the District Courts and Selection Grade Confidential Assistants in the Subordinate Civil Courts. 

• Selection Grade Confidential Assistants and Sheristadars of Chief Judicial  Magistrate’s Courts in the Subordinate Criminal Courts.

• Assistant Professors of Government law Colleges (Full time)

• Principal Counsellor of the  Family Courts (Kerala State)

Reservation of Appointment For Regular Vacancies

• The rules and regulations which are related to reservation of appointments for the Candidate who belongs to SC, ST, OBC classes are contained in the Part-2 of the state (Kerala) and Subordinate Service Rules from 14 to 17 of 1958 shall be applied to appointment by the direct recruitment. 

• As per the Kerala Judicial Services Rules of 1991, and according to the rule 5 (3) shall apply to the appointment by the transfer.

• The person with disabilities having Locomotor disability-moderate gets one percent of the total reservation.

• The disabled person provided that the Medical Board constituted for assessment certifies that the candidate will be able to perform the duties of Judicial Officer with the aid of Assistive Technologies.

• These candidates qualified for selection in terms of the Kerala Judicial Service rules of 1991.

Kerala Judicial Service Selection Process

A preliminary exam will be held to screen the candidates for the mains exam. The candidates declared successful in the exams will be as per the ratio 1:10 as per the number of vacancies. The mains exam will consist of 4 different papers. The candidates equal to 3 times the number of vacancies will be called for viva-voce or the interview. Hence, the overview of the selection process is as follows:

1. Preliminary Exam

2. Main Exam

3. Viva Voce

Kerala Judicial Service Exam Pattern & Syllabus

The exam will be a staged process. The first will be the preliminary exam. The marks scored prelims will not be considered for the final merit list.

A. Kerala Judicial Service Prelims Exam

The prelims will consist of one single paper. This paper will cover three parts. All the questions will be objective type multiple-choice questions. Each question will carry 2 marks. There will be a penalty for wrong answers i.e. deduction of 1 mark for every incorrect answer. The detailed exam pattern and syllabus are as follows:

B. Kerala Judicial Service Mains Exam

The mains exam will consist of 4 different papers. These will be written papers carrying 100 marks. Hence the total marks for the mains exam will be 400. The duration of each paper will be 3 hours. The details of the mains exam are as follows:

Viva-voce

The candidates are not supposed to get their call letter through the post. The right way to get the call letter is to download it from the official website. The eligible candidate should login themselves to their profile from the official website www.hckrercuitment.nic.in. 

The announcement of the call letters will be done through a press release and through emails/ SMS. The call letters of the eligible candidates will be ready for download two weeks prior to the date of viva-voce. It is advisable for the eligible candidates to visit the official website of the High Court to know the schedule about viva-voce.