Delhi Higher Judicial Service Mains Examination (Written) - 2026

Delhi Higher Judicial Service Mains Examination (Written) - 2026

Delhi High Court

This exam record represents the CURRENT live stage of the Delhi Higher Judicial Service Examination 2026: the Mains Examination (Written), scheduled for 10 and 11 October 2026. The earlier Preliminary Examination held on 26 July 2026 has already concluded and is therefore treated only as background, not as this exam record's start date. The High Court of Delhi originally scheduled the Mains on 12-13 September 2026 and subsequently rescheduled it to 10-11 October 2026. The Court's current recruitment updates also list the Mains admit-card notice on 5 October 2026, making this the active examination stage as of 5 October 2026. The Mains is descriptive and carries 750 marks across four papers. Paper I, General Knowledge & Language, carries 150 marks and is of two hours. Paper II (Law-I), Paper III (Law-II) and Paper IV (Law-III) carry 200 marks each and are of three hours each. The written papers therefore total 750 marks and 11 hours of scheduled examination time across the two-day Mains window. The notified qualifying standard for General candidates is 45% in each Mains paper and 50% in aggregate. For SC, ST and eligible PwD candidates it is 40% in each paper and 45% in aggregate. Candidates who qualify the written Mains proceed to Viva-Voce, which carries 250 marks. Final merit is based on Mains plus Viva-Voce, not on Preliminary marks. The law papers span constitutional, civil, commercial, property, contract, arbitration, banking-recovery, labour and criminal-law subjects, including both legacy enactments and the new Bharatiya criminal-law codes. The official instructions remain the controlling source for the exact paper-wise syllabus. A post-Mains requirement that candidates should not miss is document submission after the Mains result. Candidates declared successful in Mains must send the prescribed self-attested documents to the Joint Registrar [Examination (Judicial)] within the time stated in the official instructions. Candidates using a scribe and/or compensatory time should also follow the High Court's prescribed advance-document requirements.