Pratibha Laxmi was being interviewed by SCC Online Ambassador Sankalp Udgata where she shared her journey of preparing for Judicial Services and on her securing Rank 1 in the Tripura Judicial Services Examination, 2019.
- Can you tell us a little about yourself, your interests and reasons for pursuing law? Please tell us about your achievement in the judicial services examination.
I am Pratibha Laxmi and I secured the 1st Rank in the Tripura Judicial Services Examination, 2019. I wanted to be a Judicial officer since always which was the reason for me to pursue law after 12th. About my interests, I used to like reading books and watching movies that have a legal and philosophical bent, and also ones with the genre of mystery and thriller. However, I couldn’t pursue this from the last around 1-1.5 yrs as I barely got any time from preparing for the Judicial Exams.
- Why did you choose judiciary as a career?
Judiciary cannot be just seen as a secure government job. It’s much more than that. There are many other good government jobs in the legal field. Also, practising in Courts as an advocate fetch much more money, as compared to Judiciary,after giving in a certain decent duration. So clearly, money and security are not the prime reasons for me to choose judiciary as a career. They indeed come along as a package, but they are ancillary. And one should not consider them as the sole reasons for getting into judiciary. Judiciary is a job that demands huge responsibility and has an immense reputation involved. The verdicts of the Judges directly affect the lives of so many people. So choosing judiciary was my own way to do my bit of service to the society. The job satisfaction here, I firmly believe will be immense. So what I seek and hope for myself through this is living a life of mental luxury by doing justice to the people.
- What approach did you adopt for preparations? What was your schedule, strategy and motivation?
When it comes to the preparations, it is very important to first get oneself mentally prepared to give in anything that is required to clear the Judicial services exams. These exams are conducted in three stages, namely the preliminary, mains and the interview. For the prelims, I read the bare acts along with notes/books several times to get a clearer clarity on the concepts and then practised objective questions. Practicing questions is very essential because that polishes the already read concepts and apprises one of his flaws. My preparation for mains went simultaneously along with the prelims preparation. That’s essential because there is not enough time after the prelims results to prepare for mains freshly. For mains, I focused on clarity of concepts and revised my sources numerous times. I also used to do timed answer writing practice. I will advise aspirants to not run for many books. One standard book for each subject will suffice.
- What advice would you give to our friends currently aspiring for judicial services?
Look, firstly everybody should keep in mind that Judicial services exams are not “difficult” to clear if one adopts the right approach. Read Bare Acts as many times as possible, practise as many objective questions as possible for Prelims, read and revise your concepts frequently because we are human beings and we are bound to forget things. Every state has a language paper in Mains so one should prepare for that right from the beginning. Just giving 1.5 – 2 hours per day would be sufficient. Make daily timetables as weekly and monthly ones have more tendency to fail because it’s difficult usually to predict a day that is to come after a week or month. And there’s no such rule as to how many hours one should put in per day but try finishing the everyday targets.
- What is the influence of moot courts, research papers and seminars on preparation and how have they been helpful to you?
Seminars, Moot courts and Research papers have their own importance in the overall growth of a legal career. Although, I had participated in only 1 moot court competition in my entire college life, yet my suggestion to others is always to actively take part in these. Any legal career demands good research skills so that cannot be compromised with.
- Have your college, teachers and peer group contributed to this achievement? How?
Yes, indeed a lot of people have contributed in my journey. My parents were passively preparing for these exams while I was actively preparing. Teachers back in my college were always ready to discuss a concept with me on my request other than the class hours. And one always needs good friends to stay motivated and charged.
- What is your take on the current system of judicial service examinations?
Every State Judicial Services has a different pattern of questions. So aspirants should always prepare according to the state they are taking the exams of. For instance, few States ask theoretical questions in mains while others ask a mix of theoretical and application based questions.
- Please let us know if there is anything else you want to share with us.
Staying motivated and patient is most important while preparing for these exams. So, find out ways to stay motivated – that may be anything. You may watch a motivational video every day, or put up a picture above your study table, or anything. Just remember, these exams are not tough to clear, they just have a criteria that you need to fit in and which is achievable. So, all the best to all of you, just give in 1-1.5 years of your dedicated preparation and you will undoubtedly achieve your bigger target.
