By Akinchan Aggarwal, Advocate — B.A. (Hons.) Gold Medalist, LL.B. (University Rank 2), LL.M. (Dispute Resolution), UGC–NET, Ph.D. (Pursuing)
The National Highways Authority of India has invited applications for 05 Young Professional (Legal) positions on contract, for deployment at the Land Acquisition Division at NHAI Headquarters. Remuneration is ₹60,000 per month, applications are online only, and the portal closes at 6:00 p.m. on 8 September 2026.
Two features make this advertisement worth reading properly rather than skimming. The first is how selection works. The second is a single sentence at the very end of the advertisement that most candidates will never reach.
There is no interview and no written test. The entire selection is on your CLAT (PG) 2026 score.
The advertisement says it twice: "The selection shall be made on the basis of merit in Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), 2026 (Post Graduate) Score." Nothing else is assessed. If you sat CLAT PG 2026, your application is essentially already decided. If you did not sit it, no amount of experience or academic record makes you eligible — a valid CLAT (PG) 2026 scorecard is a mandatory upload.
And Now the Sentence at the End
Clause 17 of the Important Conditions, the last line of the advertisement before the sign-off, reads:
"The recruitment process shall be subject to outcome of SLP(C) No.33251/2025, Titled 'National Highway Authority of India-vs-Shanu Baghel & Another.'"
The whole recruitment is expressly made conditional on the outcome of a Special Leave Petition pending in the Supreme Court. Note the case title: NHAI is the petitioner, which means NHAI is the party challenging a decision given against it below.
I want to be careful about what I am and am not saying here. I searched for public reporting on SLP(C) No. 33251 of 2025 and found none beyond the advertisement itself, so I do not know what the underlying dispute is about and I am not going to guess. What I can tell you is what the clause means in practice, and it is this: a selection made under this advertisement is not final in the ordinary sense. If the Supreme Court decides the SLP against NHAI, the process may have to be modified, redone, or set aside, and an offer already issued could be affected.
That is not a reason to skip the application. Recruitments carrying litigation riders proceed and conclude all the time. But if you are currently in a job, or holding another offer, you should factor in that this engagement carries a contingency the advertisement itself discloses. Read clause 17 yourself before you make a decision that depends on this coming through.
The Position at a Glance
| Particulars | Details |
|---|---|
| Organisation | National Highways Authority of India, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways |
| Position | Young Professional (Legal) |
| Vacancies | 05 — UR 04, OBC 01; of these, 01 reserved for PwBD |
| Deployment | LA (Land Acquisition) Division, NHAI Headquarters |
| Qualification | Degree in Law from a recognised University / National Law School / Institute, and a CLAT (Post Graduate) 2026 score |
| Selection | Merit in CLAT (PG) 2026 score only — no interview, no separate test |
| Age | Below 32 years as on the closing date, with relaxations |
| Remuneration | ₹60,000 per month consolidated, inclusive of all; increased at 5% for each succeeding year subject to satisfactory performance |
| Tenure | Up to 2 years initially, extendable by 1 more year; no extension beyond 3 years under any circumstances |
| Mode | Online only, through nhai.gov.in |
| Last date | 8 September 2026, 6:00 p.m. |
What LA Division Work Actually Is
"Young Professional (Legal)" tells you nothing. "LA Division" tells you everything, and this is the part of the advertisement worth getting excited about.
NHAI acquires land for national highways not under the general land acquisition law but under the National Highways Act, 1956, through the special machinery in Sections 3A to 3J, inserted by the 1997 amendment. Working in that Division means living inside a compact, highly litigated statutory scheme:
• Section 3A — notification of intention to acquire.
• Section 3C — hearing of objections by the competent authority.
• Section 3D — declaration of acquisition, on which the land vests absolutely in the Central Government.
• Section 3E — power to take possession.
• Section 3G — determination of the amount payable; and where the amount is not agreed, reference to an arbitrator appointed by the Central Government, with the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 applying to those proceedings.
• Section 3H — deposit and payment.
The reason this is genuinely interesting law rather than routine paperwork is the interface with the 2013 Act. Section 3J originally excluded the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 altogether. In Union of India v. Tarsem Singh, (2019) 9 SCC 304, the Supreme Court held that the beneficial provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 relating to solatium and interest must apply to acquisitions under the National Highways Act as well. A candidate who walks into an NHAI LA interview — or, here, into the job itself — without knowing Tarsem Singh is at a real disadvantage.
Add to that the volume of Section 3G arbitrations, writ petitions challenging 3A and 3D notifications, and execution and enforcement proceedings, and you have a specialised practice area that very few lawyers get early exposure to. For someone two or three years out, this is a far better technical grounding than most generalist junior roles.
The Money, and the Hard Ceiling
The ₹60,000 is consolidated and inclusive of all — there is no HRA, no allowances, no perquisites layered on top. The 5% annual increment, subject to satisfactory performance, works out as follows:
| Year | Monthly consolidated |
|---|---|
| Year 1 | ₹60,000 |
| Year 2 | ₹63,000 |
| Year 3 (if extended) | ₹66,150 |
And then it ends. The advertisement is unambiguous: "There shall be no extension of contract beyond the period of three years under any circumstances." NHAI also reserves the right to terminate the contract at any time without assigning any reason.
Treat this as what it is — a three-year training and credentialing stint in a specialised field at the country's principal highways authority, not a career. Go in with an exit plan. Three years of NHAI land acquisition work positions you well for infrastructure practice at a firm, for an in-house role at a concessionaire or EPC contractor, or for building an independent practice in 3G arbitrations. It does not position you for a permanent NHAI job, because there is no such bridge in this engagement.
The PwBD Position Is Worth Flagging
Of five positions, one is reserved for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities. That is 20% of the advertised strength, against a statutory floor of 4% under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. The advertisement identifies a wide band of suitable categories — blindness and low vision, hard of hearing, a long list of locomotor conditions including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism and acid attack survivors, specific learning disability and mental illness, and multiple disabilities involving any of these.
Age relaxation for PwBD candidates is substantial: 10 years for General and 13 years for OBC, which effectively pushes the ceiling to 42 and 45 respectively. A disability certificate from a competent authority certifying not less than 40% disability is required, and it must be uploaded with the application. If you are a candidate with a benchmark disability holding a CLAT PG 2026 score, this is one of the more accessible openings you will see this year.
Three Rules That Decide Applications
1. Documents once uploaded are final. The advertisement states that no clarification or document regarding eligibility will be entertained after the last date, and that documents once uploaded will be treated as final. Get the uploads right the first time — photograph, signature, Class X certificate for date of birth, law degree, CLAT (PG) 2026 scorecard, and OBC-NCL or PwBD certificate where applicable, each within the prescribed file size and format.
2. The OBC-NCL certificate must be issued in 2025-26, in the prescribed proforma for appointment to posts under the Government of India, and the caste name and its spelling must match the Central List exactly. The advertisement says applications not supported by valid certificates "will be summarily rejected", and that no change in community status already indicated will be allowed.
3. The tie-break favours the older candidate. Where two candidates have the same CLAT (PG) 2026 score, merit is decided by date of birth and the person born earlier is placed higher. If dates of birth are also identical, it goes to the first letter of the initial name in the English alphabet. This is counterintuitive — most tie-breaks in Indian recruitment favour the younger candidate — and it is worth knowing if you are on a borderline score.
Two further points from the fine print: you cannot withdraw your candidature once submitted; and if you file multiple applications, only the last one is considered and the earlier ones are rejected. Any legal dispute arising from the selection lies only before the courts in Delhi.
How to apply.
Go to nhai.gov.in and navigate About Us → Recruitment → Vacancies → Current, open the Young Professional (Legal) advertisement and click Online Application. Fill the form, upload the documents in the prescribed formats and sizes, preview, and submit by 6:00 p.m. on 8 September 2026. A Unique Reference Number and an Application Acknowledgement are generated automatically and emailed to you — keep both, because NHAI will ask for the acknowledgement along with supporting documents later. All correspondence is by email only, so use an address you monitor. The advertisement expressly advises applying well before the closing date rather than waiting for it.
Who Should Apply
The eligibility gate here is narrow and binary. You need a law degree and a CLAT (PG) 2026 score, and you need to be under 32 on the closing date. If you have all three, applying costs you an hour and the outcome is already determined by a score you cannot now change — so there is no reason not to.
If you sat CLAT PG in an earlier year, you are not eligible. The advertisement specifies 2026, and the crucial date for determining eligibility is the last date for online applications.
For the right candidate — a recent LL.M. or a young lawyer with a strong CLAT PG score, interested in infrastructure, land and arbitration — three years inside NHAI's Land Acquisition Division is genuinely valuable training. Just go in with clear eyes about the three-year ceiling, the termination-without-reason clause, and clause 17.
This post is a summary prepared for the convenience of readers, based on my reading of the detailed advertisement for Young Professional (Legal) published on the NHAI website. I could not locate any public reporting on SLP(C) No. 33251 of 2025 and have therefore not commented on its subject matter. The official advertisement issued by the National Highways Authority of India is the only authoritative source on eligibility, vacancies, reservation, remuneration, tenure and selection, and candidates must satisfy themselves from it before applying. Nothing here is legal advice or a guarantee of eligibility. Please read our Disclaimer for more details.
