Exam Guide by Akinchan Aggarwal, Advocate — B.A. (Hons.) Gold Medalist, LL.B. (University Rank 2), LL.M. (Dispute Resolution), UGC–NET, Ph.D. (Pursuing)
The paper is on Wednesday, 2 September 2026. The admit card is out today.
371 posts. Pay Matrix Level 11. Two hours, 100 questions, negative marking. This article works through the official syllabus dated 19 June 2026 line by line and tells you what it actually says — including four scoping decisions that materially change what you should be revising over the next three days.
Most candidates read a syllabus for its list of subjects. That is the least useful thing in it.
What matters is the section ranges — because RPSC has not prescribed whole statutes. It has prescribed specific slices of them, and the slices are not what you would guess. Read carelessly, this syllabus will send you to revise a hundred sections that cannot be asked, and past several that certainly can be.
The Recruitment, in One Table
| Particular | Detail |
|---|---|
| Post | Assistant Prosecution Officer, Home Department (Prosecution) |
| Conducting body | Rajasthan Public Service Commission, Ajmer |
| Vacancies | 371 |
| Pay | Pay Matrix Level 11 |
| Notification | 27 May 2026 |
| Syllabus issued | 19 June 2026 |
| Application window | 8 June to 7 July 2026 |
| Exam city slip | 26 August 2026 |
| Admit card | 30 August 2026 |
| Preliminary examination | 2 September 2026 (Wednesday) |
| Main examination | 27 December 2026 |
| Eligibility | LL.B. or integrated law degree; age 21–40 as on 1 January 2027 |
Note the dates against each other.
The notification came on 27 May. Applications opened on 8 June. But the detailed syllabus is dated 19 June — three weeks after the notification and eleven days after the application window opened. Anyone who began preparing on notification day was working from assumptions for the first three weeks. If you have not re-read the syllabus since June, do it before Wednesday: it is the single highest-return hour available to you now.
One caution on the numbers. The vacancy split circulating in secondary reporting is 355 non-scheduled-area plus 15 scheduled-area posts, which comes to 370, against a headline figure of 371. Category-wise tables in RPSC advertisements are frequently misreported at second hand. Treat the official advertisement on rpsc.rajasthan.gov.in as the only authority on the break-up.
The Exam Scheme
| Part | Subject | Questions | Marks |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Law | 70 | 70 |
| B | General Hindi | 15 | 15 |
| B | General English | 15 | 15 |
| Total — 2 hours | 100 | 100 |
Three features of this scheme are worth more attention than they usually get.
1. Negative marking is one-third, and a multiple answer counts as wrong. The syllabus document spells this out: "Wrong answer shall mean an incorrect answer or multiple answers." Two bubbles filled on the same question is not a nullity — it is a deduction of 0.33. If you smudge or change an answer, erase properly.
2. The prelims marks do not count towards final selection. This is stated expressly. The preliminary is a pure screening filter to produce the shortlist for the mains on 27 December. Clearing it by one mark and clearing it by forty have identical value. That should govern how much risk you take on guesses: you are not maximising a score, you are clearing a cut-off.
3. The language section is 30 marks for 30 questions that take a fraction of the time. Two hours across 100 questions is 72 seconds a question on average — but a one-word-substitution question or a विलोम शब्द question takes ten seconds, and a section-number question in the BNSS can take three minutes. The 30 language marks are the cheapest marks in the paper. Candidates who leave them to the last twenty minutes and then rush are giving away the easiest third of the cut-off.
A workable time plan.
Twenty minutes for the 30 language questions, at the start while you are fresh and fast. That leaves 100 minutes for 70 law questions — about 85 seconds each, which is comfortable. Doing it the other way round leaves you doing prefix-and-suffix questions with four minutes on the clock.
The Law Syllabus: What It Actually Prescribes
Part A lists fourteen numbered heads. The first six are the ones that will decide your result, and they are structured in a way that catches people out.
Finding One: The Syllabus Is Double-Barrelled
RPSC has prescribed both the new criminal codes and the codes they replaced, as separate numbered heads:
- Head 1 — Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 | Head 2 — Indian Penal Code, 1860
- Head 3 — Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 | Head 4 — Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973
- Head 5 — Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 | Head 6 — Indian Evidence Act, 1872
This is not an oversight or a legacy paste. It is deliberate, and it makes sense for a prosecution post: an APO joining in 2027 will be conducting trials of offences committed before 1 July 2024, which remain governed by the IPC, the CrPC and the Evidence Act, alongside cases under the new codes. The old law is live law for this job and will be for years.
Practical consequence: you cannot answer this paper on BNS section numbers alone. You need the IPC numbers too, in both directions. A question can as easily read "Section 375 IPC relates to" as "Section 63 BNS relates to".
If you are converting between the two under time pressure, our IPC to BNS Section Converter searches both codes by number or by keyword.
Finding Two: The Two Halves Are Not Mirror Images
This is the observation that repays the most. Set the criminal-law heads side by side exactly as the syllabus gives them:
| Topic | BNS (Head 1) | IPC (Head 2) |
|---|---|---|
| Preliminary / introduction | ss 1–3 | ss 1–5 |
| General explanation / definitions | (inside s 2) | ss 6–52A — separate head |
| General exceptions | ss 14–44 | ss 76–106 |
| Joint liability | (s 3(5) inside "Preliminary"; s 190 inside "public tranquility") | ss 34, 149 — separate head |
| Offences against woman & child | ss 63–99 — separate head | (no separate head) |
| Offences against the human body | ss 100–146 | ss 299–377 |
| Offences against public tranquillity | ss 189, 190, 191, 194 only | (no separate head) |
| Offences against property | ss 303–334 | ss 378–462 |
Four things fall out of that comparison, and each one changes what you revise:
(a) Joint liability is listed only on the IPC side, but it is examinable on both. The syllabus gives you "Principle of Joint Liability (Sections 34, 149)" as a named IPC head. There is no corresponding named BNS head — because the BNS equivalents are hiding inside two other entries. Common intention is BNS s 3(5), which sits inside "Preliminary (Sections 01 to 03)". Common object is BNS s 190, which sits inside "Offences against Public tranquility (Sections 189, 190, 191, 194)". Both are squarely within the prescribed ranges. If you read the BNS heads by their titles alone, you would conclude joint liability is out on the BNS side. It is not.
(b) Public tranquillity is drastically narrowed — to four sections. Not the chapter. Four sections: BNS 189 (unlawful assembly), 190 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 191 (rioting) and 194 (affray). Sections 192, 193 and 195 onwards are not listed. On the IPC side there is no public-tranquillity head at all — only s 149 arrives, through the joint-liability entry. So the IPC's ss 141–148 and 150–160 do not appear anywhere in Part A on a literal reading.
(c) The IPC's "General explanation" head is enormous and easy to underrate. Sections 6 to 52A of the IPC are the definition sections — "voluntarily", "dishonestly", "fraudulently", "reason to believe", "wrongful gain", "public servant", "good faith", "harbour". Forty-seven sections of pure definition, expressly prescribed. On the BNS side the whole of this ground is compressed into s 2, a single section with around forty sub-clauses, sitting inside "Preliminary (Sections 01 to 03)". Same content, one section number. This is the highest-density scoring area in the entire law paper and it is almost always under-revised, because a head called "General explanation" sounds like throat-clearing.
(d) There is an asymmetry around offences against women. "Offences against Woman & Child (Sections 63 to 99)" is a full named BNS head. It has no counterpart head on the IPC side; those offences reach the syllabus only insofar as they fall within "Offences affecting the Human body (Sections 299 to 377)". Most do — rape at 375–376, dowry death at 304B, outraging modesty at 354, kidnapping for marriage at 366, causing miscarriage at 312–318. But some sit outside both prescribed IPC ranges: cruelty by husband or relatives at s 498A, bigamy at s 494, and insulting modesty at s 509 all fall between 462 and 299–377 without landing inside either.
Do not treat that last point as permission to skip 498A. The BNS successor provisions — ss 84, 85 and 86 — are expressly inside the prescribed range 63 to 99, so the subject matter is unquestionably examinable. A question framed on the BNS section is squarely in the syllabus, and a comparative question is entirely likely for a prosecution post. The asymmetry is a reason to be precise about which numbers you memorise, not a reason to drop the topic.
Finding Three: The Procedure and Evidence Heads Are Proper Mirrors
Unlike the substantive-law heads, the BNSS/CrPC and BSA/Evidence Act pairs track each other cleanly. Learn them as pairs and you halve the memory load:
| Topic | BNSS, 2023 | CrPC, 1973 |
|---|---|---|
| Preliminary | ss 1–5 | ss 1–5 |
| Constitution of criminal courts and offices | ss 6–20 | ss 6–25A |
| Power of courts | ss 21–25 | ss 26–31 |
| Arrest of persons | ss 35–62 | ss 41–60A |
| Process to compel appearance | ss 63–93 | ss 61–90 |
| Security for keeping the peace | ss 125–129 | ss 106–110 |
| Maintenance of wives, children, parents | ss 144–147 | ss 125–128 |
| Maintenance of public order and tranquillity | ss 152–167 | ss 133–148 |
| Information to police and investigation | ss 173–196 | ss 154–176 |
Two of these ranges deserve special attention because they are where a prosecution paper naturally goes. Information to the police and investigation gives you FIR (BNSS 173 / CrPC 154), statements to police (BNSS 180 / CrPC 161), confessions and statements before a Magistrate (BNSS 183 / CrPC 164), remand (BNSS 187 / CrPC 167) and the charge-sheet (BNSS 193 / CrPC 173). Maintenance gives you the famous s 125 CrPC, now BNSS 144 — note the number change, it is a favourite.
The evidence heads are prescribed as slices rather than ranges, and they line up as follows:
| Topic | BSA, 2023 | Evidence Act, 1872 |
|---|---|---|
| Preliminary | ss 1–2 | ss 1–4 |
| Relevancy of facts | ss 3–9, 12, 13, 22–24, 26, 39–45, 47–49 | ss 5–11, 14, 15, 24–30, 32, 45–51, 53, 53A, 54 |
| Oral evidence | ss 54–55 | ss 59–60 |
The apparently random slices are not random at all. Read across, and the pairs cover exactly four themes: relevancy and res gestae (BSA 3–9 / IEA 5–11), similar facts and course of business (BSA 12–13 / IEA 14–15), confessions and dying declarations (BSA 22–24 and 26 / IEA 24–30 and 32), expert and opinion evidence (BSA 39–45 / IEA 45–51), and character (BSA 47–49 / IEA 53, 53A, 54). Confessions and dying declarations are prosecution bread and butter; expect them.
Note what is not prescribed: burden of proof, estoppel, witness competence, examination-in-chief and cross-examination, documentary and electronic evidence beyond the relevancy sections. Those are mains territory, not prelims.
The Eight Special Statutes
Heads 7 to 14 are short, precisely bounded, and collectively worth revising properly — because each one is a handful of sections that can be closed in twenty minutes.
| Statute | Prescribed sections |
|---|---|
| SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 | ss 1–2 (preliminary); ss 3–9 (offences of atrocities) |
| Arms Act, 1959 | ss 1–2; ss 3–12 (acquisition, possession, manufacture, sale, import, export, transport) |
| Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 | ss 1–2; ss 4–9 (Juvenile Justice Board); ss 10–26 (children in conflict with law) |
| Rajasthan Excise Act, 1950 | ss 1 and 3–7 (note: s 2 not listed); ss 8–10A; ss 11–15 |
| POCSO Act, 2012 | ss 1–2; ss 3–12 (sexual offences against children) |
| Rajasthan Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 1992 | ss 1–8 and the Schedule |
| Rajasthan Public Examination (Measures for Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Act, 2022 | ss 1–10 and Schedules I and II |
| Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 | ss 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 only |
Three carve-outs in that table that are easy to miss.
Probation of Offenders Act — five sections, and section 5 is not one of them. The syllabus names ss 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 individually. Section 5, which deals with the court's power to order compensation and costs, is skipped. So is everything from s 7 onwards. Five named sections: title and extent, definitions, release after admonition, release on probation of good conduct, and the restriction on imprisoning offenders under twenty-one.
Rajasthan Excise Act — section 2 is skipped. The head reads "Preliminary (Sec 01, 03-07)". Not 1 to 7. One, then three to seven.
Two separate unfair-means Acts, both with their Schedules. The 1992 Act and the 2022 Act are different statutes and both are prescribed, Schedules included. Candidates preparing from outside Rajasthan skip these almost universally — and they are among the shortest, most mechanically scoreable items in the whole paper. If you have three days and want guaranteed marks, this is where they are.
Part B: The Language Papers
General Hindi — and the सन्धि Carve-Out
Seven topics: विलोम शब्द (antonyms), उपसर्ग (prefixes), वाक्यांश के लिए सार्थक शब्द (one-word substitution), संधि एवं संधि-विच्छेद, पारिभाषिक शब्दावली (प्रशासनिक), शब्द शुद्धि, and वाक्य शुद्धि.
Read the bracket after संधि. It is the most consequential three words in Part B.
The entry reads: संधि एवं संधि-विच्छेद (अयादि, स्वर संधि और विसर्ग संधि को छोड़कर) — that is, excluding अयादि, स्वर संधि and विसर्ग संधि. Since दीर्घ, गुण, वृद्धि, यण् and अयादि are all varieties of स्वर संधि, excluding स्वर संधि wholesale removes the entire family. With विसर्ग संधि also excluded, what remains examinable is essentially व्यंजन संधि. Most candidates spend the bulk of their संधि revision on स्वर संधि because that is where the standard tables begin. On this syllabus that time is wasted. Revise व्यंजन संधि.
One further precision: पारिभाषिक शब्दावली is specified as प्रशासनिक (administrative terminology) and directionally as अंग्रेजी से हिंदी — English to Hindi. Not the reverse. So the drill is: you are given an English administrative term and asked for the Hindi equivalent.
General English — Pure Grammar, No Comprehension
Six topics: Tenses, Active–Passive Voice, Determiners, Prepositions, Modals, and One-word Substitution.
What is absent from that list matters as much as what is in it. There is no reading comprehension, no précis, no synonyms and antonyms, no idioms and phrases, no spotting-the-error head, no sentence rearrangement. This is a narrow, entirely rule-based grammar section — the kind you can genuinely finish revising in an evening.
The modals entry is unusually specific and is worth reading in full, because it tells you the question format. It lists modals expressing obligation, request, permission, prohibition, intention, condition, probability, possibility, purpose, comparison, contrast and concession. That is a function-based list, not a form-based one. Expect questions that give you a sentence and ask which modal expresses the required notion — not questions asking you to conjugate.
What To Do With the Next Three Days
| Priority | Why |
|---|---|
| 1. IPC ss 6–52A and BNS s 2 | Definitions. Highest question-per-page density in the paper, and expressly prescribed on both sides. Almost always under-revised. |
| 2. The two Rajasthan unfair-means Acts, with Schedules | Eighteen sections and three Schedules in total. Mechanically scoreable. Widely skipped. |
| 3. Section-number pairs across all three code pairs | 154 CrPC / 173 BNSS, 161 / 180, 164 / 183, 167 / 187, 173 / 193, 125 / 144. Directly askable, directly memorisable. |
| 4. General exceptions — BNS 14–44 / IPC 76–106 | A full prescribed head on both sides. Private defence, insanity, intoxication, consent, accident. |
| 5. व्यंजन संधि, and the English grammar six | Thirty marks, closable in one evening, and the संधि scope is a quarter of what you probably planned. |
| 6. Culpable homicide, murder, joint liability | BNS 100–106 sits at the head of the largest prescribed range. Joint liability is expressly named. |
Revision Notes on Lawizard for the Prescribed Heads
These four cover prescribed portions of Part A directly:
- Culpable Homicide and Murder — Sections 100 to 106, BNS 2023 — opens the "offences against the human body" head (BNS 100–146 / IPC 299–377).
- Common Intention vs Common Object — Sections 3(5) and 190, BNS 2023 — exactly the "principle of joint liability" head, and the two BNS sections hidden inside other entries.
- Private Defence — Sections 34 to 44, BNS 2023 — inside the general exceptions head (BNS 14–44 / IPC 76–106).
- Mens Rea Explained — Doctrine, Case Law and Every BNS Section Number — the mental-element vocabulary that runs through IPC ss 6–52A and BNS s 2.
- IPC to BNS Section Converter — for the cross-numbering, in both directions.
Also on the blog, for candidates tracking prosecution posts in other states: OPSC Assistant Public Prosecutor Recruitment 2026 — 172 Posts, with applications open until 28 September.
On the Day
- Carry the admit card and a valid photo ID. Check the reporting time on the admit card, not the exam time — RPSC gates typically close well before the paper starts.
- Do not double-bubble. Multiple answers count as wrong and cost one-third.
- Do the 30 language questions first, in about twenty minutes.
- Remember what you are actually doing: clearing a cut-off for the December mains, not building a score that carries forward. Guess where you can eliminate two options; leave it where you cannot.
Disclaimer: This article analyses the syllabus for the RPSC Assistant Prosecution Officer (Preliminary) Examination, 2026 issued by the Rajasthan Public Service Commission, Ajmer and dated 19 June 2026, together with recruitment details reported for the 2026 cycle. It is prepared for the guidance of candidates and is not an official RPSC publication. The section-range readings and the observations on scope are the author's own analysis of the syllabus document, offered as a study aid; where an inference has been drawn rather than a term reproduced, this has been indicated in the text. Vacancy figures, the category-wise break-up, examination dates, admit card release and all eligibility conditions are subject to change by the Commission, and secondary sources sometimes carry them inaccurately — candidates must verify every one of them against the official advertisement and notices on rpsc.rajasthan.gov.in before acting. Nothing here is legal advice. Please read our Disclaimer for more details.
