The Union Public Service Commission has advertised 140 posts of Assistant Public Prosecutor with the Directorate of Prosecution, Home Department, Government of NCT of Delhi, at Pay Level 10. The requirement is a law degree and three years at the Bar. Applications close on 2 October 2026 at 6:00 PM.
This is the largest single law recruitment UPSC has carried in a long while. Of the 212 vacancies in Advertisement No. 11/2026, 144 are law posts — the 140 in Delhi, and four more with the Administration of the Union Territory of Ladakh. Everything else in the advertisement is medical or editorial.
Two closing dates, and they are different. Items 1 to 6, including the 140 Assistant Public Prosecutor posts, close on 2 October 2026, 18:00 hrs. The Ladakh post at Item 7 closes a week later, on 9 October 2026. The portal opened on 12 September.
The two law posts at a glance
| Assistant Public Prosecutor | Public Law Officer / District Litigation Officer / Law Officer | |
|---|---|---|
| Item No. | 26091106212 | 26091107212 |
| Department | Directorate of Prosecution, Home Department, GNCT of Delhi | Department of Law and Justice, Administration of UT of Ladakh |
| Vacancies | 140 | 04 |
| Reservation | UR 50 · EWS 14 · OBC 37 · SC 30 · ST 09 · PwBD 08 | ST 04 · PwBD 01 |
| Pay | Level 10 (7th CPC) — ₹56,100 to ₹1,77,500 | Level 8 (7th CPC) — ₹47,600 to ₹1,51,100 |
| Qualification | Degree in law from a recognised University / Institute | Bachelor’s Degree in Law (professional or integrated) from a university established by law in India |
| Experience | Three years’ experience at the Bar | Two years’ actual practice at the Bar |
| Age | 35 (UR/EWS) · 38 (OBC) · 40 (SC/ST) · +10 for PwBD | 40 (ST) · +10 for PwBD |
| Closing | 02.10.2026, 18:00 hrs | 09.10.2026 |
The full advertisement
Worth seeing in one place, because the shape of it is unusual.
| # | Post | Ministry / Organisation | Vac. | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Specialist Grade III Assistant Professor (Anatomy) | Dept. of Health & Family Welfare | 4 | 11 + NPA |
| 2 | Specialist Grade III Assistant Professor (General Medicine) | Dept. of Health & Family Welfare | 60 | 11 + NPA |
| 3 | Assistant Editor | Indian Bureau of Mines | 2 | 7 |
| 4 | Specialist Grade II (Junior Scale) — Anaesthesiology | New Delhi Municipal Council | 1 | 11 + NPA |
| 5 | Specialist Grade II (Junior Scale) — Pediatrics | New Delhi Municipal Council | 1 | 11 + NPA |
| 6 | Assistant Public Prosecutor | Directorate of Prosecution, GNCT of Delhi | 140 | 10 |
| 7 | Public Law Officer / District Litigation Officer / Law Officer | Law and Justice, UT of Ladakh | 4 | 8 |
| Total | 212 | |||
Item 6 — Assistant Public Prosecutor, Delhi
The qualification, verbatim
Essential: “Degree in law from a recognized University / Institute” and “Three years’ experience at the bar”.
Desirable: “Experience as government advocate”.
Note what is not there. No minimum percentage. No LL.M. No requirement that the degree be from any particular class of institution. Enrolment is implicit in “experience at the bar”, but no separate Bar Council condition is imposed. This is about as open as a Central recruitment gets for an advocate of three years’ standing.
The advertisement records that the experience requirement is relaxable for SC and ST candidates at the Commission’s discretion if sufficient candidates with the experience are not available.
The job description, verbatim
“To conduct cases in courts of Metropolitan Magistrates on behalf of Govt. of NCT of Delhi”, together with teaching law or providing advice in criminal cases, and maintaining record and statistical information.
A drafting point worth noticing
“Courts of Metropolitan Magistrates” is a designation that no longer exists.
The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 did away with the classification of “metropolitan areas” and with the office of Metropolitan Magistrate altogether. As Justice V. Ramkumar has put it in his analysis of the Sanhita, “consequent on the dropping of ‘Metropolitan Area’ and ‘Metropolitan Magistrates’, BNSS does not contain ‘sections’ corresponding to Sections 8, 16 to 19 of Cr.P.C.” Under the Sanhita the hierarchy everywhere is the Chief Judicial Magistrate and Judicial Magistrates of the first and second class.
Nothing turns on it for an applicant — the work is unchanged, and it is the magistracy in Delhi that the recruitment rules were written for. But a recruitment notice for prosecutors that describes their forum by a designation the criminal procedure statute has discontinued is worth a raised eyebrow, and it tells you something about how far the recruitment rules of many departments still lag the 2023 codes.
What an Assistant Public Prosecutor actually is
This is the part a job listing will not give you, and it matters because the APP is a statutory office, not merely a government job.
Under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 the prosecution structure sits in three sections:
| Office | BNSS, 2023 | Cr.P.C., 1973 |
|---|---|---|
| Public Prosecutors and Additional Public Prosecutors | Section 18 | Section 24 |
| Assistant Public Prosecutors | Section 19 | Section 25 |
| Directorate of Prosecution | Section 20 | Section 25A |
Section 19 opens: “The State Government shall appoint in every district one or more Assistant Public Prosecutors…” The division of labour is settled and is the answer to the question candidates most often ask:
- Assistant Public Prosecutors conduct prosecutions in the courts of Magistrates. That is the bulk of the criminal docket — every warrant and summons case, every bail application at the first tier, every committal.
- Public Prosecutors and Additional Public Prosecutors appear in the Court of Session.
Two further features of the office are worth knowing before you apply.
A police officer cannot hold it. The Sanhita carries forward the bar in Section 25(3) of the old Code: no police officer is eligible to be appointed an Assistant Public Prosecutor, subject to a narrow exception where no APP is available, and never an officer who has taken part in the investigation of the case. That separation of investigation from prosecution is the whole point of the office, and it is why the post is filled by advocates and not by the police establishment.
Three years, not seven. The Sanhita itself prescribes a period of practice for a Public Prosecutor — not less than seven years at the Bar. It prescribes no such period for an Assistant Public Prosecutor; the three-year requirement in this advertisement comes from the recruitment rules for the Delhi cadre, not from the Sanhita. That is why the entry point here is three years while an appointment as Public Prosecutor is a different, later proposition.
Item 7 — Ladakh, and a filter that must be stated plainly
All four vacancies are reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates. There is no unreserved, OBC, EWS or SC vacancy in this item. A candidate who is not ST cannot apply. The listings carrying this vacancy do not say so clearly, and it will waste people’s time.
For an ST candidate it is a good post. The qualification is verbatim:
“A bachelor’s Degree in Law (Professional or integrated) from a university established by Law in India having two years actual practice at bar”.
Only two years at the Bar, and the experience requirement is again relaxable if sufficient candidates are not available. The duties are advisory and administrative rather than courtroom: giving legal opinions, vetting draft notifications, rules and regulations, sitting on Departmental Promotion Committees, and performing the functions of District Litigation Officer for both Leh and Kargil. Pay is Level 8, age 40 for ST with the usual 10-year extension for PwBD.
That is a legislative-drafting and government-advisory brief in a Union Territory administration — unusual, portable experience, and a very different career from prosecution.
Pay
| Post | Pay Level | Pay Matrix range |
|---|---|---|
| Assistant Public Prosecutor, Delhi | Level 10 | ₹56,100 – ₹1,77,500 |
| Law Officer, Ladakh | Level 8 | ₹47,600 – ₹1,51,100 |
Those are basic pay figures under the 7th Central Pay Commission matrix. Dearness allowance, house rent allowance at the applicable city rate, transport allowance and the rest sit on top, as do pensionary benefits under the National Pension System. Level 10 is the entry grade for a Group A officer, and for an advocate three years into practice it is a materially better starting position than most private legal employment in Delhi.
Applying
| Mode | Online only, at upsconline.nic.in — Online Recruitment Application |
| Fee | ₹25. No fee for SC, ST, PwBD and all women candidates |
| Selection | By interview. The Commission may hold a Recruitment Test before the interview where the number of applicants is large |
| Advertisement | UPSC Advertisement No. 11/2026 (PDF) |
Three practical points.
- This is recruitment by selection, not the Civil Services Examination. There is no preliminary, no mains, no optional subject. Shortlisting is on the application, and the decision is made at interview. What you write in the experience fields is therefore the application.
- With 140 posts, expect a Recruitment Test. The Commission reserves the right to hold one where applications are numerous, and on a post of this size it is the likely course. Prepare for a screening paper on criminal law and procedure rather than assuming a direct interview.
- Document your three years at the Bar now. Bar Council enrolment certificate with the date of enrolment, and whatever certification of practice you can obtain. The Ladakh post requires practice certified by the Principal District and Sessions Judge or the Registrar General; the Delhi post does not say so in terms, but the same evidence will be asked for at verification.
Who should apply
The Delhi post is the one to look at seriously. One hundred and forty vacancies at Level 10, open to any law graduate with three years at the Bar, with no percentage requirement and no postgraduate qualification — that combination does not come round often. For a criminal-side junior in Delhi it is close to a natural next step; for an advocate in a district practice anywhere in India it is a route into a Central-scale prosecution cadre. Thirty posts are reserved for SC and thirty-seven for OBC, which are substantial numbers in their own right, and eight are for persons with benchmark disabilities.
Go in knowing what the work is. A magistrate’s court prosecutor carries a heavy, unglamorous, relentless docket, and does it on the State’s side of a criminal case. It is not a soft posting. It is, however, genuine advocacy from the first week, and it builds a criminal practice faster than almost anything else available at this stage of a career.
The Ladakh post is worth an ST candidate’s attention for different reasons — drafting, vetting subordinate legislation and running litigation for a Union Territory administration is rare experience — provided the posting across Leh and Kargil suits.
Two weeks to the Delhi deadline. The fee is twenty-five rupees.
Disclaimer: This post is a summary of UPSC Advertisement No. 11/2026 prepared for the information of readers and does not constitute legal or career advice. Vacancy numbers, reservation and qualifications are reproduced from the advertisement and remain subject to variation by the Commission. The pay figures are the 7th Central Pay Commission matrix ranges for the stated levels and are basic pay only. The observations on the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and on the office of Assistant Public Prosecutor are the writer’s own analysis and form no part of the advertisement. Candidates must read the official advertisement in full and rely on it alone. Lawizard.in accepts no responsibility for any decision taken on the basis of this post.
Sources: Union Public Service Commission, Advertisement No. 11/2026; upsconline.nic.in; Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, sections 18, 19 and 20; Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, sections 24, 25 and 25A; Justice V. Ramkumar, analysis of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (on the omission of metropolitan areas and Metropolitan Magistrates); IndGovtJobs.
