Interview with Ashutosh Prashant Shukla (Judicial Magistrate), 17th Rank in U.P PCSJ 2018

Ashutosh Prashant Shukla of Uttar Pradesh has secured 17th Rank in UP Judicial Services Exams, 2018 in his very first attempt. He is currently posted as Additional Civil Judge/ Judicial Magistrate in the district of Sant Kabir Nagar in Uttar Pradesh. He graduated from Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University, Vishakapatnam, Andhra Pradesh in the year 2018.

Q1. What/Who inspired you to take this decision to join Judiciary?

My father has been into Police Services and he is the biggest motivating factor for me to take this decision. The other aspect is the role of the Judge and the faith of people in the Indian Judiciary that effective and substantial justice is done by the judiciary has motivated me to choose this field. This field gives the opportunity to solve their legal disputes and to be part of the amicable settlement. Thus I have decided to take Judiciary as my career.

Q2. What was the strategy you adopted to prepare for this exam? 

I have started my preparation when I was in my final year of BA.LLB. Firstly, I studied the previous year’s papers and then I planned my strategy accordingly. My prime target states were Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi. Besides that, I also qualified for the preliminary examination of Rajasthan and Uttarkhand but due to my final selection in Uttar Pradesh, I did not appear for the Mains Examinations. The main area that is often overlooked by many judicial aspirants is General Knowledge and General Studies, for these subjects I studied NCERT books from Class 8^th to 12^th and I made sure that I read newspapers and monthly magazines. I divided my time into several parts for different subjects like for General Knowledge, Essay and Law and in law, my main preference subjects were Constitutional Law and Criminal Law.

Q3. Did you participate in any Co-Curricular activities at your University? 

Yes, I have participated in co-curricular activities like Moot court competitions, Mock trials, and Debates. I was the winner of The Great Britain Debate, organized by the British High Commission, New Delhi in 2016.  And Winner of National Mock Trial Competition organized by Christ University in 2017. These competitions helped me to be updated with the Current Affairs, recent and landmark case laws which I studied in details and it eventually helped me to strengthen my concept as well as cardinal principals of law.

Q4. What message do you want to give to the future Law and judicial Aspirants?

Firstly, I would suggest them to have a positive approach, there may be immense hardships and struggles in one’s life but the one should never look back, it is those struggles which define us and help us to succeed in life and the second mantra is continuous hard work, without that you cannot stand at any place. These are two success mantras to excel in life may it be judicial services, civil services or any other competitive examination.

And for the judicial aspirants mainly I would suggest read Constitutional Law, as it is the Grundnorm. Every law of the land derives its validity from the Constitution of India and concentrate on their core areas of the subjects and understand the objective, reason behind the implementation of the subject and the fundamentals of the law should be understood by everyone. 

Interviewer:

Ms. Aaliya Akhtar, DSNLU

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