Supreme Court Court Master Recruitment 2026: 20 Posts, Apply by 15 Nov

Supreme Court Court Master Recruitment 2026 is open for 20 Court Master (Shorthand) posts in the Registry of the Supreme Court of India, and the window closes on 15 November 2026 at 11:55 pm. The post carries gazetted status in Level 11 of the pay matrix, Rs 67,700 to Rs 2,08,700, with an initial basic pay of Rs 67,700 plus allowances. Applications go through the recruitment link on sci.gov.in only, under Advertisement No. F.6/11/CM(S)/2026-SC (RC) dated 15 October 2026.

Read the eligibility section of this article before you pay anything. This is not a post for fresh graduates or for shorthand students. It asks for five years of regular service as a Private Secretary or stenographer in government service, and the fee does not come back once you pay it.

Post	Court Master (Shorthand), gazetted, Registry of the Supreme Court of India
Vacancies	20, tentative
Pay	Level 11, Rs 67,700 to Rs 2,08,700, initial basic Rs 67,700 plus allowances
Apply online	25 October to 15 November 2026, till 11:55 pm, on sci.gov.in
Fee	Rs 1,500 General and Unreserved, Rs 750 SC, ST, OBC Non Creamy Layer and ex-servicemen, plus bank charges
Objective test	Tentatively 7 December 2026
Advertisement	No. F.6/11/CM(S)/2026-SC (RC), dated 15 October 2026

Five years in service, or the form is wasted

The degree and the shorthand speed are the easy part. A Bachelor's degree from a recognised university in India, proficiency in English shorthand at 120 words per minute, and knowledge of computer operation with a typing speed of 40 words per minute on computer. Plenty of working stenographers clear all three without thinking twice.

The experience clause is where most applications will fail. The advertisement asks for a minimum of five years of regular service in the cadre of Private Secretary, Senior PA, PA or Senior Stenographer in Government, Public Sector Undertakings or statutory bodies. That is a narrow list. It names four cadres and three kinds of employer, and it says regular service.

A stenographer with five years in a private company does not meet it. A government clerk with five years in a different cadre does not meet it either.

Count your age as on 1 October 2026. You must be at least 30 and not above 45. The usual age relaxation applies to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes (Non-Creamy Layer) and ex-servicemen, as per the Government of India rules. Dependants of freedom fighters get relaxation up to five years above the limit. Departmental candidates of the Registry of the Supreme Court of India face no upper age limit at all.

But candidates working in other government departments, public sector undertakings, statutory bodies or nationalised banks get no age relaxation, so do not assume your current government job buys you extra years.

Two things the advertisement does not give: a category wise split of the 20 posts, and any fixed date for the shorthand test, typing test or interview. Reservation follows Rule 4A of the Supreme Court Officers and Servants (Conditions of Service and Conduct) Rules, 1961, and the advertisement says the 20 vacancies are tentative and may change with administrative needs. If another site shows you a neat category table for this post, that table came from somewhere other than this advertisement.

How the Supreme Court Court Master Recruitment 2026 test is set up

Selection runs in four stages, and each stage has its own qualifying mark. Clearing one stage only buys you entry to the next.

The objective type test carries 100 questions in 90 minutes, worth 100 marks, with 50 as the minimum qualifying score. The 100 questions split into 25 on General English, 25 on General Knowledge, 25 on provisions relating to the Judiciary in the Constitution of India, 15 on the Supreme Court Rules, 2013, and 10 on knowledge of computer operation. There is no negative marking, which the advertisement states plainly.

The shorthand test is the stage that decides this recruitment. Dictation runs at 120 words per minute for seven minutes, then you get 45 minutes to transcribe it. It carries 100 marks with 50 as the minimum qualifying score, and the advertisement allows mistakes up to 5 percent of the total words dictated. A wrong full stop counts as half a mistake, and a wrong capital for a small letter counts as half a mistake too.

The typing speed test on computer runs for 10 minutes in English at a minimum speed of 40 words per minute. It carries 20 marks with 10 as the minimum qualifying score, and the advertisement allows mistakes up to 2 percent of the total words typed. The interview carries 30 marks with 15 as the minimum qualifying score.

The advertisement marks every date after the form closes as tentative, and says so itself. It fixes the objective test tentatively for 7 December 2026. Answer keys go up tentatively on 8 December 2026, and objections stay open from 8 December to 9 December 2026 till 11:55 pm, online only, at Rs 100 per objection. The objection fee comes back to you if your objection is found valid.

One clause matters if the test draws a big crowd. If a large number of candidates qualify by scoring 50 or more in the objective test, the Registry shortlists candidates for the shorthand and typing tests in the ratio of 1 to 10 against the tentative vacancies, in order of merit. The interview ratio is 1 to 3. Clearing the objective test, in other words, does not by itself put you in front of the shorthand examiner.

Annexure A of the advertisement lists 69 cities for the objective test, from Patna and Ranchi to Bengaluru and Chennai. The shorthand and typing tests run in Delhi and NCR only, and the interview happens in Delhi or online, as the competent authority directs. You pick test cities in order of preference, but the Registry can shift you to another city for administrative reasons, and it entertains no request for change of city, test centre or date. The Registry pays no travel allowance or daily allowance for the tests or the interview, so budget the Delhi trip in advance if you reach the skill tests.

The fee, and the order to do things in

General and unreserved candidates pay Rs 1,500. Candidates from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes (Non-Creamy Layer) and ex-servicemen pay Rs 750, plus bank charges. Payment runs online only, through the payment gateway provided by UCO Bank. The Registry accepts no postal application form, and no fee in any other mode.

The advertisement states the point in plain terms: once you pay, the Registry refunds nothing under any circumstances or in any eventuality. At Rs 1,500 for a general candidate, that makes the order of work obvious. Check the five year service cadre and the 1 October 2026 age date first, pay second.

Before you press submit

Keep your documents ready before you open the form. The advertisement asks for a scanned copy of your recent photograph, your signature, your Class X and Class XII certificates, your graduation certificate, your experience certificate, and your caste or community certificate if you claim reservation, uploaded as per the instructions on the application link. If your signature scan is not clean, fix it with the signature resizer before you start the form, since a rejected upload at the last screen costs more time than the form itself.

Your name, your father's name, your mother's name and your date of birth must match your Class X certificate. A name change needs support from a Gazette Notification, and the Registry verifies the documents at document verification. Admission at every stage stays provisional until that verification, so a form that sails through today can still fall later if a document does not match.

Then slow down at the last screen. Preview the filled form and take a printout for your records, since you need not send the printout to the Registry. Once you submit it, you cannot withdraw or modify the application, and the Registry entertains no request for change of category. If you submit more than one form, only the last form you submit counts.

Keep your application number safe: you need it to generate your admit card from the Supreme Court website, since no admit cards go out by post. Keep a valid personal email ID and mobile number active through the whole process, because test dates reach you through sci.gov.in and through SMS and email. Use the Court Master Shorthand apply link on sci.gov.in itself, not a link forwarded on social media.

Two last practical points. If you work in a Central or State government department, a nationalised bank or a public sector undertaking, you will need a No Objection Certificate from your employer at the time of document verification. And the advertisement warns selected candidates plainly: the post involves working even at odd hours and on holidays, and appointees must submit an undertaking to that effect. If that does not suit you, the time to decide is before 15 November, not after selection.

The Supreme Court is running more than one recruitment side by side this month. The Junior Court Attendant post, 130 vacancies for Class 10 and Class 12 candidates, closes on 25 November, and it suits a very different applicant from this one. Do not mix the two forms up.

Sources & verification: Supreme Court of India Advertisement No. F.6/11/CM(S)/2026-SC (RC) dated 15 October 2026, for 20 tentative Court Master (Shorthand) vacancies, read 6 November 2026. Apply only through the Recruitment link on sci.gov.in. Every figure in this article comes from that advertisement. The advertisement gives no category wise vacancy split and no fixed dates for the shorthand test, typing test or interview, and both points are stated as such above.