“At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice, he is the
worst” – Aristotle
Law plays various roles in our lives. A single word or phrase cannot define law. There cannot be
a word which can equate law but one can only draw analogy to understand law. Law as a career
option has immense potential and opportunities. There are so many areas where Law as a subject
can be used to find excellence. One such area and examination is the UPSC Civil Service
Examination (Mains).
Recently, it has been noted that law as an optional in the UPSC is one of the best subject to
achieve a good score and in terms of its relevance. Many candidates have taken up this optional
and have proved its high success rate. It has been observed that even non-law graduates now opt
for the Law optional extensively in the mains exam. This article gives an overview about Law as
an optional subject in the UPSC mains exam.
Firstly, let me put some interesting figures about the Law optional, according to the data released
by UPSC, the Law optional has had much higher success ratio in the recent years as compared to
other subjects having 100 or more candidates appearing in Mains examination. In the recent
Report (69th) of UPSC it have been highest that is 14%.
Now let us check who can opt for Law as an optional in UPSC?
There is a general notion that law, much like medical science is a highly specific subject and it
should be taken only if you are a law student or Lawyer. However, this is not true. Off late, even
the non-law graduates have cleared the Mains Exam with flying colours. For instance, Munish
Sharma who secured a surprising AIR of 2 in the UPSC CSE 2013 is an MBA who had taken
Law as his optional subject.
Advantages of opting Law in UPSC Mains:
Law is a very basic subject, that one deals with, in their day-to-day life. Everybody (and
especially if you are preparing for UPSC) would have some understanding of the
fundamentals of law, like what is right, what is wrong, Rights, Duties etc.
There is a lot of overlap with the syllabus of General Studies paper (especially Polity and
Constitution). The Paper -1 of Mains is majorly a part of the GS paper. The questions are
predictable and have been repeated often.
Adv. Alvin Abraham Simon
Faculty for Law Optional @ IAS HUB, the best ias academy inTrivandrum, Kerala
It is a subject that one can learn a lot about law by just reading newspapers and following
cases in the news. Topics like governance issues, RTI, citizen-official interface, the
exercise of discretion, the relationship between organs of state, etc. have significance for
the GS papers too.
The UPSC syllabus for law optional is limited and can be covered in a relatively short
time. Many social and economic issues need to be viewed from the legal angle as well
and law students find this easy. So, studying law helps in the General Studies Paper,
Essay paper, Ethics paper and also in the interview.
Downside of the Law Optional:
o The vocabulary used in law may seem unfamiliar and outdated.
o For non-law graduates, while it is not impossible to crack the subject, expert guidance
might be needed
o In this subject, the answers have to be precise and one needs to use legal terminologies.
So, if you are unaware about a particular question/topic, you cannot hope to get marks for
mere attempting.
Things to keep in mind if you are seriously thinking about Law as an Optional
Constitutional and Administrative Law form an important portion in Paper 1. You may
get up to three questions from this portion. You can also expect a question on
International Law in this Paper.
In Paper II, it is recommended that you give answers with landmark case laws, preferably
recent judgments.
Don’t forget to give the legal point of view with legal terminologies in each question.
Cite relevant case examples. To make your answers unique give the philosophical
mandate also behind every law.
“No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man’s permission when we
require him to obey it.” – Theodore Roosevelt
