Opinion | Justice UU Lalit is right, law interns should take a cue from medical students to do rural service

Supreme Court judge and next in line to be the Chief Justice of India Justice UU Lalit recently urged law students to give back to society by acting as paralegal volunteers in the hinterland, similar to students of medicine who intern and work in rural areas as a matter of compulsion.

Justice Lalit, the current executive chairperson of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), said that law students should act as a bridge between the providers and seekers of legal aid.

“We have medical colleges, dental colleges where an internship is a matter of compulsion. We don’t want to compel anybody, (but) why not in law colleges that students also give back to society in the form of acting as paralegal volunteers, between the providers and seekers of legal aid,” he said.

Justice Lalit was speaking at the launch of a pan-India awareness and outreach campaign of NALSA on Saturday.

In his speech, Justice Lalit also said that the Bar Council of India (BCI) had assured NALSA that law colleges would be extending such support.

“If law colleges adopt maybe two or three talukas in the region, then maybe there will be a regular stream of students who will be devoted to the cause of legal aid. I’m already in touch with the Bar Council of India. They have assured us that perhaps all law colleges would be extending this kind of support,” he said.

It could be one of the two steps that will help NALSA realise its aspirations with respect to the pan-India programme, he said.

In my view, this is a very noble suggestion made by Justice Lalit. Law students, particularly in the 3rd year onwards (for the 5-year course) and the 2nd year onwards (for the 3-year course) should be used as resource persons for providing legal aid to the needy.

Although the BCI Rules provide for compulsory internship opportunities for law students, an institutional framework deserves to be designed for law students to assist in legal aid as part of their curriculum. This will not only help students understand ground-level problems in justice dispensation but also help the legal service authorities in getting help for the needy.

A culture of such programmes needs to be cultivated, where for a lengthy period of time, law students are engaged at a particular place to learn the basics of procedural aspects pertaining to litigation. Law students are young, energetic and full of enthusiasm.

Their energies need to be channelised in a manner that the society as a whole derives benefit out from it. By training in rural or semi-rural areas, students will learn the basics of civil litigation, e.g. property and family disputes as well as criminal litigation pertaining to different crimes in the society. They will also get a better grasp of on-ground realities in the country.

With a working opportunity, a better thought process gets framed in their young minds as to implement theory into practice. Law students can help in bringing technology-driven ideas into the application of law in needy areas. This will help in the overall development and uplift of society.

There are more than 500 law colleges in India. In Phase 1, if there is an institutional mechanism for attaching law students with legal service authorities through a platform, a dedicated army of students can be formed looking into legal aid. In Phase 2, this team can be matched with students coming from other areas of studies such as medical and finance (like Chartered Accountant aspirants undergoing articleship), students will learn from each other and a better environment can be created.

For instance, if a medical student, while assisting in conducting a post-mortem of a dead body or in forming a medico-legal opinion with the Chief Medical Officer, interacts with a law student undergoing training there, it will help both of them in forming a comprehensive understanding of the issue. Similarly, if a law student is assisting in an economic crime involving siphoning of funds and he is connected to a CA student, they both will benefit by learning from one another.

Let us see if there is a fresh institutional mechanism put in place or the already existing one gets improved. Hoping for the best, fingers crossed!

The author is an Advocate on Record, Supreme Court of India. Views expressed are personal.