Internship Experience @ National Legal Services Authority, New Delhi: Visit to Supreme Court

Name

Prabhleen Batra

University of Petroleum And Energy Studies

1^st year

Name of Organisation, Location

National Legal Services Authority, 12, Jamnagar House, Shahjahan Road, New Delhi 110001.

Duration of internship and timings

7th December, 2015 – 28th December, 2015

Timings: 10 am – 5 pm

The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has been constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 to provide free Legal Services to the weaker sections of the society and to organize Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes.

Office and Team Strength

The office is very well maintained with a dedicated staff of about 15-20 members.

Application Procedure

The application procedure is very simple but need to be don in advance by sending an email with the CV attached to nalsa1987@gmail.com

Accomodation and Travel

The accommodation was easy for me as I stayed at my home.

The office is at a 10 minute walking distance from the Khan Market metro station on the purple line.

First impression, First day formalities, Infrastructure

The first day was an orientation program about the working of the organization and how has this organization brought about changes in the legal aid system of the country.

G.B. Ravichandran, the secretary of NALSA conducted the first session and was a very comforting mentor.

We were introduced to the legal researchers of the organization who were to help us in all the work we did during the internship.

Main tasks

Our initial work was to go through applications for legal aid and suggest possible solutions to them.

Going through those applications, I realized how uninformed are the people of our country.

We spent the first 3 days suggesting possible measures. On the fourth day we were asked to present the 7 Schemes proposed by NALSA during the legal awareness week in November, 2015.

The next few days were the best days of the internship. We visited the Parliament, thereby witnessing Hon’ble Minister of External Affairs of India, Sushma Swaraj delivering her speech in the Lok Sabha.

The visit to the Hon’ble supreme court was another overwhelming experience. The following week was spent under the mentorship of the officers at the Delhi Sate State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) who provided us with a wonderful experience of visiting the Permanent Lok Adalat, Mediation centre (Tis Hazari Courts), National Lok Adalat at Patiala House Court, Tihar Jail, Juvenile Justice Board.

The work was rather interesting than tiring and we got to do the entire “Delhi Darshan”. The Connaught place market is at a distance of hardly 10 minutes and can be a easy sneak peak from the office.

The internship at NALSA is one of the best internship a 1^st year student can chose to do as the work environment is not serious and is an eye opener to the legal arena.

Stipend

No stipend but lots of experience and good memories.