Internship Experience: District Legal Services Authority – “I got the first-hand experience of how proceedings take place at District Court”

Name of the organisation:

District Legal Services Authority, Jammu

Duration of internship:

1 Month

Location:

District Court, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir

How did you apply?

I came to know that there was an internship programme, so I wrote and application to the head of the organisation requesting him to allow me to be a part of this internship programme.

Work Profile:

In this internship, we were introduced to all the PLVs and all the advocates that were associated with the DLSA, Jammu, so that they could brief us about the working of the legal aid clinic. We were made aware of our work that was to listen to the aggrieved and observe what his/her problems are and what the advocates suggest they should do. It was an internship programme that consisted mainly of observing the working of the legal aid clinics all over the district and observing the proceedings of the court. During this programme we were supposed to visit many legal aid clinics in the district consisting of the ones in the central jail, orphanage, old age home, district jail, etc., and observe the residents of these places and if possible interact with them regarding any issues or problems they may be facing there. During this programme, we were made to visit ADR centres and sit there to understand why is it there and what happens in these centres. In the end, we were required to prepare a report for office purposes only after which certificates were signed.

Work Environment:

We were allowed to work with great lawyers as well as paralegals who knew what they were doing and were more than willing to work. It never felt that we were new there we were accepted with open arms and were helped throughout the programme be it with cases, observations, or any official work that we had to do.

Experience:

It was a great experience for me to observe everything and to get briefed about things that I didn’t know about like laws consisting of  family laws, property laws, etc., but, there were certain things that I would have preferred they involved us in like actual drafting of the case or more intricate details of law as well as the situation, which was not looked that much into throughout the programme.

Stipend:

No stipend was being provided during the internship period

Accommodation:

No accommodation was required as this internship was in my home town.

Conclusion:

All in all it was a great experience. It was my first time working professionally and it taught me a lot of things, like, punctuality, neatness, formal language, how to interact with your colleagues, etc.