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In winter semester break of my 2nd year I am interning with Ms. Anitha Shenoy (AoR). On the first day itself I visited the Supreme Court and could hear some of the best lawyers of India. Uday Lalit was the first person in that list of best lawyers. Unarguably solid in his oration and honest in his appearance, he never appeared to me, swayed by motives of winning the case. On the contrary he was ready to appreciate the logical conclusion (in that particular case of murder where he was defence counsel) despite not being in his favour. This was just the beginning of my lifetime experience. Back in the office I had an interesting criminal case to deal with. It was probably one of the most brutal criminal offence committed on the planet. Ma’am was appearing for the state of Karnataka and as prosecution we had to argue for upholding death penalty given by the High Court (Karnataka). [this post is edited on May 08, 2015 to state that the Apex Court upheld the death penalty in B.A Umesh v Regr. Gen. High Court of Karnataka, AIR 2011 SC 1000].
Post first day and till 26th Nov 2009 the SC has been normal for me. By now I have worked on two more cases, one dealing with land acquisition and other related to Mines and Minerals Development Regulation Act. Former case was not very difficult and I could manage to work well but the latter one was so bulky that I took almost two days to comprehend just the facts of the case then another one day to understand the law. Anyways ma’am took over that case in between so I need not worry about it anymore as of now. So far the Supreme Court is quite normal.
I am writing this paragraph on 27th Nov and just a day before, I had no clue that this normalcy in the SC is momentary. A scooter hit me at a bus stop when I was just boarding out of the bus. Though the accident was extremely minor one still I suffered temporary psychological injuries because it was first ever accident of my life. Well, the whole purpose of doing internship in the Supreme Court is to gain experience, be it in any field. Along with my first ever accident, first time during my internship till now I did not have any work overnight.
Its 29th night and I don’t know when my worklessness is going to end. I had one client interview on Saturday and a small drafting but those were not sufficient to gratify my hunger. Let us hope I will have some difficult work tomorrow.
On Monday and Tuesday I went to the Supreme Court and enjoyed Justice Kataju.
I had to wait till Tuesday i.e. 1st Dec to get some worthy work. This time again, I was supposed to brief the case before ma’am but unluckily I laid hand on a wrong case and researched whole day on it. It was in the evening only when I was told by Rashmi, (ma’am junior) that this case is not likely to come up for hearing upto next 2 years. Anyways she handed over to me, the right case. Former case (wrong one) dealt with marriage and maintenance. The petitioner was claiming to have married the respondent but there was no substantial evidence brought before the High Court of Jabalpur in order to prove the marriage. Even though the lady claiming to be married managed to show agreement signed in presence of notary public between the petitioner and the respondent stating their willingness to stay together but there was no evidence proving solemnization of the marriage. Lack of solemnization of marriage renders marriage void according to the Hindu Marriage Act. Though I had worked on a wrong case still I got opportunity to learn quite a lot. Apart from learning, this case also becomes important for me, considering the fact that I have family law next semester.
Latter case was related to non payment of incentives to a govt employee after his retirement on the ground that a criminal case for misappropriating funds of the company is sub judice against him. We are yet to receive the SLP and the impugned order of the High Court of Jabalpur therefore I need not research on this case at all as of now. But here comes the most fascinating case dealt by me so far. It was a fascinating case not because it involved some complicated question of law or something serious to be determined. It was fascinating for me because I predicted the fate of the SLP on Thursday and on Friday Justice Altamas Kabir was also in no mood to differ with me. Learned counsel Mr. Sanjay Pareikh managed to get maximum possible relief from the bench except getting the SLP admitted. This case pertained to slum development in Mumbai. It was basically a personal dispute between two netas of a slum locality which was enrolled for rehabilitation. Justice kabir rightly pointed out the correct position of law and dismissed the SLP.
In the meantime while I was working on all the above cases, a new intern joined ma’am but so far she has come only one day to the office . First week of December was not very eventful and that is the reason I am sitting to write this on 10th December after almost 8 days. This week also I read a number of cases but only with the motive to not get bored in the court while listening to the arguments. I could properly brief ma’am only on two cases in this week. This week was not actually that eventless. One interesting thing happened which requires mentioning. My friends from Hyderabad will be happy to read this. On 9th December some of my batchmates including myself went to Andhra Bhawan and relished its thali. You do not often find places appreciable if your pocket is light but I was lucky on that day. Best thing about the Bhawan is their delivery time and hospitality amidst 100s of eaters eating together. On 10th I could just manage to control my temptation of revisiting Andhra Bhawan.
Its 11th December tonight and I am eagerly waiting for 18th December to bring end to my internship. One should not be under the impression that I have got bored of my internship. I simply have had enough of the Supreme Court and I want to see my home.
Finally when I am at home I realized that I am yet to write about my last week of internship in the Supreme Court. In fact last week was only confined to one more brief to ma’am and a few drafting. Last brief was again a criminal case dealing with murder and out of two accused, one was acquitted by the High Court of Karnataka and we had to get the conviction representing state. Again I did a little bit of research and predictably justice Shirpukar issued the notice. Anyways after this brief I thought my job is done in Delhi but Rashmi asked me to draft an SLP. Actually I was present at the time when the client was briefing his case to Rashmi. According to various orders of courts below this client was effectively paying Rs 20,000/- pm as maintenance to his wife. He was seeking reduction in the award given under section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act. On the last day I had completed the drafting and gave it to Rashmi who after a lot of correction handed it over to ma’am crediting me for most of the works. Accordingly I had to sit with ma’am to re-correct it, which meant further delays as it was already 7:30 in the evening. Finally after scores of nodding I rose and waved my hands to ma’am, Amit (receptionist), Vinod (clerk) and Rshmi.
Unlike my other batch mates I received nothing as stipend. I don’t even know why I have mentioned about stipend here, which I never looked for. Probably because almost everyone interning got something or the other and therefore I was feeling slightly aggrieved. Anyways, within a span of one month I somehow started to feel a connection with the office and the staffs there. Even with the other intern I had started to gel quite well. Perhaps these were the reasons why I felt sad while walking down to south x. Meetings and partings are the law of nature, a very old saying which always consoles me, rescued me hurriedly this time too. On 18th afternoon i set off for home, unwillingly looking outside the window of the train.
