Author: Lexfolio Team

Government internships for law students in India are real but scattered. There is no single portal, schemes start and stop, and a great deal of what circulates on student groups is out of date. This is what is currently running, who can apply, and when applications open.

National Human Rights Commission

The NHRC runs an Online Short Term Internship Programme, and it is the most accessible of the national level options because it is remote and runs several times a year.

The programme is two weeks and is conducted online. The Commission has run multiple sessions across the year, including a February 2026 session, with applications closing several weeks in advance. It is open to university level students from a range of academic backgrounds, not law alone.

Competition is real but not hopeless. For the February 2026 session the Commission shortlisted 80 students from 1,114 applicants drawn from 19 states and union territories. Recent notifications have carried a small stipend, reported at around Rs 2,000 for the two week programme, but treat that as cycle specific and read the current notification rather than assuming it.

Watch nhrc.nic.in directly. Applications open and close quickly, and the schemes that publish on their own website are the ones worth trusting.

LAMP Fellowship

The Legislative Assistants to Members of Parliament Fellowship, run by PRS Legislative Research, places young graduates with a Member of Parliament for a full parliamentary year. It is a fellowship rather than an internship, and it is full time.

Eligibility is a Bachelor’s degree in any discipline, completed before the Fellowship begins. A law degree is accepted but is not required, and PRS provides training on the Constitution and parliamentary procedure, so prior legislative knowledge is not expected. Applicants must be Indian citizens, and PIO and OCI cardholders are not eligible. There is an age limit of 25, with the cut off date fixed for each cycle.

The Fellowship begins in mid June with about a month of training, after which Fellows are attached to an MP from the Monsoon session until the end of the following Budget session. The stipend is Rs 23,000 per month. Fellows cannot hold other academic or professional commitments during the year.

The application opens in December and involves an online form with a statement of purpose and a policy essay, followed by an online test in January for those shortlisted, then interviews, with outcomes communicated by around the end of March. If you are in your final year and interested in policy, December is the month to watch.

Supreme Court Legal Services Committee

Although attached to the court rather than the executive, the SCLSC internship is government legal aid work and is open through the year, which makes it one of the more reliably available options.

Students of three year and five year courses at recognised institutions are eligible. The full day programme has a minimum of 15 days and the half day programme a minimum of 30 days, and not more than ten interns are taken at a time. Applications go to sclsc.intern@gmail.com with bio data, and must be accompanied by a signed and sealed recommendation from your Director or Head of Department. Direct applications without institutional backing are not entertained.

State legal services authorities

State and District Legal Services Authorities run their own summer internships, usually advertised a few weeks ahead with a short application window and a requirement for a recommendation letter from your Principal. These are considerably easier to get than the national schemes and are available from the early years of the course. Check your own State Legal Services Authority’s website rather than looking for a central listing.

Ministries, commissions and regulators

Several ministries, statutory commissions and regulators have run internship schemes at various times, and some run them continuously. The honest position is that these come and go, that announcements are often made only on the body’s own website, and that lists circulating on student groups frequently name schemes that have lapsed.

The reliable method is unglamorous. Identify the three or four bodies whose subject matter you actually care about, check their official websites directly every few weeks during the application season, and apply the day a notice appears. Do not rely on aggregator posts, and verify any scheme against the official site before you spend time on an application.

What these internships are good for

Not courtroom skills. You will not learn to draft a plaint at the NHRC or to cross examine anyone as a LAMP Fellow. What you get is an understanding of how law is made and administered rather than litigated, which is a different and genuinely useful thing if you are drawn to policy, regulatory practice, human rights work or the civil services.

They also produce good writing material, because you will have read primary material that most students never see.

Practical points

1. Institutional letters. Government bodies almost always want a letter from your college. Get a template approved by your administration now, so you are not chasing a signature during a two week window.
2. Apply on day one. Several of these schemes close early when they receive enough applications.
3. Keep your statement of purpose specific. The NHRC and LAMP applications both involve written answers, and generic answers about passion for justice do not survive the first cut.
4. Never pay an agent. No government internship requires payment to any intermediary.

If your application record is thin and you need something to point to while you wait for these windows to open, published written work is the fastest thing to build. Lexfolio runs a virtual legal internship around exactly that.

There is no national scheme for interning with a Public Prosecutor. No portal, no common application, no advertised cycle. You approach a prosecutor directly or through the Directorate of Prosecution in your state, usually in person. It is one of the least applied for internships in the country, which is exactly why it is available.

Who the prosecutors are

It helps to know who you are writing to. Criminal prosecution on behalf of the State is conducted by officers at different levels:

• Assistant Public Prosecutors appear in Magistrate courts and handle the bulk of everyday criminal work.
• Additional Public Prosecutors and Public Prosecutors appear in Sessions courts, handling the serious offences.
• Government Advocates and Additional Advocates General appear for the State in the High Court, on both criminal and civil matters.
• The Advocate General is the State’s senior most law officer.

Most states have a Directorate of Prosecution that administers the prosecutors attached to the district courts. Where one exists, that is a sensible first point of contact for a formal request.

How to approach

Three routes work in practice.

1. Directly at the District Court. The prosecutors’ offices are in the court complex. Go on a working morning, ask at the Bar Association or the court staff for the APP or PP room, and make your request in person with a college letter.
2. Through the Directorate of Prosecution. A written application addressed to the Director, forwarded by your college, asking for permission to intern with a prosecutor for a stated period. Slower, but it produces a clean approval that avoids questions later.
3. Through the Advocate General’s office for High Court level work. Some Advocate General offices in India do advertise internships periodically, so it is worth checking that office’s notices.

Carry a letter from your college stating the dates. For government offices this is not optional in the way it sometimes is with a private chamber.

What makes this internship different

Almost every criminal law internship a student does is on the defence side. You learn how to argue for bail, how to cross examine a prosecution witness, how to find the gaps in an investigation. Spending a month on the other side changes your understanding of the same case file.

From a prosecutor’s desk you see the case as it arrives: the First Information Report, the case diary, the statements recorded during investigation, the medical and forensic reports, and the charge sheet being settled. You see why some prosecutions are weak from the beginning, and how much depends on the quality of the investigation rather than on the advocacy.

You also see volume. A single Assistant Public Prosecutor may be handling a very large number of matters listed on the same day, which explains a great deal about how criminal courts actually function.

What you will be asked to do

Reading, mostly, and some drafting.

• Reading case diaries and charge sheets and summarising what the prosecution case is.
• Checking whether the sections applied match the facts alleged, which since 1 July 2024 means working with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 alongside the older provisions in cases that began earlier.
• Preparing lists of witnesses and tracking which have been examined.
• Researching a point of law on sentencing, bail opposition or admissibility.
• Sitting in court while matters are conducted.

Because the transition to the new criminal laws means many offices are running old and new provisions side by side, interns who are comfortable with the section mapping are genuinely useful right now.

Confidentiality

Take this seriously. You will be reading investigation material in live criminal cases, often involving identifiable complainants and accused persons. None of it is discussed outside the office, nothing is photographed, and nothing goes online. In matters involving sexual offences or children there are additional statutory restrictions on disclosure of identity. If you are unsure whether something can be mentioned, assume it cannot.

Is it paid

No. These are unpaid, and government offices rarely have any mechanism to pay an intern even if they wished to. Private chambers of former prosecutors sometimes advertise paid internships, but that is a different thing from interning in the prosecution office itself.

Does it count for the BCI requirement

Yes. Rule 25 of the Legal Education Rules, 2008 permits internships with legal functionaries and regulatory authorities among others, and a prosecutor is plainly within that. Make sure the certificate states the office, the period and the nature of the work, and get it signed before you leave.

What to expect from the office itself

Government offices are not chambers. The room may be shared, there may be no desk for you, and the day runs on the court’s timetable rather than an office one. Prosecutors are usually in court from the time the board starts, so the reading and discussion happen early in the morning or after the court rises.

Nobody will structure the internship for you. If you sit quietly waiting to be given work, you will spend four weeks doing very little. The students who get the most ask for a file on the first day, read it properly, and come back with a written summary nobody asked for. That single habit usually changes how the rest of the month goes.

Take a notebook rather than a laptop. Most of what is useful here is said rather than circulated, and in many offices you will not be permitted to photograph or copy anything in any case.

Who should do this

Anyone considering a career in criminal law, and particularly anyone thinking about the judicial services or a prosecution cadre. Both examinations are built on criminal procedure, and a month watching procedure applied is worth a great deal of reading.

It is also worth doing if you intend to practise on the defence side. Knowing how the prosecution builds and presents a case, and where it tends to be weak, is directly useful when you are the one opposing it.

It is also the right internship if you want to write seriously about criminal justice, because you will have seen things that are not visible from the defence side or from the reported judgments. If you do write it up, be careful to keep every case detail out, and write about the system rather than the files you read.

Legal services authorities run free legal aid under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, and several of them take law student interns. The structure runs from NALSA at the national level, through State Legal Services Authorities, to District Legal Services Authorities, and most of the internships that students actually get are at the State or District level rather than the national one.

The structure, briefly

NALSA sits at the top and sets policy. Each state has a State Legal Services Authority, usually attached to the High Court. Each district has a District Legal Services Authority, attached to the District Court and chaired by the District Judge. There are also committees at the Supreme Court and High Court levels.

This matters because internship notifications come from the individual authority, not from one central place. Looking for a single NALSA internship portal is the commonest mistake. Check your State Legal Services Authority website and your District Legal Services Authority, and watch the High Court’s notices page.

What is advertised, and when

The pattern is summer programmes announced a few weeks in advance, with a short application window. The Delhi State Legal Services Authority, which runs one of the larger and better documented programmes, advertised 200 places for its 2026 summer internship, with applications opening online on 1 May 2026 and closing on 15 May 2026, shortlisting notified by email on 20 May, and confirmations due by 23 May. Eligibility was students of five year integrated or three year law courses at recognised Indian universities or colleges, and applications required a photograph and a recommendation letter from the Principal or Head of the Law Department.

Those dates are specific to that cycle and will change. The useful lesson is the shape: a two week application window, a mandatory institutional recommendation, and email based shortlisting. Have the recommendation letter ready before the notice appears, because two weeks is not long to get a signature from your Principal.

Several State authorities run similar summer programmes, including in smaller states, and these are considerably less competitive than Delhi. Nagaland’s State Legal Services Authority, for example, has published its own summer internship notifications with an internship module setting out what interns do.

Who can apply

Generally any student enrolled in a recognised three year or five year law course. Unlike judicial internships, legal services authorities often take students from earlier years, which makes this a realistic option in your first or second year when chambers will not have you.

Published criteria tend to mention attitude as much as academics. The Delhi notification asked for initiative, empathy and a positive attitude towards serving marginalised communities. That is not boilerplate, because the work puts you in front of people in real difficulty.

What interns actually do

The work is closer to social and administrative legal work than to litigation. Across published modules and notifications, it typically includes:

• Front desk legal aid. Sitting at the legal aid clinic, hearing what people come in with, and recording applications for legal aid.
• Lok Adalat work. Helping prepare the cause list, contacting parties, and observing settlements. If a National Lok Adalat falls during your internship, this is the busiest and most interesting part.
• Awareness programmes. Legal literacy camps in schools, villages or urban settlements, often involving a short talk you may be asked to give.
• Institution visits. Prisons, juvenile homes, shelter homes and observation homes, depending on the authority and on permissions.
• Documentation. Maintaining registers, following up on the status of legal aid cases, and drafting reports.

You are unlikely to draft pleadings. What you get instead is an accurate picture of how legal aid works in practice and where it fails, which is a perspective most law students never acquire.

How to apply when nothing is advertised

District authorities often have no published scheme but will still take students. Write to or visit the Secretary of the District Legal Services Authority, whose office is in the District Court complex. Carry a letter from your college stating the period. Because the DLSA is chaired by the District Judge, the authority is accustomed to formal written requests, so a signed institutional letter matters more here than a well written email.

The quiet months after the summer rush are the easiest time to get a place.

Is it paid, and does it count

These internships are normally unpaid. Occasionally a small amount is offered for field travel.

They do count towards the Bar Council of India’s internship requirement under Rule 25 of the Legal Education Rules, 2008, which requires 12 weeks across a three year course and 20 weeks across a five year course, and permits internships with legal regulatory authorities and other legal functionaries among others. Remember the separate requirement that at least one of your internships must be with trial and appellate advocates, which a legal services internship does not satisfy on its own.

Why this is worth doing even though it is not glamorous

Three reasons. It is accessible in the early years when nothing else is. It gives you a certificate from a statutory authority, which carries weight. And it puts you in contact with the District Judge’s office and the local Bar, which is how later internships and eventually work actually come about in most Indian cities.

It also tends to produce the material students later write about, because the gap between what the law provides and what people receive is visible from the legal aid desk in a way it is not from anywhere else. If you want to write that up, Lexfolio accepts student articles through its call for blogs, with no publication fee.

An internship with a District Court advocate is the easiest legal internship to get and the one most students underrate. You walk into the court complex, find an advocate willing to take you, and spend four weeks watching how cases actually move. It is usually unpaid, rarely advertised, and almost always more instructive in your early years than a glossy firm internship.

Why do this early

Everything in litigation happens at the trial court first. Evidence is recorded there, witnesses are examined there, and the documents that an appellate court later reads are created there. If you have never seen a cross examination or a bail application being moved, large parts of your procedure syllabus stay abstract.

There is also a Bar Council requirement in the background. Rule 25 of the Legal Education Rules, 2008 requires every student to complete at least one internship with trial and appellate advocates during the course. A District Court internship is the straightforward way to satisfy the trial side of that.

How to find one

These internships are not advertised, so the routes are personal rather than online.

• Your college. Most law colleges have alumni practising in the local District Court, and the placement or internship cell usually has names. This is the fastest route and underused.
• The Bar Association. Every District Court has one, with an office in the complex. Walking in and asking is normal and nobody will find it odd.
• Family and acquaintances. Ask around. In most Indian cities someone two steps away knows a practising advocate.
• Directly at the court. Go on a working morning, sit in a courtroom for an hour, and identify advocates whose work interests you. Approach them after the board finishes, not while they are waiting for a matter.

Ask in person if you can. A short conversation works better than an email for this kind of chamber, and many senior trial court advocates do not use email much.

What to say

Keep it short. Your name, your college, your year, the dates you are free, and that you want to learn trial court practice. Carry a one page CV and a letter from your college if it issues them. Do not open by asking about a stipend.

If the advocate says no, ask whether a colleague might take you. People in the same chamber block usually know who has capacity.

What the work actually involves

Expect a mix of the mundane and the genuinely useful:

1. Reading case files. The first real task is usually to read a brief and tell the advocate what it is about. This is harder than it sounds the first time.
2. Court work. Carrying files, noting the next date, recording what happened in each matter. Tedious, and it teaches you the rhythm of a cause list faster than anything else.
3. Drafting. If you show you can write, you may be asked to attempt a bail application, a plaint, a written statement or a legal notice. Your draft will be rewritten. Keep both versions and compare them, because that comparison is the actual training.
4. Filing and procedure. How a case gets numbered, what the filing counter rejects and why, how process is served. Nobody teaches this in class.
5. Research. Less than in a firm, but you will be asked to find a judgment on a point, usually quickly.

What to carry

Court formals from day one: white shirt, black trousers or a black and white salwar kameez, formal shoes. A notebook and pen, because the court complex is not a laptop environment. Your college ID. Patience, because a lot of the day is waiting for a matter to be called.

How to be useful rather than decorative

Most interns stand quietly and leave having learned little. The ones who get taught do three things.

They keep a daily diary of the matters they saw, with the section involved, what was argued and what the court did. After four weeks this is a genuine record, and it is what you will draw on in an interview when someone asks what you did.

They ask questions after court, not during. A question at the end of the day about why a particular argument was dropped gets a real answer. The same question while the advocate is waiting for a matter does not.

They volunteer for the boring work. Indexing a file or tracking down a certified copy builds the trust that gets you the drafting work later in the month.

Money

Most District Court internships are unpaid. Some chambers pay a small amount for travel, particularly if you stay beyond a month. Do not raise it in the first conversation, and do not assume it. If you need paid work, say so honestly when the internship is being arranged rather than halfway through.

Getting the certificate

Ask on the first day what the chamber’s practice is, and ask again in the final week. You need the certificate to show your university, and it should state the dates and the nature of the work. If the advocate does not have letterhead certificates ready, offer to draft one for signature. Nobody minds this.

What it leads to

Trial court experience is the most common thing missing from the CVs of students who want to litigate, and interviewers notice when it is there. It also tells you something important early: whether you actually like litigation. A month in a District Court answers that question better than three years of thinking about it.

If you want to pair it with written work, a research or writing internship in the same period gives you something to show as well as something to recount. Lexfolio runs a virtual legal internship that is built around published writing, and it works well alongside a court internship because the hours do not clash.

There is no single Supreme Court internship. There are at least three separate routes, each with its own eligibility and application process: a judge’s chamber, the Centre for Research and Planning, and the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee. People lump them together and then apply to the wrong one. Here is what each actually is.

Route 1: a judge’s chamber

This is what most students mean. You intern with one judge, reading listed matters and writing notes for the chamber.

Applications go directly to the chamber, usually to the Private Secretary, by email or sometimes through a Google Form that the chamber circulates. There is no central list, and the addresses that circulate on blogs go stale quickly, so check current information rather than copying a list from a 2024 post.

Applications are considered on a rolling basis and chambers work months ahead. Two months before your intended period is a sensible minimum, and three is better for May, June and December.

Send a formal email with your name, course, year, university, the exact dates you want and two or three lines on why that chamber. Attach a CV of about one and a half pages. A clear subject line that names the month is important, because these chambers receive a very large volume of applications.

If shortlisted, expect a short telephone or video conversation, or a request for a written note on a sample issue. Selection is not confined to national law universities. Chambers do take students from state universities and regional colleges, and the filter is usually the quality of writing.

Route 2: the Centre for Research and Planning

The CRP is the Supreme Court’s own research body. It assists judges with research, and its internship is a research posting rather than a courtroom one.

The published eligibility is specific. You must be enrolled in a law degree recognised by the Bar Council of India, be in the 4th or 5th year of a five year course or the 3rd year of a three year course on the dates you intend to intern, and be under 28. The minimum period is four weeks.

The application is more demanding than a chamber email. It asks for a CV of no more than two pages, a statement of purpose of 350 to 500 words on why the CRP and how it fits your plans, and a writing sample of 1,500 to 3,000 words demonstrating legal analysis. The sample can be an extract from something longer and does not need to be published. There may be a telephonic interview.

The internship is in person at the CRP offices in New Delhi, roughly 10:00 am to 5:30 pm on weekdays and a half day on Saturday. There is no stipend. Interns are bound by confidentiality during and after the internship.

If you want to do legal research seriously, this is the most substantive of the three. The writing sample is the whole application, so do not submit a moot memorial you wrote in a hurry.

Route 3: the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee

The SCLSC is constituted under Section 3A of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 and handles free legal aid at the Supreme Court. Its internship exposes you to legal aid work, which is a different and in some ways more useful picture of the court.

Students of three year and five year law courses at recognised institutions are eligible. The programme runs monthly through the year. The full day version runs 10:00 am to 5:00 pm with a minimum of 15 days, and there is a half day version from 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm with a minimum of 30 days. Not more than ten interns are taken at a time, which is why applying early matters.

The application goes by email to sclsc.intern@gmail.com with your bio data, but it must come with a recommendation or no objection letter from your Director, Head of Department or equivalent, signed and sealed, specifying the period. Direct applications without institutional backing are not accepted. Start the paperwork at your college before you write.

What a Law Clerk is, and why it is not an internship

You will see the Law Clerk cum Research Associate advertisement and wonder whether to apply. It is not an internship. It is a short term contractual engagement for law graduates, advertised by the Supreme Court with a formal recruitment process.

For the 2026 to 2027 term, the notification set an age range of 20 to 32, required a law degree from a Bar Council of India recognised institution, and stated initial remuneration of Rs 1,00,000 per month. Final year students could apply but had to produce the degree before joining. Selection ran through an online objective test, a subjective written paper and an interview, with an application fee, and applications were made only through sci.gov.in.

So it is a job you apply for after graduating, not something to do in your third year summer. Worth knowing about early, because people plan their final year around it.

What to expect if you get in

Long days and a lot of reading. In a chamber you will be summarising matters late into the evening before a heavy board. At the CRP you will be researching questions that may take a week. Neither gives you much visible output to show afterwards, which is why keeping your own careful notes matters.

None of these is paid. Delhi accommodation for a month is the real cost, and it is worth arranging before you accept rather than after.

A realistic note

The number of students applying to the Supreme Court every cycle is very large and the number of places is small. Treat a rejection as information about volume rather than about you. The students who eventually get in usually have two or three solid prior internships, something written that someone else has read, and the discipline to apply three months ahead rather than three weeks.

If you are building that record, written work is the part you control. Lexfolio’s virtual internship is designed around producing and publishing it.

A judicial internship means working in the chamber of a sitting High Court judge, usually for four weeks, reading the day’s matters and writing research notes. There is no single national portal. Some High Courts run a formal scheme with an online form, and elsewhere you write directly to the judge’s office. Apply roughly two to three months before the period you want.

Two different routes, and you need to know which applies

The first route is a court run scheme. The High Court itself publishes eligibility rules, an application form and a selection process, and allots interns to judges centrally. The Allahabad High Court is a clear example, and its published rules are worth reading even if you are applying elsewhere, because they show what selectors look for.

The second route is chamber by chamber. You write to a particular judge’s office, usually to the Private Secretary, and the chamber decides. Most High Courts work this way. It is less predictable, and it rewards applying early and writing a careful email.

Check your own High Court’s website first, under headings such as Internship, Recruitment or Notices. If there is a scheme, use it. Applying privately when a formal scheme exists usually gets you redirected.

Who is eligible

Where courts publish criteria, they tend to want students who are already past the early years. The Allahabad High Court, for instance, takes students in the 4th or 5th year of a five year course, or the 2nd or 3rd year of a three year course, and requires at least two previous internships of four weeks or more with a lawyer, law firm or court. It also expects basic competence with legal databases and MS Office.

That last requirement catches people out. If you are in your second year of a five year course with no prior internships, a judicial internship is usually a year or two away. Build the prior internships first.

When to apply

Earlier than you think. Allahabad accepts applications up to three months before the proposed start date, and tells shortlisted candidates their start date about a month in advance. Chambers that take private applications are generally working two months ahead or more.

The crowded months are May, June and December, because that is when everyone is free. If you can intern in an off-peak month, your chances improve considerably and you will get more attention from the chamber.

What to send

A formal email and a short CV. Keep the email to one screen:

• Your full name, course, year and university.
• The exact period you are asking for, with dates.
• Two or three lines on why this chamber, which should refer to the kind of work the court does rather than flattery.
• Your contact number and email.

Attach a CV of one to two pages: academics with actual marks or CGPA, previous internships with dates and what you did, moots, publications and languages. If you have a writing sample, say it is available rather than attaching it unasked.

Use a plain subject line that states the ask and the month, for example “Application for Judicial Internship, March 2027”. A formal letter from your college stating the dates helps, and court run schemes usually require one.

What the work is actually like

Interns in a judge’s chamber typically prepare short notes on the matters listed for the next day, summarising the facts, the issue and what each side says. You may be asked to find authority on a point, check whether a judgment cited is still good law, or draft a synopsis of pleadings. Some chambers let interns sit in court, which is where most of the learning happens.

You will not draft judgments. Anyone promising that is describing something else. What you get is a month of watching how a judge reads a case and what persuades the court, which changes how you write afterwards.

Confidentiality is absolute. Chambers often ask for a written undertaking. Nothing you see, including the outcome of a matter before it is pronounced, goes to anyone outside, and that includes social media. Breaching this ends the internship and travels further than you would like.

Practical points people get wrong

1. Do not mass mail. Chambers notice an email addressed to no one in particular. Write individually, and never put multiple chambers in the same address line.
2. Follow up once. After ten to fourteen days, a single short reply to your original email is acceptable unless the court says not to follow up. More than that works against you.
3. Do not pay anyone. No court charges for an internship and no intermediary can arrange one. Requests for money are a scam.
4. Verify email addresses yourself. Lists of chamber contacts circulate on blogs and go out of date quickly. Use the court’s own website.
5. Dress and timing. Court formals, and arrive before the judge does.

Is it paid

Almost never. Judicial internships in India are unpaid, and the published schemes usually describe themselves as non remunerative. Budget for travel and accommodation. If you are applying to a court in another city, factor that in before you accept.

Does it count for your BCI requirement

Yes. Rule 25 of the Bar Council of India’s Legal Education Rules, 2008 requires 12 weeks of internship across a three year course and 20 weeks across a five year course, and the judiciary is among the permitted placements. The rule also says an internship in any year cannot run for a continuous period of more than four weeks, which is one reason court schemes are built around a four week block. Separately, you must complete at least one internship with trial and appellate advocates, so a judicial internship does not discharge that part on its own.

Ask for the certificate before you leave on the last day. Chasing it afterwards is slow.

If you do not get one

Most students do not, at least not on the first attempt. The useful alternatives are an internship with a senior advocate who appears before that court, which teaches you the same kind of reading from the other side, or a legal research internship where you write rather than observe. Writing is the skill chambers actually screen for, so time spent producing careful legal writing is not time lost. Lexfolio runs a virtual legal internship built around exactly that, and published work gives your next application something concrete to point to.

Chandigarh suits a student who wants a serious litigation internship in a city small enough to move around easily. The Punjab and Haryana High Court sits here and serves two states and a union territory, so the docket is large while the city itself is compact. Everything you need is within a short drive.

The High Court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has been located in Chandigarh since 1955. Its territorial jurisdiction covers the states of Punjab and Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. Delhi was once within its jurisdiction, until the Delhi High Court was established in 1966.

The building was designed by Le Corbusier as part of the planned city, which is incidental to your internship but worth seeing.

The practical point for an intern is that one court here handles matters arising from two states with different state legislation. A chamber may argue a Punjab land matter in the morning and a Haryana service matter in the afternoon, and you have to keep track of which state’s rules apply. That is a genuinely useful discipline, and it is specific to this court.

What the practice looks like

Service law is a notably strong stream here, covering the two state governments and their boards and corporations: appointments, seniority, promotions, disciplinary proceedings and pensions. Criminal work, civil and property disputes, and matters arising from agricultural land and village common land also make up a large share.

If service law interests you, Chandigarh is one of the better cities in India to see it done well, because the volume generated by two state administrations is substantial.

The district court

The District Court at Chandigarh is in Sector 43, within walking distance of the Inter State Bus Terminus. The complex has four floors and 31 court rooms, housing around thirty courts: the District and Sessions Judge, nine Additional District and Sessions Judges including a special court for CBI cases and a fast track court for heinous crimes against women, a Civil Judge (Senior Division), a Chief Judicial Magistrate, and eighteen subordinate courts of which six are special courts dealing with cheque dishonour cases under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.

Those six dedicated Section 138 courts are worth noting. Cheque bounce work is high volume, procedurally distinctive, and something a young advocate is very likely to handle early in practice. A fortnight watching those courts teaches you a practice area you will actually use.

Tribunals in and around the city

National Company Law Tribunal, Chandigarh. Company and insolvency matters for the region.

Debts Recovery Tribunals. Three DRTs sit in Chandigarh, handling bank recovery and SARFAESI work.

Armed Forces Tribunal, Chandigarh Regional Bench. Note the location carefully: the bench is at Chandimandir, Panchkula, in Haryana, rather than in Chandigarh itself. It is close by, but if you are arranging travel or accommodation around an internship there, plan for Panchkula.

Where to apply

• High Court chambers. The main route, and the Chandigarh bar is approachable by the standards of the metros.
• Service law specialists. Worth seeking out specifically, since this is a local strength.
• District court advocates at Sector 43. Best for trial exposure, and an easy place to spend a week alongside a High Court internship because of the short distance.
• Government law offices. The Advocate General offices for Punjab and Haryana both operate from Chandigarh. Access typically requires an introduction.
• Tribunal practitioners. Advocates appearing before the NCLT or the DRTs, for company and banking exposure.

How to apply

Email, addressed to a named advocate, kept short. Four paragraphs: who you are and your year, why that chamber, your exact dates, and a note that the CV is attached. Send a one page CV and a short writing sample.

Chandigarh has several law colleges and a steady flow of local students, so summer places go early. Write in March for May, and in October for a winter internship.

Regional language matters more here than students expect. Documents, witness statements and client conversations may be in Punjabi or Hindi. If you read Punjabi, say so, because it is a practical advantage and chambers notice. If you do not, that is not a bar, but expect to need help with the file.

What you will be doing

Reading files, searching for judgments, preparing briefs, attending hearings and taking notes. In a service law chamber you will spend a lot of time with service rules, government circulars and departmental records, and learning to read a government order carefully is the main skill on offer.

Ask to see a paper book before a hearing. Ask what the key document in the file is and why. Advocates in a city this size generally have time to answer, which is one of the real advantages of interning somewhere other than Delhi.

Living there

Chandigarh is easy to get around, cheaper than the metros, and the sectors are well connected. Accommodation is usually straightforward to arrange near the court or in the neighbouring sectors. Panchkula and Mohali are close enough to stay in if that suits you better.

Most litigation internships here are unpaid, as elsewhere. Some chambers pay a small amount or cover travel. There is no standard rate, so ask once you have been offered a place rather than in your first email.

Rule 25

Bar Council of India Rule 25 requires twelve weeks of internship over a three year course and twenty weeks over a five year course, with no single internship running more than four continuous weeks in any one year, and at least one internship with trial and appellate advocates. A Chandigarh chamber doing both High Court and Sector 43 work covers that requirement cleanly, and the short distance between the two makes it practical to split your weeks.

Prayagraj, formerly Allahabad, is the principal seat of the Allahabad High Court. For a litigation internship it offers something no other city quite does: sheer volume, in one of the oldest and largest High Courts in the country, where a student can watch dozens of matters in a single day.

If you want to understand how Indian litigation actually works at scale, rather than how it looks in a textbook, this is the place to spend four weeks.

The court

The Allahabad High Court was established on 17 March 1866, originally at Agra, and its principal seat is now at Prayagraj, with a permanent bench at Lucknow. Its jurisdiction covers the whole of Uttar Pradesh. Its sanctioned judge strength is 160, among the largest of any High Court in India, which gives a sense of the docket.

For an intern, that scale has a direct consequence. On a miscellaneous day a court may take up a very large number of matters, most of them briefly. You will see more applications, more bail matters and more writ petitions in a week here than in a month at a smaller court. You will also see how an advocate handles being one of many, which is a practical skill nobody teaches.

What practice here is made of

Criminal work is the largest stream: bail applications, anticipatory bail, quashing petitions and criminal appeals. Service matters involving the Uttar Pradesh government form the second. Civil, property and revenue work, including land disputes under the Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code, fills much of the rest, and this is a body of law that students from outside the state rarely encounter at all.

Writ practice under Article 226 is central to everything. If you intern here you should finish the four weeks genuinely understanding what a writ petition is, what relief it can get and when a court will refuse to entertain it. That alone is worth the trip.

Other forums in the city

National Company Law Tribunal, Allahabad. The NCLT bench at Allahabad covers company and insolvency matters for the region, including those arising from Lucknow and the rest of Uttar Pradesh. If you want insolvency exposure within the state, this is where it is.

Debts Recovery Tribunal, Allahabad. Bank recovery and SARFAESI work.

District Court, Prayagraj. Trial level civil and criminal work. A week here alongside the High Court gives you both ends of the same system, which is a better education than either alone.

Who to apply to

• Advocates practising at the High Court. The main route. The Prayagraj bar is very large, and the range runs from single advocates to substantial chambers.
• Senior advocates. Prestigious and competitive. Often you will observe rather than draft.
• Government counsel. The state’s law officers handle a very high volume of writ work. Access usually depends on an introduction.
• District court advocates. The right choice if you want trial practice, and far easier to arrange.

Applying

The same discipline as anywhere, with one local point. The Prayagraj bar is less driven by email than the metros. A letter or an in person visit, where that is practical for you, still carries weight, and a phone call from a teacher or a family contact carries more. If you have any connection to the city or to an advocate practising there, use it, and do not feel awkward about it.

If you are applying cold by email, keep it to four short paragraphs: who you are, why this chamber, your exact dates, and a note that your CV is attached. Send a short writing sample. Follow up once.

Apply six to eight weeks ahead. Note that the High Court observes vacations, and chambers are quiet then, so check the court calendar before fixing your dates. Arriving for four weeks that overlap a long vacation wastes the internship.

What the four weeks will look like

Early mornings. Court begins and the lists are long, so your advocate will often be in court for most of the working day, moving between courtrooms. Your job is to carry the files, know which matter is listed where, and keep track of what happened.

The research you are asked for will usually be narrow and urgent: find whether a particular point has been decided, or whether a judgment still holds. Learn to use Indian Kanoon and SCC Online properly before you arrive, because being slow at this is the commonest way interns become a nuisance.

Ask to read the file before a hearing. Many interns never do, and then cannot follow what is being argued. Fifteen minutes with the petition before court transforms the day from noise into something you can learn from.

Practicalities

Prayagraj is considerably cheaper to live in than Delhi, Mumbai or Bengaluru, which is a real advantage for a longer internship. Accommodation near the court is generally available, and many students stay in paying guest arrangements. Arrange it before you arrive rather than on the day.

Most litigation internships here are unpaid. Some chambers reimburse travel. There is no standard practice, so do not assume either way.

Why this internship is worth more than it looks

Students often prefer a metro name on the certificate. But Rule 25 of the Bar Council of India rules requires at least one internship with trial and appellate advocates, and a Prayagraj chamber gives you exactly that, at a scale that forces you to learn quickly.

More practically: if you intend to practise in Uttar Pradesh, or to sit for the state judicial services, the four weeks here teach you the procedure, the local practice and the body of state law that you will actually be examined on and will actually use. That is a better investment than a corporate internship you will never draw on.

Keep a case diary. Twenty matters, each with the point argued and the outcome, is a document you will still find useful in your final year.

Bengaluru is the place to intern if you are interested in technology, startups or in house legal work, and it has a proper litigation market alongside. The Karnataka High Court sits here, the subordinate courts are organised into specialist complexes, and the city has a concentration of technology companies with legal teams that take interns.

It is the best Indian city for seeing how commercial legal advice is given to a business rather than argued in a court.

The courts in Bengaluru

Karnataka High Court. The principal bench is in Bengaluru, with additional permanent benches at Hubballi-Dharwad and Kalaburagi. The court sits in the Attara Kacheri, the red neoclassical building in Cubbon Park opposite the Vidhana Soudha. It is a short walk from several of the subordinate court complexes, which makes moving between forums easy for an intern.

City Civil Court Complex. Houses the City Civil and Sessions Courts, established in 1980, together with some of the Commercial Courts.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court Complex. On Nrupatunga Road, with a main building and two annexes holding a large number of magistrate courts. This is where criminal trial work happens at first instance.

Mayo Hall Court Complex. A heritage building housing a branch of the City Civil Court, several magistrate courts, the Small Causes Courts and a traffic court.

Commercial Court Complex. In the BSNL Telephone House on Rajbhavan Road, on the second and third floors. Commercial courts are worth seeking out: the procedure under the Commercial Courts Act is tighter than ordinary civil procedure, and seeing it applied teaches you case management in a way general civil work does not.

Nyayadegula Building. On H. Siddaih Road, Shanthi Nagar, housing the Family Courts, Labour Courts and the Industrial Tribunal.

National Company Law Tribunal, Bengaluru. Hears company and insolvency matters for the region.

Debts Recovery Tribunals. Two DRTs sit in Bengaluru.

The thing Bengaluru has that other cities do not

A very large number of technology companies, startups and global capability centres with in house legal teams based in the city. The legal questions that arise there are different from litigation: contracts, data protection, intellectual property licensing, employment, regulatory compliance and commercial negotiation.

For a student, an in house internship in Bengaluru is a genuinely different experience. You see legal advice delivered under commercial pressure, with a business asking whether something can be done rather than whether it was lawful after the fact. If you are considering a corporate career, one in house stint teaches you more about the client’s perspective than three firm internships.

These placements are usually advertised on the company’s own careers page or on LinkedIn rather than obtained by cold email, so the search method is different. Set up alerts and check regularly.

Where to apply, by what you want

• Court craft: chambers practising before the Karnataka High Court, or in the City Civil Court and CMM complexes for trial work.
• Commercial litigation: chambers appearing in the Commercial Court Complex or before the NCLT bench.
• Technology and data protection: boutique technology law practices, or in house teams at technology companies.
• Startup and venture work: smaller corporate firms advising founders on incorporation, funding rounds and shareholder agreements.
• Labour and employment: chambers practising before the Labour Courts and Industrial Tribunal at the Nyayadegula Building.

How to apply

For chambers, the ordinary rules hold: a short email to a named advocate, a reason tied to their practice, exact dates, a one page CV and a short writing sample.

For in house and technology roles, treat it closer to a job application. A CV that lists a relevant course, a drafting sample such as a simple services agreement you have annotated, and a short note on why that sector interests you will outperform a litigation style application. Mention any technical background you have, because an engineering degree is a real advantage in a technology legal team and is worth saying plainly.

A note of caution: do not claim expertise in data protection or technology law that you do not have. The field moves quickly, and an interviewer in Bengaluru will know far more than you do. Saying you have read the statute and want to learn is respected. Overstating is not.

Timing

Chambers: six to eight weeks ahead. Companies and firms: longer, often three to six months, and they recruit in cycles. Because Bengaluru has many colleges and a large student population, summer places fill early, so start in February for a May internship.

What to expect

In a chamber, the usual: research, briefs, court attendance and note taking. In house, something quite different. Expect to review contracts against a checklist, summarise regulatory requirements, prepare comparison notes and sit in on calls where lawyers explain risk to people who are not lawyers. The writing is shorter and more practical, and the deadlines are usually tighter.

Stipends vary widely. In house and firm internships in Bengaluru more often carry one than litigation chambers do, but there is no standard figure and you should not rely on numbers from student forums.

Rule 25

Bar Council of India Rule 25 requires twelve weeks of internship across a three year course and twenty weeks across a five year course, with no single internship exceeding four continuous weeks in a year, and at least one with trial and appellate advocates. In house internships are permitted, since Rule 25 allows placements with companies, but they do not meet the trial and appellate advocate requirement. Plan at least one court based internship alongside.

Mumbai is where you go if you want to see commercial litigation, financial regulation and company work argued at the highest level in India. The Bombay High Court sits here, so does the country’s only Securities Appellate Tribunal, and the commercial bar is denser than in any other city.

It is a harder city to intern in than Lucknow or Prayagraj, mostly because of cost and distance, so plan the practical side early.

What sits in Mumbai

Bombay High Court. The principal seat is in Mumbai, in the Gothic Revival building completed in 1878, with benches at Nagpur, Aurangabad, Kolhapur and in Goa. Its jurisdiction covers Maharashtra, Goa, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

The feature that matters for an intern is the original side. The Bombay High Court hears certain civil suits directly rather than on appeal, which means you can watch a commercial suit tried in a High Court. Very few students see this, and it is the single best reason to intern in Mumbai rather than elsewhere.

City Civil and Sessions Court. The main trial forum for civil and criminal matters in Greater Mumbai, and the place to go if you want volume and trial craft rather than appellate argument.

Court of Small Causes. Established under the Presidency Small Causes Courts Act, 1882, with its main premises in the Old and New Annex Building at Dhobi Talao on Lokmanya Tilak Marg, and a branch at Bhaskar Building in Bandra East that has run since 1990 for the western suburbs. It has exclusive jurisdiction over rent control matters in Greater Mumbai, which makes it the real centre of landlord and tenant litigation in the city.

Securities Appellate Tribunal. This is the one genuinely unique thing about interning in Mumbai. The SAT has a single bench, in Mumbai, with jurisdiction over the whole country. It hears appeals from orders of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, and appeals from orders of the insurance and pension regulators in matters filed with them. If securities law interests you at all, there is nowhere else in India to watch it argued.

National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai. One of the busiest NCLT benches in the country, hearing insolvency and company matters.

Debts Recovery Tribunals. Three DRTs sit in Mumbai, reflecting the concentration of banking work.

Armed Forces Tribunal, Mumbai Regional Bench. At the MTNL Building on A.G. Bell Marg, Malabar Hill.

Where students actually intern

• Counsel chambers on the original side. The most valuable and the hardest to enter. Usually through a referral, often through a professor or a senior from your college.
• Commercial and corporate law firms. Mumbai has the largest concentration of corporate legal work in India, driven by banking, capital markets, funds and real estate. Firm internships follow formal application windows, usually months in advance.
• Boutique disputes chambers. Smaller practices focused on arbitration, insolvency or securities work. These often give an intern far more responsibility than a large firm would.
• In house legal teams. Banks, insurers, listed companies and asset managers are headquartered in Mumbai. In house internships are quieter and more document heavy, and they show you how legal advice is actually consumed by a business.
• City Civil Court and Small Causes chambers. The best grounding in trial practice available in the city, and much easier to get into than the original side.

Applying

The Mumbai bar runs heavily on introductions. That is an uncomfortable fact for a student from outside the city, but there are ways around it.

1. Use your college network first. Alumni who are juniors in Mumbai chambers are the most effective route, and a junior will often pass your email to the senior with a line of support, which changes everything.
2. Apply to the tribunals directly. SAT, NCLT and DRT practices are smaller worlds, and a well targeted email to a chamber that appears regularly before them is less likely to be ignored than one to a famous name.
3. Show you understand the practice. If you are applying to a securities chamber, reference a SEBI order or a SAT decision. This takes an hour of reading and separates you immediately.
4. Be precise about dates and accommodation. Mumbai chambers know the city is expensive. Saying you have a place to stay removes a practical worry and makes you easier to say yes to.

The practical problem nobody mentions

Mumbai is expensive and the commute is long. If your chamber is at the High Court in South Mumbai and you are staying in the suburbs, you are looking at a significant journey each way. Factor this in before you accept, because an intern who arrives late every day makes a poor impression regardless of how good the work is.

Many litigation internships here are unpaid, firm internships more often carry a stipend, and there is no standard figure across either. Budget on the assumption of no stipend and treat one as a bonus.

What you will learn here that you will not elsewhere

Three things. How a commercial suit is actually conducted at trial, because of the original side. How financial regulation works in practice, because SEBI orders and SAT appeals happen here. And how transactional and disputes work connect, because in Mumbai the same client often has both running at once.

Keep a note of every matter you see, including the section or regulation at issue. Securities and insolvency work is dense with provisions, and a student who can say which regulation was argued is immediately more credible than one who says “a SEBI matter”.

Rule 25 and your requirement

Bar Council of India Rule 25 requires twelve weeks of internship across a three year course and twenty weeks across a five year course, with no single internship running more than four continuous weeks in a year, and at least one internship with trial and appellate advocates. A Mumbai corporate firm does not satisfy that last requirement. Pair it with a stint in a City Civil Court or Small Causes chamber.

Delhi has more legal work in one city than anywhere else in India, which is both the reason to intern here and the reason students waste the opportunity. The Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court, seven district court complexes and most national tribunals all sit within the capital. If you apply without deciding what you want to see, you will end up somewhere at random.

Decide first what kind of lawyer you are curious about, then pick the forum, then pick the chamber.

What sits in Delhi

The Supreme Court of India. Chambers that practise here are built around a weekly rhythm: miscellaneous days for fresh matters, regular hearing days for admitted ones. An intern at a Supreme Court chamber spends a great deal of time on special leave petitions, which is a specific skill, because an SLP has to persuade a court to take the case at all before it argues the case is right.

Delhi High Court. A very broad docket covering writ, commercial, intellectual property, company and criminal work. If you want to see commercial litigation and intellectual property disputes at a high level, this is the forum in India where you are likeliest to see them.

Seven district court complexes. Tis Hazari, which opened in 1958, Patiala House near India Gate from 1977, Karkardooma near Anand Vihar from 1993, Rohini from 2005, Dwarka from 2008, Saket at Pushp Vihar from 2010, and Rouse Avenue near ITO from 2019. Between them they house eleven district courts. Rouse Avenue is worth knowing about because it hears a significant share of the cases involving public servants and central agencies.

The tribunals. Delhi is where most national tribunals sit: the Principal Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, the Principal Bench of the National Green Tribunal, three Debts Recovery Tribunals, and the Principal Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal at R.K. Puram. If you want regulatory or company work, a tribunal internship in Delhi shows you more in four weeks than a general chamber would.

The four routes in

1. Counsel chambers

A chamber attached to a senior advocate or a busy arguing counsel. You will research points, prepare briefs, note down what happened in court, and occasionally draft. Competition is heavy, applications are usually by email, and the single best way in is a referral from someone who has already interned there.

2. Law firms

Large firms run structured internship programmes with defined application windows, often six months or more in advance, and most now recruit through their own careers portals rather than by email. Smaller and boutique firms are more approachable and frequently give better work. Firm internships lean towards research memos, due diligence and drafting rather than court.

3. Tribunals and regulators

These are the openings students overlook. Tribunals and regulatory bodies in Delhi sometimes run internship or research assistant schemes, usually advertised on their own websites. The work is reading and writing rather than court craft, and it suits anyone aiming at policy, competition, company or environmental practice.

4. Policy and non profit organisations

Delhi has a concentration of legal research and advocacy organisations working on criminal justice, constitutional law, environment and digital rights. Bar Council of India Rule 25 expressly allows internships with non governmental organisations, so these count towards your requirement.

Writing the application

Delhi chambers receive a great many internship emails and open very few of them properly. Three things separate the ones that get answered.

• A reason tied to that chamber. Name a matter they argued, or an area they are known for, and say why it interests you. Two sentences is enough. Generic praise reads as a template, because it is one.
• Exact dates. “May 2027” is not a date. “4 to 29 May 2027” is. Chambers plan around hearings, and an intern who does not know their own dates is extra work.
• A short writing sample. One case comment, 800 to 1,000 words, on a judgment from the past year. This is the single most effective attachment, and almost nobody sends one.

Keep the email under 150 words. Attach the CV as a PDF named with your own name, not “CV final 2 updated”.

When to apply

Counsel chambers: six to eight weeks ahead, so March for May, October for December. Law firms: often six months or more ahead, and you must check each firm’s own window because they differ. Tribunals and organisations: watch their websites, since schemes open at irregular times.

What a Delhi internship is actually like

Longer days than you expect, and a great deal of waiting. Courts in Delhi run on lists that move unpredictably, so you may sit for three hours for a matter that is adjourned in ninety seconds. That waiting is not wasted if you listen to the matters before yours.

Expect to be asked for a research note on a point of law with a short deadline. Do it properly: find the leading judgment, read it rather than its headnote, check whether it has been followed or distinguished since, and set out the position in half a page. A clear half page is worth more than five pages of extracts.

A warning about collecting internships

Students in Delhi often accumulate many short internships and learn little from any of them. Four weeks in one chamber where you were trusted with real work beats six places where you watched. When an interviewer asks what you did, you want to be able to describe one matter properly rather than list six names.

Remember also that Rule 25 caps any single internship at four continuous weeks in a year, and requires at least one internship with trial and appellate advocates. A Delhi district court chamber satisfies the second requirement in a way that a corporate firm does not.

On stipends

Practice varies enormously. Many litigation internships in Delhi are unpaid, law firm internships more often carry a stipend, and tribunal schemes differ. There is no standard rate, so do not rely on figures you read on student forums. Ask after you have an offer.

Lucknow is a good city for a first litigation internship because almost everything sits close together. The Allahabad High Court has a permanent bench here, the district court campus is a short drive away, and several tribunals hear matters in the city. A student who writes to the right chambers in April can usually find a place for the summer.

This note sets out where the work is, who to write to, and what the first week actually looks like.

What Lucknow practice is made of

Lucknow is the state capital, so a large share of the work here involves the Uttar Pradesh government as a party. Service matters are the obvious example: appointments, promotions, transfers, suspensions, pensions and departmental inquiries. If you intern with a chamber that does service law, you will spend your weeks reading government orders and service rules, which is unglamorous and genuinely useful, because most students never learn how a government file is actually built.

Criminal practice is the other large stream, running from bail applications at the district court through to quashing petitions and criminal appeals at the High Court bench. Civil and property work, including partition suits, injunctions and revenue matters, fills out the rest.

The courts and tribunals that sit in Lucknow

Allahabad High Court, Lucknow Bench. The Allahabad High Court was established on 17 March 1866 and its principal seat is at Prayagraj, with a permanent bench at Lucknow. The bench hears matters from the districts falling within its territorial jurisdiction, so a Lucknow chamber will be arguing writs, bails and appeals from across that region rather than from the whole state.

District and Sessions Court, Lucknow. The district court stands on the banks of the Gomti. The civil court campus has a north block, a south block and a multistoried building, and the Civil Judge (Senior Division) courts at Mohanlalganj and Malihabad also sit within the campus. The Central Bar Association is on the same premises, which matters for a practical reason: it is where you will find advocates between hearings, and where a junior is most likely to introduce you to someone.

Armed Forces Tribunal, Lucknow Regional Bench. The Tribunal has a regional bench at 3 R.A.K. Marg, Dilkusha, Lucknow. This is a narrow but interesting practice covering service matters of serving and retired armed forces personnel, including pensions, disability benefits and court martial appeals. Very few students think to ask for an internship here, which is precisely why it is worth asking.

Debts Recovery Tribunal, Lucknow. A DRT sits in Lucknow and hears bank recovery matters and SARFAESI applications. Internships here suit students who want to see banking and security enforcement work rather than general litigation.

One thing to get right: the National Company Law Tribunal does not have a Lucknow bench. Company and insolvency matters from Uttar Pradesh go to the NCLT bench at Allahabad. If you want insolvency exposure, apply there rather than here.

Where to apply

• Individual advocates at the High Court bench. This is where most students should start. A chamber of two or three advocates will give you more work than a large office, because there is nobody else to give it to.
• Senior advocates. Harder to get into, and often you will be one of several interns. The learning comes from watching conferences and arguments rather than from drafting.
• District court chambers. Undervalued by students who want a High Court name on the certificate. You will see far more hearings in a day, and you will learn how a matter is actually filed, listed and adjourned.
• Government law offices. The state government’s standing counsel and law officers handle large volumes of writ work. Access varies and is usually through a personal introduction.
• Legal services authorities. The District Legal Services Authority runs Lok Adalats, legal aid and awareness work. Useful if you are interested in access to justice rather than commercial practice.

How to apply

Almost all of this is done by email, and almost all of it is done badly. The applications that get answered are short, specific and addressed to one person.

1. Find the name first. Read recent Allahabad High Court judgments on LiveLaw, Bar and Bench or Indian Kanoon, and note which advocates appear in the kinds of matters you want to see. Applying to a name you can justify is far stronger than applying to a list.
2. Write four short paragraphs. Who you are and which year, why this chamber specifically, the dates you are free, and a line saying your CV is attached. Nothing else.
3. Attach a one page CV and a short writing sample. A case comment of 800 words tells a chamber more than a CV does, because it shows whether you can read a judgment and explain it.
4. Send it from a plain email address with a subject line that says what it is, for example: Internship application, May 2027, third year, NLU.
5. Follow up once after ten days, and then stop.

When to apply

Six to eight weeks before you want to start. For summer internships that means writing in March or early April, and for winter it means October. Earlier than that and the advocate does not yet know their own schedule. Later and the places are gone.

Bar Council of India Rule 25 requires a minimum internship during your degree: twelve weeks across a three year course and twenty weeks across a five year course, and no single internship may run continuously for more than four weeks in any one year. At least one internship must be with trial and appellate advocates. A Lucknow chamber that does both district court and High Court work satisfies that neatly.

What the work will actually be

In a litigation chamber in Lucknow, expect to carry files to court, sit through hearings, take notes on what the judge said, search for judgments on a point, prepare case briefs and type out drafts that someone else will rewrite. You will not argue anything. You will not draft a petition that gets filed in your first week.

The students who get the most out of it are the ones who keep a notebook: the case name, the point argued, what the court asked, and what the outcome was. By the end of four weeks you will have a record of twenty matters, which is more than most students can describe after a year of internships.

Money, honestly

Most litigation internships in Lucknow are unpaid. Some chambers pay a small stipend and some reimburse travel, but it varies by chamber and there is no standard figure. Do not assume payment, and do not ask about it in your first email. Ask once you are offered a place, politely and directly.

Making the certificate count

Ask for a certificate on your last day, not a month later. It should name the chamber, the dates and ideally the kinds of matters you worked on. A certificate that says “worked on service matters and criminal bails before the Allahabad High Court, Lucknow Bench” is worth more at an interview than one that says “interned satisfactorily”.

If you cannot find a chamber for a particular month, writing is the next best use of the time. Lexfolio runs a virtual internship where you research and write legal content that gets published under your own name, which gives you something concrete to show.