Government Internships for Law Students in India

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 There is no single portal, schemes start and stop, and a great deal of what circulates on student groups is out of date.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.