- Vishal Kumar Singh
Advocate, Human Rights Law Network, Patna
In the present context of lockdown amid the ongoing COVID-19
pandemic, most of the students are at their homes doing their online classes
and attending their lectures in the virtual mode. But little do they realise
that there is a lot of more things to do in between this period of pandemic than
to just sit at home and attend the virtual lectures. Here is a list of things
which any law student can undertake during the lockdown very easily:
1.)
Read books
The law students may utilise their time by reading lot of books
apart from the textbook and the Bare Acts of Law. They can choose to read books
like - The Supreme Whispers authored by Abhinav Chandrachud, Courtroom Genius
of Nani Palkhivala, I have been around for sometime by Raju Ramachandran, God
save the Honorable Supreme Court by Fali S. Nariman, A People's Constitution by
Rohit De and The Cases that India Forgot by Chintan Chandrachud. These books
will help the law students not only to understand the very practical working of
the judicial institutions in India but will also help them to trace out the
very basic history and the cultural aspect associated with the great Indian
judicial system.
2.)
Participate in online
lectures and talks
It is very important for the law students to take part in the
online lectures which are being conducted not only by the colleges for the
internal classes but also by the organizations maybe Human Rights organizations
or any such research institution which are based on the legal literacy and
inclusion of the citizens. These lectures and talks provide a platform to the
students to understand the practical aspects of law as a tool to access the
justice in a more vibrant way.
3.)
Learn
the basic skills of drafting
The law students should utilise their time by learning the
basics of legal drafting. They should utilise this time of lockdown in learning
the basic drafting of petitions like Bail Petitions, Writ Petitions, Public Interest
litigation (PILs) and also the basics of civil drafting. They can also do the
legal drafting course which are being provided by certain websites.
4.)
Online internships
As most of the colleges including the Law schools are shut as of
now, so are the law firms and the chambers of the individual advocates. Most of
the advocates who can afford to have a residential chamber are operating
through them. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that in offline internships
there is a larger scope of learning the things in a practical way but however
it may also not be denied that the various law firms which are offering online
internship are also providing a very vast learning opportunity to the law students
because they get to interact with the legal associates and the advocates
through email or WhatsApp or phone calls during the works they are assigned and
it provides them a very e fair amount of learning opportunities amid the
pandemic.
5.)
Working on their
writing skills
There are many websites which require content writers for
writing their blogs and updating their websites with the articles on the recent
issues. These kind of websites can be seen as a great opportunity by the law
students as they can work on their writing skills by writing articles on the
contemporary issues of law on these blogs.
Apart from all this, what I personally feel is that unlike the
offline world, online world is more inclusive and less discriminator in its
working. It barely matters whether you are pursuing your law degree from a
National Law University or a local Law College in the virtual world and that
provides an equivalent opportunity to all. I also personally feel that the law
students should be vocal about the contemporary issues which are going on amid
the pandemic. And so I hope this blog brings some meaning in the lives of law
students who are feeling bored in this lockdown.
Thankyou sir,
Apart from providing the knowledge you provided with a direction. I’ll start with the various books you suggested for reading and with the content writing.