Internship Experience with Adv. Meera Bhatia at Delhi High Court

Name of the intern

Anonymous

Name and address of the organisation

Adv. Meera Bhatia, Lawyers’ Chambers, Delhi High Court

How did you apply for the internship?

Applied through her mail Id meerabhatia.advocate@gmail.com by sending my CV

First day formalities, infrastructure, first impression

The first day was a tough day. She called and gave directions to the high court and asked us to wait for her at a particular location around 11 AM. We were strictly told to not call her as she will be busy with court proceedings.

After waiting till 1:30 PM at that same location, she called us to meet somewhere else. Then we were asked to write an application and get our intern pass issued. On the first day, we had an introductory conversation regarding her ongoing case.

Main tasks

I would call her every morning before going to court to note down the task for the day. Most of the work is clerical.

• Wrote letters to DCP and other government departments to ask for payment of bills for the case where she represented them.
• Assisted in writing an article for an editorial where I had to listen to a video and note down the audio.
• Made bills for govt departments for payment of fees for taking the case.
• Researched only one case.
• Watched court proceedings 4-5 times.
• Did e-filing

Work environment

I would rate the work environment a 2/10. Quite unprofessional. I had to sit on the court lawns under a tree on sunny afternoons on a chair and work there instead of in the chambers. The high court wifi was not good there, so, I had to use my data and my laptop charge would end very quickly as I had to put my brightness on full.

To charge it I had to go to the court library which is usually full of bad network connections for data. She met us every day at the lawn around 2 PM to check on work progress and would leave by 3:30 PM. There is no tolerance for explanation or excuses, you either get the work done or you have failed.

Also, you won’t be provided with any proper explanation on how to do it, you just have to do it somehow. I was asked to make a consolidated bill for her multiple cases which I obviously failed at the first time as I had never made bills in my whole life.

She does not have any associates. If you have any issues, you have to ask her personally and she is very displeased with repeated inquiries. Another intern was assigned to arrange old files and get the chambers cleaned through the cleaners there, quite regularly.

She is pleasant to talk to when it is not about work but other than that, most of the time, very rude and unprofessional to us and some people around her. The interns were mostly treated as assistants to do tech-savvy work like MS Word and making accounting bills rather than as law students.

It was both a very physically and mentally exhausting internship. It has been many months and I still have not received my internship certificate.

Good things

You need to come by 11 AM and you can go by 4:30 or 5 PM.

Bad things

Weekends are never fully off. You can get assigned work online on Sundays as well. No professional work environment. I felt disrespected a lot of times. Can be assigned personal jobs as well. Very less relevant tasks for a law student and mostly clerical tasks.

You might not receive an internship certificate even after interning for a whole month. A lot of negative energy as she gossips meanly about others including her previous interns openly.

Stipend

No stipend was paid.

Details about accommodation and commute

I lived an hour away in a pg. Takes 30 mins in the metro. Had to take an auto from the metro to the high court.

Anything else?

I would not recommend this internship at all for your own mental and physical self.

Source: Lawctopus