In India, the Bar Council of India (BCI) makes the mandatory provision of internships for obtaining a law degree in India. The main aim of introducing mandatory internships is to provide law students with exposure to fieldwork in courtrooms, NGOs, Law firms, and various aspects of law practice, which helps students choose their career path and enhances their knowledge beyond the...
In India, the Bar Council of India (BCI) makes the mandatory provision of internships for obtaining a law degree in India. The main aim of introducing mandatory internships is to provide law students with exposure to fieldwork in courtrooms, NGOs, Law firms, and various aspects of law practice, which helps students choose their career path and enhances their knowledge beyond the classroom, bringing it into the real-world practical knowledge. But nowadays, this question comes- Are internships genuinely enhancing legal understanding, or are they merely a checkbox for resumes and bar council compliance?
The Mandate: Internships as an Academic Requirement?
The Bar Council of India, through its 2008 Rules of Legal Education and Rule 25 of The Advocates Act 1961, made internships a compulsory part of both the three-year and five-year LL.B. programs. Now law students must complete internships of atleast 12 weeks for 3-year students and 20 weeks for 5-year students in courtrooms, NGOs, Law firms, legal departments, or under judges. The primary objective is to give students a window into real-world legal practice, helping them bridge the gap between textbooks and actual courtroom practices, while also instilling professional values, courtroom manners, drafting skills, and a sense of where their interests lie. But reality is different, the main aim of internships is not fulfilling, most of the students are not getting the benefit of it due to a lack of proper guidance, support of institutions, and awareness of how internships can help in achieving their future goals, and gaining meaningful practical exposure.
The Reality: An Unequal Landscape
One of the biggest criticisms of the internship model is that access to quality internships is often governed by privilege. Students from NLUs and reputed private colleges easily get internships with top law firms, senior advocate chambers, or other high-profile legal bodies. Often, these opportunities come through alumni networks, internal referrals, or personal contacts, and thereby, access remains limited for students from lower-ranked institutions or non-metro backgrounds.
Students from non-metro cities or from small towns face financial constraints because many premier litigation chambers or policy institutions operate out of Delhi, Mumbai, or Bangalore. For students from small towns or financially underprivileged economic backgrounds, interning in these cities without stipends is a burden, not an opportunity.
Nowadays, for most students, internships often involve assigning only clerical work, such as scanning and photocopying, indexing case files, and accompanying seniors from one court to another, without gaining any valuable experience that would help them when they enter the practical world after graduation.
Internships as Resume Ticks: A Symptom of the Larger Race
In India, the legal education ecosystem has made internships a tool for showcasing oneself among fellow students or colleagues. Internship number and brand value are usually used as a proxy for competence; today, students pay attention to big names, the number of internships rather than the quality and learning on the job. For example, students spend four weeks in six different companies merely to fill columns in their CVs, without taking the necessary time to gain a skillset in any one field. This internship rat race has diluted the very essence of experiential learning.
Shifts in the Internship Culture
Despite the criticisms, internships have also witnessed positive changes, particularly in recent years, due to:
1. Virtual Internship Boom Post-COVID
In 2020, COVID-19 hit the world very badly, and suddenly all sectors shifted to an online mode, which opened the doors for Students from remote areas could intern with Supreme Court advocates or firms in other states in an online mode, and Costs related to travel, accommodation, and food were eliminated. However, many virtual internships lacked substance. No face-to-face mentoring, passive learning, and pre-recorded assignments made them feel like online courses rather than real internships.
2. Rise of Legal Startups and Structured Interns
Many online platforms, such as advocate chambers, the government Ministries, now offer online internships which help in gaining practical knowledge, and drafting courses help in improving drafting skills of the students. Internship application process for most of the platforms has become online, so that remote areas students can also apply for it easily, but sometimes personal connections prevail and the online internship application process becomes non-transparent.
What Makes an Internship Meaningful?
All internships are not empty vessels some provide great opportunities for learning when certain conditions are fulfilled, including good mentorship in which the seniors or associates explain what is to be done, describe the tasks, and provide feedback; varied assignments from legal research and document drafting to client contact and courtroom visits; reflective learning using diaries or post-internship reports; and adequate time commitment, preferably 3–6 weeks, to permit real engagement. Still, the great majority of Indian law schools are detached from the process, viewing internships as extrinsic, student-initiated assignments with minimal academic integration, no structured assessment of results, limited institutional assistance, particularly for marginalized students, and no credit-based evaluations whatsoever. In contrast to Germany or the United Kingdom, where internship is incorporated as part of the clinical modules with formal supervision and academic evaluation, India's legal education system remains reliant on privilege, chance, and personal connections, underscoring the need to institute internships as a part of the formal academic curriculum.
Interns at Risk: The Silent Reality
Judicial internships at the High Courts or Supreme Court are usually considered to be high-prestige, but shallow unless the judge engages actively to mentor. Interns usually attend proceedings, review judgments, and summarize case files, but if the interaction is non-substantive, feedback is lacking, and the legally relevant tasks are not shared, then these internships might be superficially observational rather than actively participatory. Yet another urgent yet under-attended issue is the ethical aspect of internships. Interns may be exploited, used to leak information, draft legal opinions without attribution, or perform sensitive tasks without clarity and safeguards, in the absence of confidentiality agreements, explicit task assignments, and grievance redressal mechanisms. To respond to these issues, the Bar Council of India and law schools need to institute and implement a formalized ethical code of conduct for internships.
Reforming Internships for Real Impact
To transform internships from mere formalities into genuine learning experiences, meaningful reforms are necessary: the adoption of academic credit schemes with skill-based evaluations, creating centrally located internship websites through law schools or bar associations, and the implementation of stipend guidelines as a way of providing minimal financial support. Students must also be trained in soft skills along with legal research tools before interning. Most importantly, the focus should be taken off numerous brief exposures and put on fewer long internships in varied fields of law for more interaction and talent development.
The author is a law student at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Law University, Sonepat. Views are personal.