Law Internship in Delhi at B.K. Singh & Associates

Does B.K. Singh & Associates offer law internships in Delhi?

Yes. We take a small number of interns at a time at each office, so that every intern gets proper work and someone to check it. Seats fill fastest in the summer and winter breaks of most universities, and there is more room in the other months. Apply early and give us a range of dates rather than a single fixed start day.

The internship is a litigation internship. You will spend time in court and in the office on contested matters: civil suits, criminal cases, family disputes, consumer complaints, recovery and banking matters, and tribunal work. If you are looking only for corporate transactional exposure, a different kind of office will suit you better.

Who can apply for a law internship with us?

Students in any year of a 3-year LL.B. or a 5-year integrated law course can apply, as can LL.M. students. First-year students are welcome, but they should expect more observation and research and less drafting. From the third year onwards we hand over more drafting, because you will have studied procedure and evidence and can follow what is happening in court.

We do not shortlist by college ranking. A short, honest covering note that tells us what you have studied, what you have already seen in earlier internships and what you hope to learn matters more. Students from any college can apply; what counts is whether you show up every day and do the work carefully.

What do the Bar Council of India rules say about law internships?

Internship is a compulsory part of the law degree in India, and it is worth knowing the rules before you plan your internships for the year.

What does an intern do in a typical week?

No two weeks are the same, because the work follows the court diary. This is a fair picture of how an intern's time is usually spent.

Will I get to go to court during the internship?

Yes, most days the court diary allows. Depending on what is listed, you may go to the district court complexes at Tis Hazari, Saket, Patiala House, Dwarka, Rohini or Karkardooma, the Delhi High Court, the Ghaziabad district court, the Gautam Buddh Nagar court at Surajpur, or tribunals such as the DRT, NCLT and consumer commissions. You will see bail hearings, evidence being recorded, arguments on interim applications and a great many adjournments, which is part of the education.

Entry rules differ from court to court. The Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court control entry through passes, and interns usually need a pass arranged through the proper channel before the visit. Carry your college identity card every day. District courts are more open, but security will still ask who you are and which court you are going to.

As an intern you cannot appear or address the court, and you must not wear an advocate's band or gown. Your job in court is to watch, note the order accurately and be ready with the right page of the file when the advocate asks for it.

How do I take court notes that are actually useful?

Write down four things for every matter you attend: the case number and court, who appeared for each side, what the court actually directed, and the next date with its purpose (for example 'NDOH 14 March, for reply' or 'for PE', meaning plaintiff's evidence). Everything else is optional. Advocates update the office diary from these notes, so a wrong next date is not a small slip; it can mean a missed hearing and an order passed in the client's absence.

Listen for the exact words of the order rather than the general mood of the hearing. 'Reply within two weeks, rejoinder within one week thereafter' is an order. 'The judge seemed unhappy with the other side' is not. If you could not hear what was said, say so in your note instead of guessing, and the advocate will check the order once it is uploaded. Within a week of doing this properly, you will start to see why the same matter can take ten dates, and what each one achieved.

What research and drafting do interns do?

Research questions come from live files, so they are narrow and they matter. For example: whether a Section 138 complaint filed one day late can be saved by condonation of delay, what the Delhi High Court has recently said about interim maintenance affidavits, or whether a SARFAESI application before the DRT is within the 45-day limit on particular facts. You will be expected to find the provision, read the judgments yourself rather than relying on headnotes, and write a note of no more than a page or two.

Drafting starts small. A list of dates from a stack of bank statements and emails, a reply to a legal notice, an application for exemption from personal appearance, an index for a paper book. Advanced interns may draft a bail application or a written statement. Every draft is corrected by an advocate before it goes anywhere, and you will see the corrected version so you can learn from it.

Since the new criminal laws came into force on 1 July 2024, a good deal of research involves matching old IPC and CrPC sections to the BNS and BNSS, and checking whether a case registered before that date continues under the old law. Interns who know the new section numbers are useful from day one.

Which assignments do interns commonly get?

• Lists of dates. Turning a client's papers into a dated chronology with page references. It is the first thing a judge reads in many petitions.
• Research notes. One or two pages answering one question, citing the section and the leading judgments accurately.
• Case law compilations. Collecting and flagging the judgments an advocate will hand up at a hearing, with the relevant paragraphs marked.
• First drafts. Replies to legal notices, simple applications, synopses and affidavits, prepared from the file and from formats on the legal forms and formats page.
• Comparison tables. For example, old CrPC sections against their BNSS equivalents, or consumer commission pecuniary limits before and after the 2021 rules.
• Order sheet summaries. Reading the order sheets of a long-running case and noting what each date achieved, so the advocate can see the history at a glance.
• Court notes. A short written report after each court visit: what was argued, what the court said, the next date and what has to be done before it.

How long is the internship and when should I apply?

Most internships here run for four weeks, which fits the Bar Council limit on continuous internship in a year and gives enough time to follow a few matters across more than one date. We can sometimes take students for two or three weeks in a short break, but you will get less out of it, because the first week is mostly about learning how the office and the courts work.

Plan around court vacations. The Delhi High Court and Delhi's civil courts close for much of June for the summer vacation, with vacation benches sitting for urgent matters, and there is a shorter winter break at the end of December. Criminal courts keep working. If you want maximum court exposure, a month when the High Court is sitting will give you more to watch than the middle of June.

Apply six to eight weeks before your preferred start date, and earlier for May to July or December to January, when most students are free. A late application is not refused for being late, but the seats you want may already be taken.

How do I apply for an internship?

1. Email your application

   Write to advocates@legals365.com with the subject line 'Internship application: [dates], [Dwarka or Vaishali]'. Attach your CV as a PDF and write a short covering note in the email body. Mention your college, course, year of study and the dates you are free.

2. Add a writing sample if you have one

   A research note, case comment or a draft from an earlier internship, with any client details removed. It is optional for first and second-year students but helps us decide what work to give you.

3. Wait for confirmation

   Advocate Sadhna Singh reviews applications and replies by email if a seat is available for your dates. If your dates are full, we may suggest other dates. If you hear nothing within two weeks, a short follow-up email is fine.

4. Confirm and send your college letter

   Once you accept, send the internship request letter from your college if it issues one, and any format your college needs for the certificate. Tell us at this stage if you need the certificate to mention specific work or courts.

5. Report on the first day

   Arrive at the office by 10 am on the first day in formal dress with your college ID. You will be introduced to the files you will be working on and told which court you will be going to that week.

The addresses and directions for both offices are on the offices page. Choose the office closer to where you are staying; the daily commute to court adds up.

What should I bring on the first day?

What is the dress code and how should I behave in court?

Formal dress every day: a white shirt or white salwar kameez, black trousers, skirt or dupatta as appropriate, and black shoes. No jeans, no casual footwear, no advocate's band and no gown. Even on office-only days, dress as if you might be sent to court at short notice, because you might be.

Inside a courtroom, enter and leave quietly, bow to the bench as advocates do, keep your phone switched off or on silent and do not talk while the court is sitting. Sit at the back unless the advocate asks you to come forward with the file. Never approach the judge, the reader or court staff yourself to ask about a matter; that is the advocate's or the clerk's job. If a litigant in the corridor asks you for legal advice, politely say you are a student and cannot advise.

Conduct rules for interns

These are not formalities. A breach of any of them ends the internship.

• Keep everything you see in the office and in court confidential, during and after the internship
• Do not photograph, scan or forward any client document, order or file
• Do not post about clients, cases or hearings on social media, even without names
• Do not give legal advice to anyone, including your own family and friends, on firm matters
• Do not hand out the firm's contact details in court or approach litigants
• Be on time every day and tell your supervisor in advance if you cannot come
• Submit work when it is due, and say so early if you are stuck
• Never present copied work as your own research or drafting

Why do confidentiality and social media rules matter so much?

Clients tell their advocates things they tell nobody else: the state of a marriage, the details of a criminal allegation, a company's finances. Communications between an advocate and a client are protected under Section 132 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, and that protection only works if everyone who handles the file keeps quiet. An intern who mentions a case to classmates over lunch can do real harm, especially in family and sexual offence matters, where the victim's identity is protected by law under Section 72 of the BNS.

Social media is the usual way interns slip up. A photo of the court corridor with a cause list in the background, a story about an 'interesting bail hearing today', a LinkedIn post naming the matter you worked on. None of these is allowed. You may list the internship on your CV and describe the kind of work you did in general terms, such as 'research on bail and maintenance matters', without naming any client or case.

How is the internship certificate issued?

The certificate is issued on the last day, or within a few days of it, once you have completed the full period you signed up for. It states your name, college, course, the dates of the internship and the office where you interned, and it is signed by one of the advocates. If your college needs its own format, bring it with you at the start and we will fill it in.

We issue certificates only for the days you actually attended. We do not backdate certificates, issue them for internships not completed, or issue them to anyone who has not worked with us. If you leave early for a genuine reason, tell us; we can certify the period you did complete. Students who do sustained, careful work can ask for a short letter describing it, which carries more weight with future employers than a certificate alone.

Can I do the internship online or from home?

Generally no. Most of what a litigation internship teaches happens in court and around a physical file: watching a matter being called, seeing how a judge reacts to an argument, learning where the copying agency is. That cannot be done from home.

Occasionally, for a student who is not in Delhi NCR, we may agree to a short research-only arrangement, but check with your college first whether it will count towards the Bar Council requirement. Many colleges do not accept remote internships for the trial and appellate advocate requirement. We would rather you intern in person somewhere near you than collect a certificate that your college later refuses.

What kind of matters will I see as an intern?

It depends on what is listed during your weeks, but most interns see a mix of criminal, civil, family and tribunal work. On the criminal side, bail matters are frequent, and you can read how they run on the bail lawyer page; cheque bounce complaints, explained on the cheque bounce lawyer page, take up many mornings in the NI Act courts.

Family matters, including divorce, maintenance and custody, are a large part of the work handled by Advocate Sadhna Singh; the family and divorce law page gives the background. You may also see borrower matters before the Debts Recovery Tribunal, covered on the DRT lawyer page, and consumer complaints against builders and insurers under the consumer laws page. Reading the relevant page before your first day makes the court visits far easier to follow.

What gets an intern noticed, and what mistakes do interns make?

The interns we remember are the ones who note orders accurately, keep their research notes short, ask a sensible question after a hearing rather than during it, and come back the next day having read up on what they did not understand. Being reliable about small things, such as having the right page flagged when the advocate reaches for the file, counts for more than impressive vocabulary.

The common mistakes are predictable. Copying a research note from an online blog without checking the judgment. Citing an overruled case. Treating a court day as a day off when the matter is adjourned early, instead of staying to watch other matters. Disappearing for two days without telling anyone. And, most often, writing too much: a five-page note when the question needed one paragraph and a citation.

Can an internship here lead to a job?

Sometimes. When a junior position opens, we look first at people whose work we have already seen, and a good internship is the best evidence of that. But an internship is not a job interview, and doing one does not create any promise of a later offer. Final-year students who want to be considered should say so towards the end of the internship and then apply through the process on the careers page after enrolment.

Whatever happens, use the four weeks to learn how a litigation practice actually runs. That knowledge carries over to any court and any chamber you join later. If you want to understand the kind of advocate you would be learning from, read the profile of Advocate B.K. Singh before you apply.