Why Young Law Interns May Not Take Up Litigations Seriously: A Critical Analysis of Impact of Courtroom Ambience on Future Lawyers

Abstract

As per the present rules of Bar Council of India (BCI), students of law have to do their internships with different courts during their law course. In this process Every year thousands of law interns from the law schools join different courts in India to learn law practically. The students are exposed to different hierarchies of court systems, stages of prosecutions, trials, passing of sentences etc. However, this is not a dream–cum-true experience for many young law interns who may have joined law schools equipped with grand infrastructures like smart classrooms, extremely rich smart libraries, model moot court rooms, well equipped legal aid cell rooms, students recreation rooms, gyms etc. The present paper aims to find out the possible impact of courtroom ambience on the young law students. For this purpose, the researchers had conducted a survey on 119 law students who are studying five year integrated BBA-LLB in a law school in Gandhinagar, Gujarat . The survey had shown that the different courtrooms that these students visited in Gujarat are equipped with modern infrastructure, but lacked proper maintenance; several students reported that court rooms were dusty, did not have proper ventilation and had spitting marks on the walls. Several respondents had also indicated that toilets are very poorly maintained and there is hardly any special arrangement for nursing mothers. The survey also shows that even though use of mobile phones is prohibited during the court hours within the court rooms, several lawyers are defying this rule. This paper argues that such ambience in the courtrooms may not encourage the young law students to consider future career as litigation lawyers. This paper suggests that the court room ambiences and the facilities within the court buildings must be improved not only for the benefit of the litigants, but also for lawyers including junior lawyers and law interns.

Keywords: Court Room Ambience, Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Courtroom Management, Law Students