Interview of Mr. Rohit Shukla, Assistant Professor ICFAI Law School Dehradun.

Introduction

Mr. Rohit Shukla, Assistant Professor of Law.

The ICFAI University, Dehradun.

1. Sir, according to you what is the importance of mooting, publication and internship in a law student’s life?

Answer: I believe mooting gives a law student a prior training how would he deal with the cases and present it to the court as a council. It is important for the law students as they acquaint themselves with several laws which they would learn in coming years of their law graduation or if they had learnt them in past then through mooting they may re-visit it and rewind their memory as student.

Publishing any article, case comments or critical analysis on particular law gives them a chance to know the depth of the subject. On the other hand internship will improve their professional character. And they surely get benefited from all those experiences in future, which they have acquired as an internee.

2. Do you think that the curriculum being followed by the most of the colleges is sufficient for the law students? Would you like to give any suggestion or recommend any modification in the curriculum?

Answer: I would like to suggest that some core laws like Constitution, IPC, Procedural laws and Philosophical part of Law (Jurisprudence) must not be taught in one go because it becomes difficult for the law students to catch all the contents of the subject in one semester. To provide more pedagogical benefit to the students it is highly advised that before allotment of the subject to a teacher his opinion must be considered. Otherwise the students might face the repercussions if the wrong subject is allotted to teacher. There is no scope of experiment as we are building the nation by providing best students to the society. We must not treat them as the product of experiment.

3. According to you what should be the prime concern for law students?

Answer: Their prime concern should be getting benefited from all the sources which they have in the University. Here, library plays a significant role. They must sit in the library and read good law books. Besides, they must also develop a habit of reading various law journals available online and offline. This in turn will help them in increasing their theoretical knowledge along with its practical implications.

4. How a law student should study any technique for them?

Answer: Whenever you watch a movie you remember the characters of the movie better then remembering the contents of a book. The reason is you enjoy a movie but you don’t enjoy reading books. First of all be a friend with books, enjoy having them in your hands, make a relation with them and moreover try to find out the importance of them in your life. Try to learn the cases as a story and sections as dialogues. Gradually you will notice you are improving and getting better day by day in studies.

5. According to you do NLU students get more privilege than Non-NLU students?

Answer: I must give the answer of this question by narrating a story of the last days of “Gautam Buddha”. When Buddha was on his death bed, all his disciples were in deep sorrow because they were not able to think anything beyond Buddha who has been their master and guide to get rid of all the conundrum of their life. They were worried of the fact that if they faced any trouble then who they would look for a final solution of their problems. Then Buddha realized their agony and replied his most obedient disciple that you all must enlighten yourself. Nobody cares for no one. You yourself need to find the solution of your difficulties.

Therefore Institutions give nothing but resources. Now it is up to the students how they utilize them. Let me tell you the most of the big names in the field of law have not been the students of NLU.

6. As you also a NLU student what do you think what is the difference?

Answer: Getting job is the main task after the completion of your law course and let me tell you. And in my case NLU has not been the sole reason. Of course it could be a contributory factor like other Universities in others career. It is only you who can benefit yourself. As a student you must believe on the capabilities whatever has been gifted by the Almighty. And the passion to make your parents proud is bigger than having shadow of any NLU.

7. What advice do you have for our readers, who are predominantly law students and young lawyers?

Answer: Being a student they have best chance to pile the knowledge and use it for the betterment of the nation. Making money is the priority of everyone but we should not forget we fight for justice. People have faith that their rights will revive again if they find a learned council. Therefore it is your duty as a law student to attain solid legal knowledge and become a great lawyer.

8. According to you what are the problems in the present Indian legal education system?

Answer: Rush is only the problem. In India a person does or he suggests his children to do whatever the neighbour’s children are doing. Everyone is inspired by the person to whom he deems better than him. We should let give up this notion. If we want to produce best lawyers then education system should have to enhance its standard and scrutinise the righteous candidate for the seat.

9. What are the biggest challenges faced by non NLU’s and the first generation lawyers in legal profession?

Answer: I think I adequately discussed much on NLU point. However being a first generation lawyer brings many challenges. And most important of all is “being a bread winner of family”. I discussed with my students that for junior lawyers it is too hard to get some salary at the starting days of their profession. Established lawyers keep exploiting the junior lawyers by depicting them a vivid but utmost fake picture of teaching them tactics of law profession. And this situation gets disastrous if you are a first generation lawyer. But it is my belief this generation of lawyer is talented and sooner or later they will leave all their setback miles away and establish a new milestone of success.

Interviewer : Abhishek Sinha.