Advocate Juhi Arora Gupta, Foundress of Juhi Arora and Associates, has perfectly established an equipoise between her work and family. A proficient speaker and an experienced divorce lawyer practising at different Courts in New Delhi, she shared her views regarding legal awareness with Desi Kaanoon.
Q. You have been on the Advisory Board of Job Fest in Lloyd Law College, Noida and the Career Fest at Amity Law School, Noida. How was the experience?
A. I have been highly privileged to be invited time and again at Amity Law School and I have my share of wonderful memories interacting with the young and impassioned lot of law students as a Guest of Honour. It actually feels great to witness them being au courant with which area they want to specialise in or which company they wish to apply for. Such job fests facilitate open an ocean of opportunities for both the students and recruiters.
Q. You are a practicising advocate at Supreme Court of India. Why did you think of setting up a law firm?
A. I was under the Juniorship of an Advocate when the idea of setting up my more-than-a-decade-old law firm struck upon me. There comes a point in your career when people start relying on you for legal opinion, you earn privilege and repute for securing justice for your client and most importantly-you feel that inner drive to do something independently. At this point of my life when I had gained ample knowledge, I put the foundation of my law firm.
Q.How did the idea of doing live sessions on Facebook regarding legal QnA come to you?
A. So there were a lot of social media contacts and acquaintances who used to reach out me to clear out their perplexities during marital discord, amongst everything else. Consequently I devised this idea of conducting live sessions on Facebook, the first session of which has been conducted recently.
Discussing abundantly prevalent problems like marital discord before a lawyer is something not many people wish to owing to some kind of taboo in their minds. The purpose here was to address the queries of the concerned people and deliver free legal consultation which is readily accessible online. Post the first session, I can certainly assure you that the session has achieved its purpose.
Q. Your recent speech during the Orientation Programme at Amity Law School was pivoted on prioritising practicalities of law over bookish knowledge. How can a student achieve this during college?
A. Activities like Internships and Moot Courts have garnered a lot of significance in life of a law student during past few years. Studying law a few decades ago was all about lectures. However, the improvised curriculum of law schools now prescribe Mooting and doing internships as indispensable undertakings; the reason is simple, the legal pedagogy expects students to delve into the practical nuances of law and engender the qualities of advocacy. Whether a litigator, a corporate lawyer or a Judge, one only learns execution of written principles and laws(which is equally important)by real-time experience.
For this purpose, I would strongly recommend the readers to make it a point to intern at District Courts to learn the legal procedures at grassroot level.
Q. Tell us something about the peak achievements of your legal career.
A. There are two such cases which I put down as the most remarkable ones in my career-the first one being a writ petition filed against the Sports Authority of India to address the plight of Paralympic players who face defeat and jeer at Paralympic events owing to substandard sport equipments and inadequate training. The case is pendente lite, but the positive step is that the Court, on cognizance of the submissions made, has issued a notice against the Sports Authority.
The second case which got published in the DLT, was concerned with irretrievable breakdown of marriage wherein the parties, who cohabited for mere eight months, were struggling to bring their divorce application into effect on ground of cruelty since eight years. Given that irretrievable breakdown of marriage is not mentioned as a ground of divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act, my assistance was instrumental in getting them the decree of divorce granted.