Best Claimant Memorial and Best Respondent Memorial in the South Asian Rounds of the FDI International Arbitration Moot, 2018, Runners’ Up in the World Rounds of Asian Law Student’s Association (ALSA) International Moot Court Competition 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, are just two of many feathers in the cap of Mr. Harsh Singh. A diligent student as he has been, he believes in giving his best in what he does. Here is his interview with Desi Kaanoon-
Q. How was life at law school?
A. I have (almost) completed my B.A.L.L.B (Hons.) from Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow. It was supposed to end in April but due to COVID-19, we’re still dragging on with our college lives. The life of an active law student is very exciting. You are exposed to numerous situations and circumstances which sharpen you for the outside world. I participated in moots, wrote research papers, worked in a committee, went out for legal conferences and at the same time, had lot of fun with my friends. The 5-year integrated course seems too long from outside but it felt like a moment to me. It became my second home. Never realised how and when this place became so dear to me that parting ways with it is feeling like such a burden.
Q. What are your roles and responsibilities as the Legislative Assistant to Member of Parliament? How did you qualify for the role?
A. The Legislative Assistants to Members of Parliament (LAMP) Fellowship is a unique and an exciting opportunity for young Indians to learn law-making and public policy. LAMP Fellows are mentored by a Member of Parliament (MP) and work full-time with the assigned MP during a given year, starting from the Monsoon session of Parliament till the end of the Budget session. The primary role of a Fellow is to provide extensive research support to her/his MP for their parliamentary work. This includes drafting parliamentary questions for the MP, preparing the MP’s speeches for zero-hour debates, raising matters of public importance, drafting private members’ bills etc.
When Parliament is not in session, Fellows engage with policy makers, experts from various think-tanks, academicians from several leading universities, and leaders from diverse public policy institutions through participation in workshops on important policy and development issues. LAMP Fellows also participate in field visits during the inter-session period for a practical exposure to governance at the ground level.
The selection process has 2 rounds. In the first round, I was supposed to submit two essays. The first essay is basically a statement of purpose as to why should they take me and the second essay was a critical analysis on any existing policy framework. I wrote the second essay on the inapplicability of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, to investment disputes and how the Parliament should deliberate upon the issue to fill up that lacuna in times of an economic slowdown.
The second round is the interview process. I was interviewed by a 3-member panel consisting of an ex-LAMP Fellow, an associate at PRS India and a legal expert. They grilled me a lot but I kept calm and answered most of their questions. Finally, after 10 days, I received their selection e-mail and was really very happy to get a chance to contribute to national policy making in some way.
Q. You’ve worked as the Convenor of the Moot Court Committee at RMLNLU. What has your contribution been?
A. The Moot Court Committee (MCC) has been a huge contributor towards making me realise what I want to do with my life eventually. Being a part of the committee brought me in touch with credible legal luminaries because of which I gained immense experience. As a mooter, I observed all the glitches and loopholes that were there in the existing mooting framework of the University and as the Convenor, I tried to rectify most of them. We came up with numerous policies like a funding policy for international moots, a fresh moot allotment policy, a new scoring policy, dispute resolution policy etc. Working on so many policies throughout the year made me realise my fondness for policy making and thereby created my inclination towards the LAMP Fellowship.
Q. You have interned under one of the top law firms in the country- Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) and also with one of the best lawyers of the country- Sr. Adv. Sidharth Luthra. How did the internships prepare you for your career?
A. Internships are the most important thing for a law student. We read theory in classrooms but don’t learn the real application of that learning. This is done through internships and I can’t emphasise enough on how important they are. Before deciding for a career path for myself, I wanted to experience every field and then chalk out which I field I’ll be best suited for. I did this by diversifying my internships. I interned with SAM, P&A Law Offices, Sr. Adv. Sidharth Luthra, Justice U. C. Srivastava, and even with NGOs. Working at all these places was an enriching and different experience. At SAM, I was assigned to the Corporate team and worked on Companies Law while with Mr. Luthra, I was working on criminal matters (including the famous Arvind Kejriwal defamation case filed by Arun Jaitley). Both of these were very helpful in making me understand the law better and also the procedural nuances of courts in reality. I will strongly suggest every law student to diversify their learning experiences by working at different places and tasting every aspect of law before college ends.
Q. As the Runners’ Up in the World Rounds of Asian Law Student’s Association International Moot Court Competition in 2017, what was your approach to the moot problem and what new tricks did you discover?
A. The World Rounds of Asian Law Student’s Association International Moot Court Competition, 2017 were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. To say the least, it was the best experience of my college life. It was the first time we were working on Investment Arbitration Law, so for starters we read up all basics from renowned books. We stayed back at our college during vacations and studied only basics of the law for about 10-15 days. Took help from a lot of seniors who were well versed with that area of law and tried to incorporate the best of everyone’s tricks. To top it all, I had the best set of teammates who worked hard with each other and helped each other wherever stuck. We practiced oral speaking a lot- with teammates, with seniors and even alone in our rooms. I think moots are a combination of all our efforts and not one single trick.
For more details on the moot, you may visit https://www.scconline.com/blog/post/2018/01/04/alsa-international-moot-2017-interview-runners/
Q. As the Editor of RMLNLU Society for Excellence in Arbitration Law (SEAL) blog, how do you spend most of your time?
A. The RMLNLU Society for Excellence in Arbitration Law (SEAL) Blog was a creation of arbitration enthusiasts, led by Kishan Gupta. We had an existing but defunct Arbitration Law Society in our University. We tried to revive it through sessions and discussions and when we were able to do that, we created our own blog to reach out even further. It took us more than a year to bring it at par with other law blogs. My job as an Editor was to evaluate and edit pieces that the society received for publications and contribute to the blog with my own articles. We also opened theme specific contributions and received huge number of articles almost every day. Today, I can happily say that the blog is being featured as one of the top law blogs being run by a law school. You can visit the blog at https://rmlnluseal.home.blog/
Q. Your academic writings have dealt with many laws and have been published in eminent journals including the Indian Arbitration Law Review (IALR) and Constitutional Law and Administrative Law Quarterly (CALQ). What is the importance of offering some novel idea in an article or research paper?
A. Before writing any article or research paper, it is very important to know what issue you’re going to analyse. Writing a research article is different from writing an essay or doing your project, sometimes even more demanding than a moot. It helps us in getting a good understanding of contemporary legal issues. It is very important to have some originality, uniqueness and a firm grip over the legal issues that the research paper deals with. It must have a variety of authorities cited ranging from case laws to jurist’s opinion to statute books (even constituent assembly debates, if available). This increases the chances of getting the paper published with good and reputed journals, which further helps in getting a good college for higher studies.
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