“A dream doesn’t become a reality through magic, it takes sweat, determination, and hard work”. This famous quote by Colin Powell aptly describes the personality of the renowned Rank 639, Mr. Akshay Gupta.
A passionate and dedicated person, Mr. Akshay Gupta, truly exemplifies what hard work and will power look like. Mr. Gupta holds a degree of B.A L.LB from the GGSIPU University Delhi and has also done his LLM from faculty of law, Delhi University. In an exclusive interaction with team Desi Kaanoon, Mr. Gupta shares his journey and experiences, and how law and civil services have always complemented each other.
Q1. How does it feel to be in the civil services?
Ans. Well, honestly it is not as charming and glamorous as it looks. It comes with great responsibility. Whatever you do or say, you have to be more cautious because you would be held accountable for all your actions and words. There is always this feeling in you will be judged, but then again there is a sense of satisfaction as I believe there is no better way to serve for the society and their causes better than this.
Q2. Did the law school curriculum help with the preparation of the civil services exam?
Ans. So, I was doing B.A L.LB honors, so all the subjects that I studied during my graduation time were most useful and the subjects were very similar, because I was already acquainted with most of the subjects, it was definitely very helpful and was a plus point for me.
Q3. What made you change your mind from law to civil services?
Ans. I won’t say that I changed my mind to civil services suddenly. This is what I wanted to do from the very beginning, it was the initial plan, but then I got into a law school and there gradually over the time there was a sense of realization that this is not where I belong, if I become a lawyer tomorrow I wouldn’t bring justice to that post and to myself. So, that was where I became sure and certain about doing this.
Q4. Can you tell our readers how did you prepare for the UPSC? what would you recommend to our readers?
Ans. Okay, so my mantra to this is stick to the basics. first things first, do read basic books, don’t skip that. Don’t just jump into the advanced things. Because it’s like people have this tendency that most of us would start with advance level books and then go to the basics or at times even ignore it making it more complicated and tougher for their own selves. You must never do that, go step by step, start with the basic books like NCERT for your base and general studies and for law basically, read your bare acts first and then go with the different reference books in the market. You should prefer doing it this way. For me, I followed A.K Jain books strictly and have completely relied on them because their books are very crisp and clear helping you with the short answers for the exam. the next step is to keep yourself updated with whats going on in the world and around you. Follow newspapers regularly and then you can even correlate with society. Don’t miss out the recent judgments of the honorable Supreme court and other courts. So it’s like a pyramid, you start with the basics and then broaden your horizon of knowledge. Another important thing is to start solving past year question papers. Do the MCQs regularly for like 5-6 questions per day initially and eventually as you progress you can increase the number of attempts. You won’t get accurate answers in the beginning but it will get better with time and practice. Be consistent with this.
Q5. How many hours did you devote to the preparation during your law school years? Do you think its a plus point for a law student to take the UPSC exam?
Ans. Honestly, it wasn’t like I would prepare for it all day long. And also it wasn’t like I was preparing exhaustively then, it was just the newspapers or certain little things, not like I started reading books then. Yes Iwas very much updated about the happenings so that way my general knowledge was ready. and actually I started the main preparation for it when I was done with my law and then I took a break for a year and then during that one year I did most of the preps but yeah I did start during the law school years only, in bits and pieces though, and then I attempted and sat to take the exam and gave it a shot and luckily I got through it .
So in law schools basically you do have ample amount of time to prepare for other exams , so its the best to utilise your time and start preparing for it if you’re clear with what you have to do because that way you are not wasting time and given the fact that there are so many people nowadays who have cracked this exam coming from law background is suggestive enough that you can balance the two and manage to, you know get through it if you are working for it. So yeah, its kind of a boost up for law students because you are already aware with most of the subjects.
And even in future, in the services, you mainly have to deal with the laws only and interpret them and you are dealing with the executive work , making laws and executing them , so yeah the executive revolves around law as much as the judiciary does, so if one comes from a law background, he or she already knows the laws from the inception and can better deal with them as compared to those who are from a different background because obviously it will be harder and they will take more time to absorb all of this stuff. And not just in executive wing, even in quasi-judicial bodies its a great plus point, because as a lawyer you would already have come in terms with the status of society, how to deal with people , various laws, their interpretation, when you stand in a court you represent a set of people from the society also, so you have to see both the sides who are at the higher and lower chunk, so you are already prepared with that.
Q6. Was litigation ever a plan or just a backup ? were you always into the services?
Ans. No. Litigation was never a plan. So even when I joined the law school, I knew I had to do either the civil services or go for judiciary. So even back in my law school days, I used to do judicial internships to get to know the know-how and behind the door scenes and functioning of the courts . I was never indulged into too much litigation stuff so I didn’t even do a lot of moots during my college days as I was more inclined towards the civil services , although I did participate in a lot of things but as compared to other students I wasn’t that active.
But always have as much experience as you can, it always helps.