Beginning this month,a group of 20 ninth-semester students from the Gujarat National Law University will work at the office of the Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court to help classify cases on the basis of how easily and quickly they can be disposed of. The arrangement is a follow-up of GNLUs recent report on how to deal with the backlog of cases in courts in Gujarat. As of December 2008,there were 23.5 lakh pending cases in various courts combined,the report had said. Students will be assessed academically according to their performance at the Chief Justices office,most likely as part of their Clinical Papers course at the university. The arrangement is also rotational,three different groups of 20 students will work at the office for a month each so that the entire batch is covered during the semester,said assistant professor of law at GNLU,Tarkesh Molia. This is the first such arrangement with the High Court,although in previous years,GNLU students have interned with various offices in the court. But only a handful of students were accommodated and not entire batches. The first briefing with Chief Justice S J Mukhopadhaya took place on Tuesday evening,according to Ravindra Kumar Singh,Assistant Professor of Law,GNLU. Gujarat High Court Registrar C P Bhatt confirmed that the Chief Justice and GNLU Director Bimal Patel had met and discussed such an arrangement,where it was agreed upon that students be sent to work at the High Court to get first-hand experience.
