LLB Internship Programme(LLB-IP)

Overview

About LLB-IP

Ten places open in a monthly slot and they are filled first come first served, which settles more applications to the LLB Internship Programme than any marksheet does. Before that matters, an applicant has to get past a mix-up in the paperwork. The Ministry of Law and Justice runs two internships for law students, one in the Department of Justice and one in the Department of Legal Affairs, and the scheme record for this one carries details of both.

This is the Department of Justice programme. Its rulebook is the Guidelines for Internship Programme issued by the Department of Justice, which the scheme record itself carries as its reference document (Guidelines for Internship Programme, Department of Justice, May 2025). Two entries in that record belong to the other department instead: the apply link points at legalaffairs.gov.in, the portal of the Department of Legal Affairs, and the official question and answer set describes Legal Affairs, its Legal Adviser postings, its monthly intake and its Main Secretariat library rule. Where a detail on this page names Legal Affairs, it is describing that department's internship, not this one.

The work is research and referencing on justice delivery schemes, not drafting or advice to litigants. The guidelines name the ground an intern is expected to cover: Access to Justice, which carries Tele-Law, Nyaya Bandhu, legal aid and pro bono legal services, then e-Courts services, Fast Track Special Courts, the National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms, and the centrally sponsored scheme for infrastructure in the district and subordinate judiciary. Nyaya Bandhu sits inside the department's umbrella scheme Designing Innovative Solutions for Holistic Access to Justice, or DISHA, and its job is to connect registered pro bono advocates with registered beneficiaries from marginalised sections, which is the kind of file an intern is handed rather than a courtroom brief (Department of Justice, Nyaya Bandhu).

The posting is senior and the venue is fixed. Each selected intern is attached to an officer at the level of Deputy Secretary, Director or Joint Secretary, or to the office of the Secretary, Department of Justice, with the approval of the competent authority, and the internship takes place at the Department of Justice at Jaisalmer House, 26 Man Singh Road, New Delhi 110011 (Department of Justice circular, 30 May 2024). The term ordinarily runs one month, or four weeks, attended full time and in person.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The cycle follows the financial year, and its first phase is the summer programme: three consecutive one-month slots, each with its own last date for applications, published in the same guidelines. The May 2025 guidelines set those slots at 2 June to 1 July, 2 July to 1 August and 4 August to 3 September in 2025 (Guidelines for Internship Programme, Department of Justice, May 2025). The year before, the same three-slot shape ran 10 June to 9 July, 10 July to 9 August and 10 August to 9 September in 2024, with applications closing on 5 June, 5 July and 5 August (Department of Justice circular, 30 May 2024).

The pattern has held since. The ministry's own account said the department held an interaction session on 2 September 2026 with interns of the third and final batch of that year's summer programme (Ministry of Law and Justice). No guidelines for a later cycle are attached to the scheme record, so the dates for a live window are whatever notice the department's internship portal is carrying, and the guidelines themselves are reissued each financial year rather than left standing.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The current guidelines put the institution filter first: the applicant comes from a law university or college recognised by the Bar Council of India, and someone who has completed the law degree at such an institution qualifies as well. After that the door is defined by semester rather than by a loose year label. A five-year integrated student is eligible in the fourth year, semesters 7 and 8, or the fifth year, semesters 9 and 10; a three-year student is eligible in the second year, semesters 3 and 4, or the third year, semesters 5 and 6 (Guidelines for Internship Programme, Department of Justice, May 2025).

The eligibility text reproduced in the scheme record is the older wording, framed as having completed the second year and written the examination to enter the third, which is how the earlier circular put it (Department of Justice circular, 30 May 2024). It points at roughly the same students. The semester list is the version the department publishes now, and it is the one a college has to certify against.

One clause sits above both. The qualification may be relaxed in deserving cases, based on the need of the department and subject to the prior approval of Secretary (Justice). That is a discretion the guidelines reserve to themselves, not an appeal an applicant can lodge, and nothing published says what a deserving case looks like.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The bar that catches the most people is the repeat bar. A candidate who completed an internship with the Department of Justice in an earlier year or an earlier batch is not considered for the current year's programme, so a second term is not a matter of waiting for the next slot.

Two ordinary omissions end an application before anything else about it is weighed, because eligibility here is read off documents and the guidelines publish no interview at which anything could be explained: a No Objection Certificate that does not travel with the form, and a semester or an institution outside the eligibility list. Practising advocates are not named in any exclusion clause, though the eligibility test is written around students and holders of a completed law degree from a Bar Council recognised institution, so an enrolled advocate is reading a door that was not drawn with them in mind.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Nothing in these guidelines renews. The internship is set at one month, with no extension clause, no second consecutive slot and no carry-over into the next cycle, and the department issues fresh guidelines each financial year with that year's slots announced in them (Guidelines for Internship Programme, Department of Justice, May 2025). A student who wants another term is applying to a new cycle under a new notice, and the repeat bar decides whether that application can be considered at all.

What you get

Award & benefits

The money is one payment at the end rather than a monthly stipend, which is the detail most listings of this internship blur. The guidelines say interns shall be given an honorarium of Rs 5,000 on completion of their internship, and that a Certificate of Internship is awarded on satisfactory completion, where satisfactory completion requires 90% attendance among other things (Department of Justice circular, 30 May 2024). Nothing else is paid. There is no travelling or daily allowance, and accommodation in Delhi is the intern's own arrangement and cost.

Two conditions travel with that certificate. Every intern submits a report on the work undertaken in the department at the end of the programme, and the guidelines state plainly that the internship is neither employment nor an assurance of employment with the department.

• Honorarium: The interns may be given an honorarium of ₹ 5,000/- on completion of their internship.- Certificate: On satisfactory completion of the internship, a Certificate of Internship shall be awarded.

What to prepare

Documents required

The department annexes its own No Objection Certificate proforma to the guidelines rather than accepting a general college letter. It goes on the institution's letterhead over the signature of the head of department or the principal, and it certifies three separate things: that the applicant is a bonafide student, with college identity number and semester or year; that the student is not registered for any course requiring attendance in class during the internship period; and how the college records the student's conduct, as good, satisfactory or unsatisfactory (Guidelines for Internship Programme, Department of Justice, May 2025).

That conduct line is unusual in an internship NOC and it is worth raising with whoever signs it, since the proforma leaves the wording to the college. The rest of what the record asks for is ordinary identity and enrolment proof, with one item applicants tend to leave for later: bank account details go in with the application, because that is what the honorarium is eventually paid against.

Step by step

How to apply

The form sits on the Department of Justice portal at dashboard.doj.gov.in/internship, and the guidelines ask students to fill it online and upload all the documents before the last date. The same clause keeps an offline route open: the filled form can reach the department offline or by email at yadav.sanjay05@nic.in with the documents and the college No Objection Certificate attached, which is the route that matters when the portal is between cycles (Guidelines for Internship Programme, Department of Justice, May 2025).

The apply link on the scheme record goes somewhere else. It opens legalaffairs.gov.in/internship, which is where the Department of Legal Affairs takes applications for its own programme (Guidelines for LLB Internship programme, Department of Legal Affairs). A form filed there is not in front of the Department of Justice.

The application also asks for a choice applicants tend to underrate. Candidates give a first and a second preference among the department's schemes, from a list of DISHA, e-Courts, Fast Track Special Courts and the National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms. First preference is allotted as far as possible, a second or later choice only once every first choice candidate has been accommodated, and the allotment the department makes is final.

On tracking, what is published is thin, and knowing that in advance saves a fortnight of refreshing. The guidelines set out no application status page and no certificate tracker; they say that all further intimations will be sent through SMS and emails. The mobile number and the email address on the form are the channel through which selection, joining details and anything after them arrive. Entry to the building is arranged after selection rather than online, with selected interns told to contact the office or admin section in the Department of Justice where they have been posted for their entry pass.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Candidates are selected on a first come first served basis and the orders of the competent authority are final (Guidelines for Internship Programme, Department of Justice, May 2025). No interview, written test or marks based ranking is published, and the maximum number of interns in a given monthly slot is ten, subject to the requirement of the department. The consequence is uncomfortable but plain: applying on the day a window opens does more for an application than anything that can be added to it afterwards.

The repeat bar is applied at this stage as well, so candidates who interned with the department in earlier years and earlier batches are set aside before the slot fills.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Interns present themselves at the posting from 9.00 am to 5.30 pm unless the controlling officer permits otherwise, and they follow the rules and regulations that apply generally to employees of the department (Department of Justice circular, 30 May 2024). The confidentiality protocol runs wider than case papers: an intern may not reveal to any person or organisation confidential information relating to the department, its work and its policies, and a representation to a third party follows the department's advice rather than the intern's judgement.

The dress code is written into the guidelines and it is specific: formal black trousers with plain white shirts. Either side can end the term early. The department may terminate the training programme at any time without assigning reasons, unsatisfactory performance is dealt with by advising the intern to discontinue, and an intern who decides to disengage from the department is expected to give prior intimation.

Get help

Contact

The current guidelines route queries to the Under Secretary (Admn) of the Department of Justice, at Jaisalmer House, 26 Man Singh Road, New Delhi 110011, on telephone 23072137, with the email yadav.sanjay05@nic.in that also takes an offline application (Guidelines for Internship Programme, Department of Justice, May 2025) (Department of Justice circular, 30 May 2024). That is the desk for a question about eligibility, about a slot that has not opened, and about a certificate that has not arrived.

The other department keeps a separate desk, which is worth knowing if a query has already gone to the wrong one: the Legal Affairs guidelines route theirs to the Section Officer, Admin.I (LA), on 011-23387914 (Guidelines for LLB Internship programme, Department of Legal Affairs).

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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