Law students from the batches of 2016 to 2024 of Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University returned to the campus from different parts of the country, to attend their convocation ceremony on Saturday. Gold, silver, and bronze medallists and awardees from every batch were felicitated at the event, with the gold medal winners being presented their achievements by the chief justice of India, DY Chandrachud.
In all, 113 awards were given at the third convocation ceremony of RMLNLU, with four other categories for special awards in Law of Taxation, Criminal Law, Best Mooter of the Year and Student of the Year. Since several of the students from the past nine years are now placed across the country, and some even abroad, a few unfortunately could not make it to the ceremony to receive the awards themselves, and were presented the awards in absentia.
Gulafsha, from Saharanpur, was one among the LLM gold medallists. A graduate of the 2020 batch, she is currently posted as the additional civil judge at Junior Division Farrukhabad. She was emotional as she received her medal from the CJI. Having lost both her parents in 2022, she wished that they had been by her side on this day.
“It was my parents’ dream to see me as a judge. But unfortunately, I lost them both in 2022, only a month before the notification for the exam was released. And in 2023 I cleared the exam,” she recalled.
{{/usCountry}}“It was my parents’ dream to see me as a judge. But unfortunately, I lost them both in 2022, only a month before the notification for the exam was released. And in 2023 I cleared the exam,” she recalled.
{{/usCountry}}“They were supposed to be here with me today, and I am missing them so much,” she said.
Saurabh Tiwari, from Prayagraj, of the 2022 LLM batch, who also received a gold medal, is currently serving as an assistant legal advisor at ONGC Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. He said that he was thrilled to hear that the convocation was being held after a long gap of nine years.
He said, “When I started studying law after school, all I knew was that I did not want to take up science. But through the years of study, we realised that it involves a lot of critical thinking, helps us understand the problems of people as well as find solutions for them. The national and international moot courts also helped.” Tiwari is also preparing for civil services, and hopes to see himself as an IAS officer in the future.
Shivesh Raj Jaiswal of the 2023 batch, received a gold for LLM Honours and a silver medal for his BA LLB Honours. Hailing from Chandauli, he is now an additional civil judge in Sonbhadra. “Gathering with so many batchmates, seniors and juniors for any reason is a really enriching experience, even aside from the medals and awards,” he said.
“The diversity and exposure we got here is the best thing about this institution,” said Jaiswal. “When students from different backgrounds come together it always makes for a better experience.” He said that as a civil judge now, his focus has turned from research, to analysing how to use the law to help poor litigants.
“It is up to us as lawyers to hold the system tight and not let people fall to the pitfalls of prejudice,” he said.
On the other hand, 31-year-old Mandavi Mehrotra, a second generation lawyer, now running her own practice, said, “Coming back here amongst friends is like coming back to family.” Born and brought up in Lucknow, she graduated with the batch of 2017, and came back to campus to receive her gold medal. As a full-fledged lawyer, she now deals with medico-legal cases, and insurance matters. She won the Virendra Bhatia Gold Medal Student of the Year award.
A much younger graduate from 2023 is 24-year-old Vatsal Raj from Shimla. With a shining resume and a silver medal from the university to boot, Raj recently got his offer letter to pursue Masters in Law at Oxford University.
“Pursuing law has been a long-term dream of mine, and it is very satisfying to see it come together this way,” he said. He said that while earlier he saw law as a means to pursue the UPSC exams, during the course of his studies, he realised that he truly enjoyed studying law itself. Raj also said that he utilised the Covid period of distance learning to pursue more internships and extracurricular studies that helped him in his pursuit.