Supreme Court Lawyers Welfare Trust awards Litigation Fellowships to Pallav Mongia and Shivraj Gaonkar

The Supreme Court Lawyers Welfare Trust (Trust) has awarded its first two annual fellowships called the ‘Lawyers Welfare Awards’ to two young lawyers, Pallav Mongia and Shivraj Gaonkar.

The award ceremony was held at the India International Centre on October 30, 2012 where Former Chief Justice of India J.S. Verma, the Chairperson of the Trust, Former Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana High Court Mukul Mudgal (Trustee) and Senior Advocate and Trustee MN Krishnamani were present.

Speaking at the occasion, Supreme Court lawyer and Trustee, Gopal Sankaranarayanan said, “We have gone through a fairly rigorous shortlist and interview process and finally selected two candidates Pallav and Shivraj”.

“It’s the first time that we are instituting these fellowships and we look forward to many young lawyers aspiring for these fellowships in the years to come. We hope that the first, young Fellows will make us proud”.

While congratulating the two young Fellows, Justice Verma said, “You have to set the tone because you are the first Fellows. The mere fact that this Trust has been created by a lawyer who has chosen to part with substantial amount of money to encourage you and more such people, you must go ahead and promote this culture as best as you can and justify this Fellowship.”

The two Fellows were selected after rigorous rounds of interviews. Initially 18 candidates were shortlisted out of the several applications received from different states. A panel of three Trustees interviewed these shortlisted candidates, finally selecting four . These final candidates then had a interaction over dinner with all the Trustees, after which the final two candidates were selected.

The selected Fellows are entitled to a monthly stipend of Rs. 25,000 over a period of three years of practice in the Supreme Court. They were also gifted a subscription to SCCOnline® registered in the name of each Fellow.

Pallav is a 2009 graduate of Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur. He started his career with Lakshmi Kumaran & Sridharan and then worked at district courts before joining the chambers of  Jayant Bhushan, Senior Advovate.

Shivraj too is a 2009 graduate of V.M. Salgaocar College of Law. He started his career with Tuli & Co, Mumbai and then later shifted to Goa to set up his own independent practice with a focus on labour and service law. Shivraj has now moved base to Delhi after being awarded this fellowship and is working with AoR Nikhil Goel.

The Supreme Court Lawyers Welfare Trust (SCLWT) was set up two years back with the aim to recognize and promote young talent in the field of litigation.This whole process of selection was initiated in May 2012 when the Trust had invited applications from candidates with specific eligibility criteria.

The other trustees who were part of this entire selection procedure include Senior Advocate Vinod Tankha and Advocates Mamata Kachwaha, Sadhana Ramachandran and Raghenth Basant.