Details of the Organization

The Square Circle Clinic is a criminal  justice  initiative at NALSAR University of Law,  with its offices in New Delhi, Pune, Nagpur and Hyderabad. The Square Circle Clinic  undertakes pro bono criminal defense of prisoners sentenced to death and also  undertrials, research and public engagement efforts on issues relating to the death  penalty, forensics, criminalisation and punishment, prevention of torture,  legal aid, and mental health and criminal justice. The founders, leadership group, and  the full-time staff members at The Square Circle Clinic earlier carried on  the abovementioned  criminal  justice  work  as  Project  39A  and moved to NALSAR in April 2025.   

Details of the Job/Internship

The Square Circle Clinic is inviting application for full-time and part-time Internship opportunity  for  a  period  of  minimum 4 weeks to a maximum of 12 weeks. Candidates  must  indicate  the  exact  dates  in  their  application.  Interns  shall  be based out of our offices in New Delhi, Pune and Nagpur.

Role and Responsibilities

• Research:  Their  research  efforts  lay  significant  emphasis  on  fieldwork  and  empirical analysis. Efforts involve work on various aspects of the following issues:
  • forensic science with a particular focus on DNA forensics.
  • legal aid in the criminal justice system.
  • mental health and criminal justice.
  • torture.
  • administration of the death penalty.
  • criminalisation and punishment.
• Litigation:  To  ensure  competent  pro  bono  legal  representation  for  prisoners  sentenced  to death  in  various  parts  of  India,  irrespective  of  the  crime.  Our  offices  in  Pune  and  Nagpur provide  trial-level  pro  bono  legal  representation  to  undertrials  in  Pune  and  Nagpur Central Prisons. 
• Mitigation  Investigation:  To  work  with  the  mitigation  investigators  in  developing in-depth  life  histories  of  prisoners  sentenced  to  death  and  develop  mitigation investigation  reports  to  be  submitted  in  courts  on  behalf  of  the  defence  team  for sentencing  hearings. We  particularly  encourage  students  from  social  science  disciplines, humanities, psychology,  psychiatry  and  other  allied  disciplines  to  apply  for  internships  in this team.
• Strategic  Communication:  To  develop  public  communication  strategies  on  various  critical issues  concerning  the  criminal  justice  system  in  India.  This  involves  engagement  with different  storytelling  strategies  across  mediums  and  also  work on  the  organisation’s social media strategy.

Eligibility

The  internship  is  open  to  students  enrolled  in  recognised  undergraduate  or postgraduate  programmes  in  law,  humanities,  social  sciences,  psychology,  psychiatry,  or  media and  communications.  Those  enrolled  in  other  programmes  may  apply  but  preference  will  be given  to  students  enrolled  in  programmes  listed  above.  The  internship  programme  is  open  to students enrolled in recognised programmes both in India and abroad. 

Salary/Stipend

Full-time interns will be paid a stipend of Rs 10,000/- (Rupees Ten Thousand Only) for every four weeks of internship. Part-time interns will be paid a stipend of Rs. 5,000/- (Rupees Five Thousand Only) for every four weeks of internship.

Type of Opportunity

Fulltime

Country

India

Address

New Delhi, Pune and Nagpur, India.

Application and Registration Details

After you submit your application, you will receive the next steps in the process via email. Please follow the instructions provided to complete your application.

Incase you find any issue with the application process, please contact: [email protected]

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We are solely providing this information for dissemination and wish to clarify that we are not affiliated with the organization.