National Green Law Tribunal is a statutory body, established on 18^th Oct 2010 under the National Green Tribunal Act, to adjudicate the cases pertaining to environment protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources including enforcement of legal rights relating to environment and grant of appropriate compensation and damages, to persons and property in matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

The National Green Tribunal proposes to engage Law Clerks to be provided at its Zonal Bench functioning at Chennai. The candidates desirous of applying for the engagement as Law Clerk at Southern Zone Bench, Chennai, will have to submit their application to the Registrar, NGT, Southern Zone bench at Chennai, New Delhi

The law graduates who dream of serving government by getting a well to do a job with well to do salary, by being intact in the profession on law and willing to practice environmental laws, have this post matching all their expectations. A law graduate having a keen interest in Environmental Law and is deeply concerned for the preservation/protection of the environment can perform well by undertaking this job.

Eligibility Criteria and Salary

The eligibility criteria are very common which are usually required to apply for any of the jobs of Law Officer. The candidate should be a law graduate with minimum 60 percent marks from a recognised university. The Law Clerk will be paid Rs 30,000 per month and would also be given experience certificate at the conclusion of his/her engagement. Thus to start with one’s legal career this job offers a very good package which is not available otherwise in normal practice into the courts of law, where law graduate struggles very hard even to earn a basic stipend from his seniors or the extra work a lawyer undertakes to supplement his stipend. Therefore this seems to be a better option than to practice into courts of law.

How to Apply:

The application to NGT for this post are not called online but the hard copy of the filled in form has to couriered to the required authorities. Vacancy to be filled is at the Chennai Bench in this year, accordingly, applications are invited in a prescribed profarma for the engagement as Law Clerks at the NGT, Zonal Bench at Chennai, initially for a period of one year. The only requirement is fulfilling the criteria for this post and the candidate is directly called for an interview if he/she is shortlisted. The Shortlisted candidates will be called for an interview on a date to be intimated later. The prescribed profarma for application may be downloaded from the official website of National Green Tribunal www.greentribunal.gov.in

This time the application is called by the tribunal for filling the vacancy at the Southern Zonal Bence at Chennai. The Application must be accompanied with two recent self-attested passport size photographs self-attested copies of testimonials, sent personally or by registered A.D post with the words “Application for appointment as Law Clerk in National Green Tribunal, Chennai Bench”, superscribed on the envelope, addressed to the Registrar, National Green Tribunal, Southern Zone Bench, 950/1, TNPCB Building, P.H Road, Arumbakkam, Chennai-600106

Applications which are incomplete, unsigned and received after due date, shall be rejected summarily and no inquiry will be entertained in this regard. No TA/DA shall be paid to the candidates called for an interview the way it is paid at some other departments for example at SSB JAG interview conducted by Army.

Thus vacancies are created time to time for different Zonal Benches of National Green Tribunal which are filled time to time and applications are invited for filling those vacancies and therefore law graduates willing to apply for such posts have to keep checking the official website of the National Green Tribunal at proper intervals for the notifications uploaded by them for the vacancies created for any of the Zonal Banches.

Terms and Conditions for engagement as Law Clerks:

1. The engagement, as Law Clerk, is a full-time engagement and purely contractual in nature. It will not confer any rights for regular/permanent appointment in the National Green Tribunal. Thus under this contractual employment, there is no guarantee of continuation of employment and cannot be asked as a matter of right.
2. The Law Clerk will be required to work even before and after Court, hours depending on the convenience of the Hon’ble Bench to whom he/she is attached. Thus there is work adjustment and flexibility of working hours which may require giving extra time to the tribunal.
3. The Law Clerk will not be entitled to appear before the Hon’ble Bench to whom he/she is attached, for a period of one year after the conclusion of his/her tenure as Law Clerk. This is in accordance with the principles of natural justice to avoid biased approach towards the case.
4. The engagement as Law Clerk will not be terminated before the expiry of the period of engagement, without notice and assigning any reason. Thus the employment cannot be terminated arbitrarily unless for strong reasons.
5. Law Clerk is not allowed to appear in a case handled by the Hon’ble Bench during his/her tenure with the Hon’ble Bench regardless of whether he/she has worked on that case or not.
6. Law Clerk would not be entitled to practice or take up any other assignment during the period he/she works as Law Clerk in the National Green Tribunal. Thus there is a bar on practicing in any other case apart from the cases assigned to the clerk and no extra gains can be made by being engaged in other works.
7. Law Clerk is required to adhere to the dress code i.e. wearing of Black Coat, Black tie, White Shirt and White or Black trouser. This dress code is similar to what is followed by lawyers in ordinary courts of law. Which gives a feeling of working as a lawyer in the office of NGT
8. Law Clerk will have to work for a minimum period of 6months otherwise, the requisite certificate of experience/learning will not be issued to him/her. Thus no clerk can leave half way and claim the experience or learning certificate.
9. The ethical code of conduct requires that any ethical breach by a Law Clerk will be viewed very seriously and will bar the Law Clerk from receiving the certificate. In the case of his/her being enrolled with the Bar Council, if it becomes necessary, the breach will be reported to the Bar Council concerned. This may affect his/her practice of law into ordinary courts of law.
10. If the Clerk remains absent from duty for more than 7 days without intimation/assigning valid reasons and without the approval of leave, shall be liable to be dismissed from the job, without any notice. Hence it is advised to take informed leaves and be careful of such terminations.

Thus this can be said to be a prestigious job, giving a law graduate a handsome salary at the very beginning of his/her carrier into law. This is a very good career option if compared to the practice in ordinary courts of law. A law graduate having a keen interest in the environment and environment laws can go a long way in living his/her passion by undertaking this job. Moreover, he/she can still get to work as a lawyer in NGT for which he/she had taken up the law study in the first place.

For further queries and related information, you can approach the Professional Experts at CareerGuide. Hope this will help you!