National Law University, Delhi yesterday awarded its first-ever scholarship for pursuing an LLM at the University of Cambridge, UK, with a view to encourage such bright minds to pursue further education in this field.
The 'Pratibha M Singh Cambridge LLM Scholarship', which was announced in November, 2013, was awarded to Deepika Sriram, a law student of NLU, Delhi by the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Smriti Irani. 17 applications were received for the same. Praising the initiative, Irani said, "It's a great step towards female education and that the first scholarship from NLU is going to a girl student speaks volumes about the development in the country. It's an exemplary effort on the part of the university and other institutions must follow suit."
The wonderful initiative has been taken by Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh and his wife, Senior Advocate Pratibha M. Singh. Also present at the event was Cambridge University Vice Chancellor Leszek Borysiewicz and Vice Chancellor of NLU, Prof. Ranbir Singh.
Advocate Pratibha Singh, who is an alumna of the Cambridge University, elaborated on the setting up of the Sardar Manmohan Singh Charitable Trust, which aims to sponsor students of NLU to pursue an LLM course with Cambridge University. She said, "The trust was set up to provide financial aid to law students and encourage them to pursue their ambition and get the necessary exposure to achieve their aim. Our aim is to provide annual scholarships to students.”
According to Delhi High Court Judge, Justice S. Ravindra Bhat, "Our community needs more such young and ignited minds to serve the field of law. The next generation who go abroad for higher studies are required to come back and work in their own country here, in whichever capacity."