“ Technology has the potential to not only reduce pendency in courts but to also give many more people access to justice ” — Aman Raj Gandhi

Q. You joined Wadia Ghandy & Co. as an Associate and became Partner in about seven years. How would you describe the professional journey? 

I was the first recruit when Wadia Ghandy opened the Delhi office. Having joined early on, even as a fresher I had the good fortune of working closely with the seniormost partners of the firm at Mumbai. My training was therefore in typical Bombay style which we know is one of the most professional in the country and I was expected to use that in the capital city which is home to all major courts and tribunals. In a way I was getting the best of both worlds. Making an attempt to live up to the Bombay standards and trying not to fail was pretty much the only thing that was expected of me. That apart, the seniors at the firm have always been encouraging and helpful. So there was not much room for complaining. 

In any dispute resolution team in a firm, a young lawyer is mostly insulated from courts / tribunals through a chain of senior colleagues / counsel / senior advocates, etc. But as an organisation, Wadia Ghandy has always maintained that should the need arise – say in the absence of a senior / senior advocate, right from the associate to the senior partner, one must be able to present the client’s case before the court / tribunal. The preparation has to be such. This style has singularly and automatically got us recognition and respect amongst our peers as well as with senior members of the bar. That’s pretty much the most I could have asked for. I would say that the journey has been quite fulfilling thus far, however, there’s a long way to go.  

Q. What are your practice areas and could you talk about some interesting or noteworthy case subjects that you have worked on?

We do a lot of litigation for corporates and some of the top business houses and financial institutions are our regular clients. This gives us a lot of exposure to direct and indirect taxation, constitutional law, corporate law, insolvency law, arbitrations, civil suits, writs, white collar crimes etc. Being a relatively young set up in Delhi, we are trying to establish our footprint and therefore, if the client shows faith in us, our endeavour has always been to learn new subjects and to boldly accept assignments in areas which may be outside our niche. This has resulted in us venturing into cases such as under the Enemy Property Act, Black Money Act to name a few.

Q. You were also briefly self-employed after you graduated as a lawyer, before joining the law firm. How was your experience as a young independent lawyer?

When I graduated from law school, I was full of this naïve zeal and was hoping to get cases from the word go. And I did get a couple of them. As a fresher, initially you get routine assignments such as cheque bouncing cases / summary suits, etc. I did a couple of those and became excited. However, I soon realised that if I had to graduate to something more impactful, there was a different kind of discipline that was required out of me which I thought, a firm could give. In hindsight, I can tell you that though the zeal was already there, I lacked discipline and guidance. At Wadia Ghandy I got both. But I will always cherish my extremely short stint at independent practice because that’s where I first learnt how to independently strategise, draft, argue and even brief a senior advocate for a case. It was the first time I realised that as lawyers, the buck stops at us.  

Q. Have you faced any systemic problems as a lawyer? What kind of changes/improvements would you like to see in the Indian legal system?

Culturally, our profession demands freshers to learn the procedural aspects. This is very important, but if you do it for too long and get comfortable in providing assistance without focussing on the substantive law, it has the potential to stunt your growth. I have seen some of my peers getting trapped in such a situation. Don’t misunderstand me, learning the procedure is extremely important and your initial years is where you really get the opportunity to do that. But it must not take precedence over substantive law and the learning on that front ought to continue. Law schools try their best, but it does nothing more than providing you with a base. The real learning of the substantive law as well as the procedure happens once you are in the profession. 

As a lawyer in today’s times, I think I would really want our legal system to be more time-efficient. The time spent in court waiting for a matter or at a senior’s office is just criminal wastage. We tend to get used to it and even justify it on occasions, but that doesn’t change the fact that the same time could be used elsewhere, doing something productive, or even spent on yourself. 

Q. Do you think Artificial Intelligence and legal technology can be helpful in improving the efficiency of the judicial system?

Since the time I graduated in the year 2010, I have seen consecutive CJIs coming in with their own set of rules to possibly bring about reforms in the system of justice delivery / filing process / case management etc. We have also seen the websites undergo several changes to make it convenient for advocates and litigants. But change in the true sense would come when justice delivery is quick and efficient. If you are required to wait for a judgment of the court for years, it is meaningless. In the present circumstances, when we are hit with a pandemic and required to stay at home, I feel a sense of change is being forced upon us – of course which was long overdue. Many are welcoming this change. Courts are already moving towards becoming paperless and litigant friendly in as much as there is a move to shift towards e-hearings. But this needs to become routine and the change needs to seep into our lower courts as well. We are a nation with vast boundaries. Everything aside, keeping in mind just the distance a person from say Kerala or Sikkim is expected to travel to avail justice from the highest court in the country is prohibitive. The poor is almost always never able to travel to Delhi and getting them access to justice is the need of the hour. With e-hearings and the age of AI, clients will be able to access courts even on a mobile phone. The trustworthy lawyer, who has probably represented a litigant during the trial, will now be able to appear even before the appellate court, at no extra cost. Able lawyers will be able to access courts in different parts of the country. This, I feel, shall singularly make justice delivery more cost efficient. For a thriving democracy, the pendency is not as relevant as it is to get people access to justice. Any impediment in filing cases before your jurisdictional court, for whatever reason and more so the highest court is, in my interpretation, against the basic principles of our Constitution.  

Q. What do you like to do when you’re not working? How are you dealing with the house arrest induced by the unprecedented lockdown?

When I am not working, I am usually spending time with family / friends or reading. During the lockdown apart from these, I am trying to learn to play the harmonica. To maintain sanity, I am also working out, of course more regularly than I did before the lockdown. Though the lockdown is an awful thing to have happened, I try to see a silver lining and feel it couldn’t have come up at a better time for me because I get to spend a lot of time with my son who is just 5 months old.

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Aman Raj Gandhi is a Partner at Wadia Ghandy & Co. (Delhi). He is a part of and specialises in the Disputes’ practice of the firm with focus on litigation and alternative dispute resolution relating to commercial disputes, criminal matters, constitutional law matters, challenges to policies / orders of the Government of India, consumer disputes, debts, intellectual property, labour & industrial disputes, private equity investment disputes, property, indirect and direct taxes. Being an Advocate-on-Record, Mr. Gandhi also regularly attends to matters before the Supreme Court. Apart from that he also regularly handles company law matters before the NCLTs and the NCLAT such as schemes of arrangement, oppression/mismanagement disputes and insolvency matters.