Detail of Practice
 

Seema has a good public/civil law practice which covers a range of social welfare law including community care, housing, immigration, court of protection and judicial review. She also practices in private property matters and private family involving financial remedies.

 

 

Seema is well experienced in homelessness law and has brought successful challenges to local authority’s decisions not to accept a duty of housing and in particular to vulnerable people. In doing so, Seema draws upon public principles and the protection enshrined in law namely, the Housing Act 1988 and 1985 and the Children Act 1989. Seema is regularly instructed to draft grounds of appeal and skeleton arguments by way of section 204 appeals and section 202 reviews. Further, she is regularly instructed in multi track cases involving points of law of complexity that arise from secure tenancies.

 

Her housing practice covers a range of issues that may arise including:

Property
 

Her instructions are on range of issues arising from commercial and residential property including, leasehold disputes, rent reviews, boundary disputes, adverse possession, disrepair, claims arising from mortgages, division of property in divorce/family proceedings and possession. She is available to provide preliminary advice to clients.

 

Her property law practice covers:

 

Seema takes a keen interest in public law family and is instructed on care orders, discharge of care orders, emergency protection orders and wardship applications including child abduction. The cases she has done have often involved serious issues including mental health, female circumcision or serious allegations/convictions of criminal conduct. She is often a favourite with her professional and lay client in the areas of public children family being sensitive to the issues at hand.

 

Instructions include all stages of proceedings for financial remedies/ancillary relief.

 

Seema attends court and advises on section 8 applications and is instructed to appear at fact-findings. She has a wealth of experience in issues involving religious and cultural practices verses the welfare of the child.

 

Her family law practice covers:

 

Seema has a good immigration and human rights practice and is successful in challenging the decisions of the Secretary of State under Article 8, Article 6, Article 2 and 3 grounds and under the common law. She has done many appeals based on family and private life, under arguments of proportionality and Humanitarian Protection. She is also regularly instructed by the Turkish community in successful appeals under “The Ankara Agreement” and is considered an expert in this area.  

 

Her practice area covers:

 

Seema’s work in the High Court includes:

Civil Law
 

There are a range of issues from contractual disputes that arise from small companies at all levels of complexity and instructions are taken in interim applications and trials.

 

Advice
 

Seema is quickly building up a profile of firms whom she provides stage - by -stage advice to on all the areas listed above. This has proved to be beneficial for both her lay and professional clients.

 

Background
 

In the years preceding pupilage Seema worked for various charities and NGOs namely the Centre for Social Research, based in Delhi which is solely aimed at female empowerment and tackles a range of human rights abuses within India. She trained the trainers of the police personnel based in Delhi on issues surrounding domestic violence and helped them to recognise their innate prejudices causing apathy in the enforcement of the Protection Against Domestic Violence Bill, which made domestic violence a crime in 2002. Seema has also worked extensively in housing law prior to the Bar which then led her to supervise caseworkers/paralegals in a fast growing legal aid firm in the areas of housing, debt and welfare benefit law.

 

Seema takes a keen interest in public international law, philosophy, politics and Indian history.

 

She speaks Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu.