NUJS Academics

Results of 1st Subrata Roy Chowdhury Memorial Essay Competition

2010-05-16T06:20:00.000-07:00

Dear All,

We have received the results from the judges for the 1st Subrata Roy Chowdhury Memorial Essay Competition, and they are as follows:-

1st: Prantar B. Chowdhury, NUJS (Topic: Non state actors, transnational armed groups and the regulation of hostilities: Should International Humanitarian Law recognize a hybrid category of armed conflict?)

2nd: Amit Maheshwari, GNLU (Topic: Is India ready for Sovereign Wealth Funds?)

3rd: Siram P. Govind, ILS (Topic: Does Climate Change have an impact on National Security? An Indian perspective)

4th: Vishnu Kale, GNLU (Topic: Does Climate Change have an impact on National Security? An Indian perspective)

5th: Mathews P. George, Akansha Mahapatra, NUJS (Topic: Is India ready for Sovereign Wealth Funds?)

Congratulations to the winners!

On NUJS: Prabhash Ranjan

2010-02-05T04:21:00.001-08:00

Before Mr. Prabhash Ranjan left NUJS to commence his PhD programme at King’s College, London, MagCom had the opportunity to spend some time with him as he shared some of his thoughts regarding his time here, and his impressions regarding both students and faculty. Mr Ranjan was extremely frank and outspoken to the point of sounding extremely critical of some of the practices in NUJS, and it was evident that in his few years here he has come to care deeply about this institution. Reproduced below are extracts from our interaction with Mr. Ranjan. The full text of the interview:-

On Mr. Ranjan’s 2 years at NUJS:

[It was] a wonderful experience – most fascinating watching young students [who are] bright and fascinating do so well. I wish I was as enterprising as most of the students of NUJS when I was of their age. Teaching bright students and engaging with them in academic discussion inside and outside the class was a great experience. [I can] look back with satisfaction in terms of work done, whether teaching, publishing or any other academic work or administrative work. [I am] satisfied that I took lots of initiative to contribute to [the] university and especially happy that I contributed in getting the website going. .

NUJS is a better place than what it was when I joined. For this we owe a lot to our VC. One thing that has improved over the last 2 years is quality of faculty. I think there is now at least a debate on academic reforms and on other academic matters [which is] very important for any young university.

NUJS still lacks a culture to the extent desired where people are held accountable for their actions. [It is] extremely important that NUJS develops a culture where performance matters and those who perform should get due recognition, even if the university feels helpless on how to deal with non-performers.

On Academic Reforms:

[It is] important to understand 2 basic objectives sought to be achieved through academic reforms –

1. To free time of faculty members so that they can do quality publishing and do better preparation for classes

2. Students should get more time to think critically about what is taught in class and to have more time for writing projects – focus being on quality as against quantitative focus of previous regime.

However, [it is] important to test these objectives with certain benchmarks. If in spite of having more time available for research and publications, the faculty, at large, do not produce any worthwhile publications then we need to reassess the entire concept of freeing time for this. I would also like to make a distinction between quality publications and publications for the sake of publishing. When I say publications, I mean the former and not the latter. Therefore I recommend that the University should officially have a minimum research and publication requirement for each faculty member. This should be part of our jobs just like going to the class and teaching. Again, if the students do not do quality work and perform a cut-and-paste job in the new regime also, then obviously we need to reassess the new regime. I know that there are students who work very hard for projects, but then it is also a fact that there are students who resort to short cuts. Therefore it is important for faculty members not just to use their non-teaching time in publishing and preparing well for classes, but also to emphasize on quality writing to students. With less projects to evaluate, teachers will have more time to critically reflect on each project and give useful feedback to students. It should be made mandatory for each teacher to give written comments on each project to the student – something that I did with the majority of tutorials in Legal Methods with the present first years. This will ensure that teacher puts in the required effort to read the project and will also keep the students on their toes. I know this is not easy but then this [is] the goal we all should have. I agree that students should have been effectively communicated, not just about changes and decisions but also the rationale behind them. Maybe in future the faculty-student committee now established can perform this role. Last but not the least, no regime or system can work unless there is commitment and sincerity of all involved in that regime.

On the new class participation requirements:

The rationale behind class participation is to incentivize preparation for the classes on a regular basis. This will push students towards reading for classes on a regular basis. I completely agree with the scepticism of some students that this whole process could result in bias. But then everything is capable of being abused, like projects, vivas, end-semester examinations and also class participation. Therefore the university should come out with a clear guideline of what is class participation and indicators of the same. To ensure effective and unbiased class participation by students requires a very sincere and dedicated effort by teachers. A student will feel motivated enough to prepare only if he or she sees the teacher putting in the effort to prepare for class and this has to happen across the board not just in few select courses or subjects. It is foolish to expect students to show commitment and sincerity if the teachers don’t show commitment and sincerity to their job. No offences to anyone please.

On the [then] proposed bell-curve grading system:

[I] understand anxiety of all students. To the best of my knowledge it has officially not been accepted and it is still in the discussion stage. To keep things simple, the basic objective is to avoid extreme situations in final results such as 30 E/F and to have more balance in the system. [Editorial note: In the time since this interview was conducted, we have learned that the bell-curve grading system shall be enforced from this semester itself, though there has yet been no official intimation from the authorities of the same.]

On the hostels:

[I see a] positive change in hostel from what the situation was two years ago. I, Pritam and Jasmine invested a lot of time, effort and energy in improving the overall discipline in the hostels. Wardens can only do so much. [The] student body has to realize that there are certain boundaries that should never be crossed. I am happy that we have at least prepared detailed hostel rules which are now publicly available on the website. I think the university needs to invest much more in the hostels by establishing a separate hostel office and appointing full time staff dedicated to hostel work. [It is] not fair to expect a warden who also has to teach to look after the hostels completely.

Being warden [was] one of the most challenging [things] I’ve ever done in my lie. My message to all the students I reprimanded in hostel is that I was only doing my job.

Concluding remarks to his students and colleagues:

I’m a little emotional because I will not be able to see 4^th and 5^th years together as a group, because I taught both. My message to each student of mine would be to excel not just professionally, but to excel in conduct – become a good human being. You may go to any field – corporate, academic, litigation – never lose sensitivity towards society. It is this sensitivity which will make you stand out in a crowd. NUJS students have the capability to do very well. It is important that they fully realise their potential.

[I have] often heard people say NUJS students are not serious enough – if that is true then it is because of us, the teachers. Perhaps we have failed in showing the right path and setting the right example. I am not generalising but as an individual teacher I would take responsibility. The faculty as a collective group is to be held responsible for all the good and bad things that happen to a university. I earn my livelihood from the money that a student pays, therefore if as a teacher I do not set the right example and am not accountable to my students then I should refund the money back to the students. An increase in salary has to be accompanied with a corresponding increase in responsibility and accountability – to students, to institution, to high research standards and to legal education and legal academics in India. Legal scholarship in India has largely been confined to scholarship of lawyers and judges. While India has produced some outstanding legal academics, it is much less when compared with other academic disciplines such as Economics or other social sciences in the country. This has to change. The kind of respect that legal academics enjoy amongst practising lawyers and judges in the UK, for instance, is amazing. I hope that the same happens in India as well. The new generation of legal academics in India have to take up this challenge and make their mark in the field of legal scholarship in India and abroad. This will obviously not happen just by going to the class and reproducing the knowledge. This requires creation of new knowledge. I guess all this has to become a part of our job as faculty members of NUJS.

Subrata Roy Memorial Essay Writing Competition

2010-01-25T23:35:00.000-08:00

The International Law Students Association's Chapter at NUJS and the Society for International Law and Practice are organizing the 1st Subrata Roy Memorial Essay Competition. The competition is open to the students of law, undergraduate and post-graduate, enrolled in any institution in India. In addition to the cash prizes, the winning entry shall be considered for publication in the Indian Yearbook of International Law and Policy.
You can check out the details of the Competition here.
The deadline for submission entries is 11:59 P.M., February 10, 2010.

The Right to Read Campaign

2009-11-11T05:47:00.000-08:00

Imagine yourself in a world without books, the pain of living like that. This campaign is all about me and the 700 million other people who are denied the ‘right to read’.

– Moiz, 5th year, LLB, NUJS

On 7th November, 2009, NUJS became the venue for the Right to Read campaign that seeks to accelerate change in copyright law and raise public awareness on the issue of access to reading for the print impaired.

The panel discussion that marked the beginning of the campaign was moderated by Dr. Shamnad Basheer, IPR chair, NUJS. He introduced the four panelists and topic: Copyright laws and access to read for the print impaired He also announced the measures that NUJS would be taking for making legal education inclusive like setting CLAT paper access to all differentially-abled and providing free education for the deserving students.

Dr. S.S. Roy steered the discussions in the right directions by pointing out the economic constrains faced by NGOs and others who work with the print impaired and the largescale implementation failure of the existing laws for the print impaired.

Dr. S. Patnaik from the School for Blind explained the violation of copyright law in the process of conversion of books in Braille form, inability in understanding of many available audio records due to the difference in accents, etc. He recommended an amendment in copyright law.

The 3rd panelist, Ms Chandrima Bhattacharya from the Telegraph offered media support for the campaign.

Dr. Rukmini Sen, Asst. Professor, NUJS, suggested an amendment to the Protection of Disabilities Act, 1995 that would broaden the definition of access so as to include access to all kinds of information (educational, literary, etc). She also supported the amendment of Copyright law and referred to the UN Convention on the Blind… of which India is a signatory.

After the panel discussion, the stage was set for comments and inputs from the supporters, the audience, was vehemently insistent on public action to make more books and atleast one newspaper available in Braille form.

Rahul Cherian, one of the co-founders of Inclusive Planet, an organization that has spearheaded the collection of more than 10000 books that are compatible for the visually challenged and put them up in their website ‘Bookbole’, urged for more support for the cause

The campaign ended by enlightening many and opening a new world of words for many more.

Legal Aid Drafting Workshop

2009-09-02T09:32:00.001-07:00

The Legal Aid Society conducted a “Workshop on Drafting of Basic Legal Documents” on the 22nd August, 2009. This Workshop was meant for the 5th year students of the University as well as representatives of several eminent NGOs of Kolkata. The primary aim of the Workshop was to impart basic knowledge of legal drafting, both civil and criminal, to the audience. The civil law drafting session was conducted by Mr. Protik Prokash Banerji, a reputed civil lawyer of the Calcutta High Court and the criminal law drafting session was conducted by Mr. Joymalya Bagchi, one of the most eminent criminal lawyers from the Calcutta Bar. This was followed by a discussion of the representatives of the NGOs with Mr. Banerji and Mr. Bagchi and a sumptuous lunch for the participants in the programme from outside the college.

Further Mooting Triumphs

2009-07-07T05:33:00.000-07:00

NUJS building on its excellent mooting records posted an impressive win at the 2nd NLS International Arbitration Moot Court Competition. The team, consisting of Udit Sood, Vivek Menon, Shabdita Gupta and Kartik Khanna, faced some stiff competition at the quarters and withstood a tough panel of judges in the finals to come out champions.

Recent Moot Achievements

2009-03-04T02:36:00.000-08:00

The NUJS Mooting flag flew high within the final rung of competitions in the National Mooting Season. The team, consisting of Prateek Dutta, Rohan Sahai and Mayur Bhandari, won the NLS–NFCG Corporate Governance Moot. Sashwata Dutta, Abhudaya Agarwal and Geetanjali Shankar reached the semi-finals of the D.M. Harish International Moot at GLC, Mumbai. Prajna Mahapatra, Vidyulata and Abhijeet Sinha emerged runners-up at the Annual KLA Moot Court Competition, while Prajna bagged the Best Lady Advocate Award. Similarly did Prateeks Shroff and Dutta along with Kaushik Krishnan fall just one short at the Surana Corporate Law Moot Court Competition at Jodhpur. Looks like the green patch is back to stay.

Talk on Human Rights in the Pre-British Period

2009-02-22T02:45:00.000-08:00

At the talk on Human Rights in Pre-British Period organised by the Centre for Human Rights on 22nd February, Justice B N Krishna enthralled an audience with a speech which was equal parts Sanskrit, equal parts humour and equal parts historical insight. Refuting the widely held notions of Human Rights as being gift of the British to India, Justice Krishna showed by way of examples how the ideas of human rights albeit within a uniquely duty based system existed in pre British India. He fielded questions from the students and faculty with much élan and had the audience listening in rapt attention.

NUJS Law Review Symposium

2009-02-14T02:56:00.000-08:00

The first ever NUJS Law Review Symposium was held on the 14th February, 2009. It was chaired by Mr. K.P. Pathak, Additional Solicitor General of India and was addressed by several eminent persons which included Mr. A.K. Samanta, former D.G.P., West Bengal, Mr. Oishik Sircar, Human Rights Scholar and Mr. Shameek Sen, Lecturer, NUJS. The symposium also hosted presentation of papers by several students of the University and saw keen participation by the faculty members. There also plans to expand the Symposium and rope in greater participation starting next year.

NUJS eJurix Legal Essay Competition UPDATE

2009-02-11T10:20:00.000-08:00

Dear Participants,

We extend the deadline for submisions for the Competition by one week. Your soft copies must therefore, reach us by the 24th of Feb. and hard copies by the 27th.

For all those still having technical problems with the E Jurix passwords, please use them on Internet Explorer from version 5.5 onwards. The EJurix team has assured us that the passwords are working fine at their end, but will look into the matter further in case you still have problems.

For all those who still havent received an EJurix ID and password, this is to assure you that we have forwarded your names and email ID's to the EJurix team and they will come back to us with IDs and passwords, which we shall forward to you as soon as we get them. In the meantime, please feel free to begin independent research on the topics.

Please do not hesitate to get back to us with any queries if required at nujs.writersblock@gmail.com

The complete list of Rules and Regulations may be downloaded here.

Kindly note that the last date for submitting the soft copy is 24th February 2009 and for the hard copy is 27th February 2009.

All participants shall receive a free eJurix account to be used for research purposes.

For your free ejurix a/c send in an e-mail to nujs.writersblock@gmail.com with your name and contact details.

Corporate Law Lectures

2009-01-07T18:08:00.000-08:00

NUJS was recently witness to a series of lectures entitled ‘Corporate Law – Principles to Practice’ by Mr. Edward Walker-Arnott. Mr. Walker-Arnott, currently a consultant at Herbert Smith LLP, and formerly a Senior Partner (1992-2000), is widely acknowledged to be an expert in the realm of contemporary commercial law and usage. Additionally, having been a supervisor of company law at Trinity College and a Visiting Professor at University College, London, he is no stranger to academia either.

At NUJS, we were fortunate to have a total of seven sessions, which attempted to encompass almost all of the major strands of corporate law; ranging from corporate governance to share capital, insolvency issues or investor protection stratagems. Mr. Walker-Arnott, in addition to dealing with the provisions of law in India and UK, or theoretical concepts associated therewith, also frequently took anecdotal recourse to his own rich reserve of professional experiences in order to further elucidate a point. It can only be hoped, at the end of this lecture series, that students at NUJS have come alive to the variegated workings of the world of corporate law, where most of us might be striving to carve out a name for ourselves in the days to come.

Shekhar Sumit (Class of 2009)

New Attendance Rule

2009-01-06T16:33:00.000-08:00

The old system, whereby up to five marks out of a hundred in any subject were awarded on the basis of the number of classes a student attended in a semester, has been scrapped with effect from the current semester. For the present, the five marks in question will be added to the grand total in the end semester written examinations. From the next semester onwards, so we are told, five marks will instead be set aside for class participation. Proformas shall no longer be accepted either. However, the rule that a student must have a minimum of 66% attendance to be eligible to write their test is still in force.

According to the Vice-Chancellor, the logic behind the move was that quality classroom teaching and not marks should the incentive for students to attend class; students will soon realize that if they do not attend class, their understanding of a subject will be hampered and their academic performance will anyway suffer. Other supporters hail the decision because they believe it will address a patently unfair situation which existed under the earlier rules: some students having access to committee proformas which they have been known to use for illegitimate purposes.

While this move was hailed by some as the best New Year’s gift they ever received, others among the faculty and students were heard sounding a more skeptical note. They predicted that with no incentive to come for class, attendance will drop drastically and academic development will suffer. Is this cynicism justified? Only time (and attendance registers) will tell.

The Freedom of Speech in Source Codes and Conferences

2008-12-30T22:54:00.000-08:00

Richard Stallman was in Kolkata recently. He made the inaugural speech at a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) conference held in Science City. Some of you may know Richard Stallman; he’s the man behind the GNU GPL (GNU’s Not Unix, General Public License) free software license. Free software is a big deal for some people, programmers, I.T. professionals, companies that deal in I.T. solutions and distributions.

He began a movement that declared that the source code behind the program be made free, too, for the User to manipulate and play around with the program and distribute it. For him, as a programmer at MIT, it was imprisonment and simply against our fundamental Right to Freedom to contract with and be bound by the terms of Click-wrap contracts and the like that some software licenses (Read: Microsoft™) abound in.

So at the FOSS conference, Richard Stallman came onto the stage and told us that there was no such thing as ‘Free and Open Source’. It was the Free Software Movement (FSM) that he spoke for, and he shed light on a past episode with Linus Torvalds that led to the branching of the FSM into the FSM & Open Source Software Movement that has given us Linux. His speech went on to describe the advantages of adopting Free Software and discussed its many merits, at the same time dismissing Microsoft™ as a dictatorship and the U.S. Government as a terrorist organisation. He said that there were four basic freedoms associated with the Free Software Movement: 0) to run the program as you wish; 1) to make changes to the code and run the program; 2) to be able to pass on the software to your friends; 3) to be able to pass on the altered or customized code to your friends. “Free as in mukhto,” he said.

The second day witnessed a lot of new inputs on the subject and its applicability in businesses, e-governance and the legal aspects of it. The IPR Chair of our University, Prof. Shamnad Basheer was there to make a presentation on the legal aspects of FOSS (“(de)coding the Law”) in the course of which he made some use of the phrases ‘Intellectual Property’ and ‘Intellectual Property Rights’. Naturally, you would say. But St. Ignucius here took serious umbrage to it, booing during the presentation, accusing our Professor of resorting to their terminology and thus persuaded by their beliefs and denied the existence of notions like Intellectual Property at all. And fireworks followed, and we all watched, and clapped, of course.

But the audience was mostly unresponsive on both days, and was only mildly discomforted each time the firebrand speaker (with the big belly and the flaming, open hair like a has-been rockstar) came onto the stage to make his point.

The conference was quite well organized, with a comprehensive kit for every participant, and lunch and tea and snacks served on both days. Also, the range of related subjects that were touched upon along with FOSS was impressive, like FOSS and Sustainable Development, FOSS and Information Technology, FOSS and businesses. Anyone interested enough in the topics would have learnt quite a bit.

K. C. Basu Endowment Lecture

2008-12-23T10:35:00.000-08:00

The K. C. Basu Endowment Lecture is an annual lecture instituted by Dr. Kaushik Basu, Professor of Economics, Cornell University in his father’s name. The lecture is hosted by NUJS. The event has been graced in the past by stalwarts like Amartya Sen, Pranab Bardhan, N. R. Narayana Murthy and Joe Stiglitz. This year was no exception, with Lord Professor Meghnad Desai delivering a lecture on “Rule of Law and Indian Democracy”.

Addressing a moderately large gathering at the Science City Mini Auditorium on 23rd December 2008, Lord Desai deconstructed the fictional syncretic narrative on which many political theorists have sought to base post-independence Indian political identity. He said that the failure of this fiction is evident from the fact that so many of us today are “hyphenated Indians”, having a regional, caste-based or religious identity which competes with our national identity. The solution, he opined, is to construct a new identity based on the legal and constitutional fact that India is a unified political entity. Respect for the rule of law and the democratic ideal would reduce fragmentation. Individual identity, as opposed to group identity, would be given precedence, and individual rights and liberties would be better safeguarded.

At the end of the one hour-long lecture, there was a brief but thought-provoking question-answer session moderated by the Guest of Honour, State Finance Minister Mr. Ashim Das Gupta. The session closed with a vote of thanks from the Registrar, and the welcome announcement that light refreshments would be served outside to members of the audience.

NLS – NFCG corporate governance moot

2008-12-16T22:58:00.000-08:00

After a series of delays and confusion, the team for the NLS Corporate Law moot (Prateek Datta, Rohan Sahai and Mayur Bhandari) was finally formed on 10th November 2008, which incidentally was also the last date of registration for the moot! In the two weeks we had for preparing the memo, it was only in the last week that we to move beyond the realms of ‘materiality’ and ‘independence of directors’ to the actual legal issues involved!

Then the action shifted to Bangalore. From a particular ‘all girl’ team expressing sarcasm and wonder at every stage of our progress, to a team randomly asking Rohan at the Xerox shop for a copy of one of the cases we had used, the two days were full of surprises for us. The most pleasant surprise of all, of course, was winning the moot after a tense final round. Cheers to Corporate Governance (moot!)

-Mayur Bhandari (Class of 2011)

SILP Movie Screening

2008-12-11T10:26:00.000-08:00

The Society of International Law and Politics organised a movie screening on 11th December 2008 to commemorate World Human Rights Day on 10th December. A documentary purportedly on state sponsored terrorism, “Terror Storm” was screened in Room 006. However, the documentary turned out to be more of a conspiracy theory, holding the US, UK and Israeli governments responsible for all acts of terror occurring in the world over the past half century. The Bush and Blair administration were singled out for special mention for their role in 9/11 and the London bombings. While red-faced directors rued their mistake in screening a film without watching it first, the audience of mostly First Year students seemed to enjoy the more radical of the conspiracy theories being propounded by the maker of the documentary.

NUJS-Herbert Smith Corporate Law Moot Court Competition

2008-12-07T01:38:00.000-08:00

The first NUJS-Herbert Smith National Corporate Law Moot Court Competition was organised by the NUJS Moot Court Society in early December this year. The competition, sponsored by London-based firm Herbert Smith LLP, saw participation from twelve premier law schools from across the country. The moot problem revolved around the legality of derivative contracts in the wake of a hypothetical RBI Circular—an issue of great current relevance.

The competition was inaugurated on 5^th December. The preliminary rounds and the quarterfinals were held the following day, while the semis and finals were held on 7^th December. Several luminaries from the legal world, including High Court judges, practising advocates and partners of law firms consented to judge the speaking rounds.

NALSAR, Hyderabad and GLC, Mumbai met in the finals, where NALSAR emerged victorious. NLU, Jodhpur won best memo, and Parnika Chaturvedi from NLU was awarded Best Speaker. Mr. Balai Chandra Roy, Advocate General, West Bengal was the chief guest for the finals, which were held in Vidyut Bhavan, Karunamoyee. Ironically for a corporate law-related moot sponsored by a corporate law firm, the Chief Guest in his valedictory speech emphasised the importance of graduates from national law universities joining the Bar instead of being lured into the corporate world.

After three hectic days, the organisers, volunteers and participants got a chance to unwind at the after-moot party held at the Nicco Super Bowl. NUJS has always been a force to reckon with in the field of mooting, but the efficient way in which the NUJS-Herbert Smith Moot was conducted will no doubt add to the prestige of the college.

Moot Corpus Fund

2008-12-01T02:45:00.000-08:00

The days of penurious mooters are over. No longer may they be seen tearing their hair and gnashing their teeth at the sight of flight charges and registration fees or compiling Indian GDP stats in order to apply for Rego-waivers from tournament organizers. In a landmark move, the University has decided to allocate the surplus funds from the CLAT registration fees to fund ALL mooting competitions which it participates in. For subsequent years, these funds shall be placed in a special Moot Corpus, whose interest shall be utilized to fund future competitions. From Manfred Lachs to MP Law, all Moot teams have been heard to whoop and yell in joy at this move, and veterans have been seen to shake their heads in disbelief and wonder why this had not been their comeback year.

IPTLS Career Workshop

2008-11-28T02:20:00.000-08:00

At a time where AMSS is planning to downsize, becoming a lawyer with a leading IP firm or an IP policy maker seems to be far more exciting. All this and much more was shared by IP expert Prof. Shamnad Basheer, who is currently IPR chair at the University, in a talk on career options in Intellectual Property Laws. The talk, which witnessed an unprecedented turnout, was organized by the Intellectual Property and Technology Laws Society (IPTLS) on 28^th November.

In an extremely informal yet informative session, Prof. Basheer enlightened us about the myriad opportunities that lay ahead of us in this exciting field. Starting off on a humorous note, Prof. Basheer delved into the various forms of legal work in the field of IP. What could otherwise have been a boring session was considerably enlivened by Prof. Basheer’s many interesting titbits about the legal industry and practice.

Responding to queries, Prof. Basheer emphasized on a J.D instead of an L.LM especially in the field of IP and if working in the U.S. is on your priority list. He also cautioned the students about choosing foreign universities carefully, taking into consideration both general and specific field rankings. Prof. Basheer ended the session asking the students to follow their passions and assured them that the perks would follow automatically.

Workshop on Banning of Exit Polls

2008-11-27T01:53:00.000-08:00

The Constitutional Law Society organized a workshop on ‘Banning of Exit Polls: An Attack on Freedom of Speech?’ The workshop was held in Room 006 on 27^th November 2008. Members of the faculty and students had an intense and extremely informative discussion over the various issues concerning the topic viz. accountability, credibility, the actual informative content of exit polls, the staggered form of elections and their possible impact upon the Indian voter. The legal aspect of the discussion revolved around reconciling the right to information, the right to freedom of free speech and expression and the right to free and fair elections.

Legal Aid Street Plays

2008-11-25T01:28:00.000-08:00

The Legal Aid Society organized three Street Plays to raise awareness about important issues. The play staged at Parinati (a city based NGO) highlighted aspects relating to disability while two other plays staged at Chandanagore and Machlandpur dealt with women’s rights. Minor inconveniences like a bust diesel tank on the crew bus failed to deter our intrepid thespians as they wooed the crowd with their consummate art. The plays were also notable for the presence of two LLM students, and several non-Bengali speaking (as well as non-Bengali-understanding) students who managed to deliver their lines in flawless Bong.

Parivarik Mahila Lok Adalat at NUJS

2008-11-07T18:42:00.000-08:00

The concept of Parivarik Mahila Lok Adalat (PMLA) has been evolved by the National Commission for Women (NCW) to supplement the efforts of the District Legal Service Authority for redressal and speedy disposal of matters pending in various courts related to marriage and family affairs. Other advantages of the PMLA are that it is cheaper, it helps encourage the public to settle their disputes outside the formal set-up, it empowers the public (especially women) to participate in the justice delivery mechanism, and ideally, cases are amicably settled by the parties in a harmonious atmosphere. Interestingly, an award of the Lok Adalat has the same force as a decree by a Court of Law.

NUJS was the venue for a recent session of the PMLA, held on 7^th November 2008. This was actually the second time that NUJS hosted the PMLA, the first being way back in 2003. The event was efficiently and enthusiastically conducted by the Legal Aid Society, NUJS.

But NUJS students’ involvement was not restricted only to the event itself: research assistants from the University assisted in preparing brief case histories. In the weeks leading up to the event, they compiled files consisting of applications, relevant facts, findings of the Commission, etc., and in some cases even suggested remedies.

On the day of the event, proceedings commenced with a protracted inauguration session. Justice (Retd.) Ruma Pal, Malini Bhattacharya (Chairperson, NCW), and Prof. M.P. Singh (Vice-Chancellor, NUJS) were the guests of honour. They discussed the role of the NCW and praised PMLA as an effective and desirable way of settling disputes.

The proceedings themselves were fraught with interest. Retired trial court judges, NCW members and social activists sat in as judges in the four “courtrooms”. The cases scheduled for the day were mostly related to maintenance and Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code. There was also the occasional mutual consent divorce case up for hearing. One unusual case involved a daughter who was filing a case against her parents for discriminatory treatment as against her brother.

The informal and amicable nature of proceedings was highlighted when, in a particular dispute, one party had an advocate who tried to plead the case, but the judges disapproved. They observed that PMLA was meant to be simple informal, not fraught with legal technicality.

In another case related to maintenance, the husband had initially said he could give no maintenance because he was unemployed, and later agreed to a figure of only Rs. 300. Judges, naturally dissatisfied with the paltry amount, were about to record a finding of non-disposal of the case, when at the very last moment the husband agreed to a figure of Rs. 1000. The case thus ended happily for all concerned.

There were even some lighter moments, such as when a certain Judge spilled tea over an order sheet.

The delegates from NCW professed themselves by and large satisfied with the arrangements and expressed their gratitude to the college for providing the venue. At the end of the day, pretty much everyone went home happy, except possibly some of the volunteers from college who did not get non vegetarian food packets. But then, nothing ever works out perfectly.

(With inputs from Shayonee Dasgupta)

Mock US Parliamentary Debate at USIS

2008-10-31T01:17:00.000-07:00

An American diplomat wished everybody a happy Halloween through his false specs and nose, kick starting what was to be a fun filled evening at the American Library, as students from various Kolkata colleges (Jadavpur University, Calcutta International Academy, City College and NUJS) participated in a mock US Presidential debate on 31^st October 2008.

People felt that the “McCain-guy” looked more like Obama and vice-versa...Each began with lines of the actual first Presidential debate. McCain talked about Democrats and Republicans coming to sit together and decide the future of the country. Obama stressed on how they needed change from the last eight years of the Bush rule. The first five minutes felt like one was watching a quick replay of the three presidential debate rounds. Once they had to start fielding the panellists’ questions though, things finally spiced up. The questions ranged from terrorism and Iraq to the recession, tax cuts and questions on finance policies. Some questions also came from obscure corners such as what would Obama’s policy be on the extraction of Shale oil and what was McCain’s stand on a woman’s reproductive choice. Policy towards China was questioned, and issues of illegal immigration, nuclear power and racial discrimination were also discussed. As one panellist from Jadavpur University said, in indignation at “McCain” having corrected her facts, “The panellists have done their homework.”

In all fairness, the two contestants knew their statistics excellently well and knew perfectly the real senators’ stands on all issues broached. Both the “candidates” were quick on their feet and there were enough jibes from Obama to McCain in reference to his “failing memory” to keep the interest running. Obama kept going out of order by interrupting McCain’s speech, which was fun to watch (not the speech: the interruptions) and they drove the moderator to slip them a slip requesting them to not speak out of turn…

Amongst other things, it was funny when McCain spoke of the “abortion of women,” and also how badly he felt about the war in Iraq. “I was in the army. So were my fathers and grandfathers…”

“Obama” won the mock debate by 42 to 22 votes.

Some things are just fore-ordained.