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Screening of JAI BHIM COMRADE

Do you cast your vote or vote your caste?

Over the past few decades, identity based politics have taken a centre stage in India.

Although a section of the society does realise that the voice of the marginalised must be heard, are those in power misusing their social apathy to their own benefit?

Any activist associated with representation of Dalits in India today has a myriad of issues to consider including resistance from various spheres and the adverse consequences of such a movement. The psuedo appreciation of Dalit Capitalism has been offset with the recent accquittal by the Bihar HC of those who massacred 23 Dalits for the 'lack of evidence'. The binaries of representation and invisibility have been undermined in an effort to understand the politics of representation. Strengthening a movement would require regular dissecting of these themes at a deeper level through cultural and social engagement. The demand of the movement of resistance has grown beyond mere claims on visibility. There are larger concerns around sustaining the movement and preventing polarisation of individuals at all levels.

 The screening of this movie and bringing together of some of the best known thinkers, activists and writers in this conference is an attempt to interrogate and draw the fault lines of contemporary Dalit politics in India. This seminar broadly focuses on the question of representation and resistance to cultural hegemony through carving of a political identity outside the mainstream politics, the highly charged debates around representation in media houses that have largely remained elitist, the genesis of Dalit Capitalism and the fate of Dalit movement in Karnataka. We hope to take off from the movie, which is an ode to a most brilliant Dalit poet of our times, Vilas Ghogre who died protesting the flagrant injustice meted out to the community in ‘modern’ India under the aegis of much cherished rule of law. The thoughts and the memories the movie would invoke in us provide the necessary missing links to the purely academic discourse on politics of marginalised identities that is to follow.

Movie Screening: 3Hrs 20 Minutes

Followed by a discussion with:

1. Anand Patwardhan

2. V S Sreedhara

3. Indhudhar Honnapur

Notifications

A. Events

1. Azim Premji University is holding its first international conference on law, governance and development at the TERI campus in Bangalore on May 18-19, on Indian Legal System Reform: Empirical Baselines and Normative Frameworks. 

2. Pratap Bhanu Mehta will be speaking on Rule of Law in a Developing Society at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Bangalore at 6.30 pm on Friday, May 18. Prior registration is necessary in order to attend.

3. Suchitra Film Society is celebrating Satyajit Ray with a month-long festival from May 5-27, including screenings of Ray's films every weekend during this period. For details, contact +91-80 26711785.

4. Goa University is organising a round-table discussion on Freedom of Expression and Privacy at their campus on June 2. For details, email Natasha Vaz.

5. The Alternative Law Forum is offering a two-day course, Commoning the Law, on the fundamentals of legal regulation of speech, on June 9-10. For details, contact Danish at +91-80-22868757 or send him an email.

B. Competitions and Calls for Papers

1. The Gujarat National Law University is holding the second GNLU - Y.J. Trivedi annual Intellectual Property Rights Essay Competition 2012. Submissions must be emailed to them by June 4. Participants also need to fill out the registration form. The best essays win cash prizes. For clarifications, contact Nisha Trivedi at +91-8128650868 or send her an email. 

2. Istanbul Kültür University is calling for papers for its International Conference on Rethinking International Law and Justice to be held in Turkey on 24-25 September. Abstracts in the prescribed form must be emailed to them by June 10.

3. The Law and Social Sciences Research Network is calling for papers for its third biennial conference to be held at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka, from December 14-16. Abstracts on any of the themes must be emailed to them by June 30.

SOCIO-LEGAL NOTES: OF RIGHTS AND EDUCATION

Padmini Baruah

Education, described as a basic human right under the Universal declaration of Human Rights, has, in recent times, become an important part of national policy. As the problems of development can, in the long term, only be tackled effectively by building up the human capital of a nation, it is imperative that every citizen of the country receive adequate free and universal education. It is with this broad objective in mind that the Constitution (86th Amendment) Act was passed in 2002, declaring free and compulsory Education as a fundamental right under Art. 21A.

In furtherance of the object of Art. 21A, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 was enacted by Parliament as an enabling legislation. In a recent judgement, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of this Act, and held that this act would apply to government schools, aided schools inclusive of aided minority schools, schools belonging to specified category, and unaided non-minority schools. However, the judgement excluded from its ambit unaided minority schools.

In keeping with its role in spreading awareness on current issues among the legal student community, the Law and Society Committee, NLSIU organised a talk on the issues arising out this judgement in association with the Centre for Child and the Law, NLSIU. This talk was led by Niranjanaradhya V.P. (Fellow and Programme Head, Universalisation of School Education at CCL) and Jayna Kothari (a partner in Ashira Law, Bangalore, who has worked on this case on behalf of the Azim Premji Foundation.)

This discussion brought to light several relevant issues pertaining to the substantive provisions of the Act as well as the prospective challenges of implementation. The prime cause of concern raised was that the Act, as it stands at present, completely excludes unaided minority schools from its purview. This gives rise to the potential problem of private schools claiming minority status on arbitrary grounds to escape their obligations under this Act. Numerous insights were offered on this issue by the guest speakers as well as the faculty members present, who clarified the position of the law in this regard. Accordingly, Article 29 and 30 of the Indian Constitution give substantial protection to the rights of the minority institutions, and any intervention in their administration would imply violation of fundamental rights. 

Another problem may be envisaged at the level of implementation, without challenges of corruption, evasion of responsibilities, and discrimination. While acknowledging that there are yet no institutional mechanisms in place for effective implementation, it was agreed upon that the State as well as non-State actors had a significant role to play in this regard.

All in all, the discussion successfully encapsulated the challenges that the implementation of the Right to Education Act continues to present. It was a highly educational experience which succeeded in sensitising and arousing the interest of all those present. It is hoped that this issue is actively taken up by the students of an institution with such social obligations as NLSIU so that a constructive way forward may be forged. 

***

 

The author is a I Year, B.A.LL.B (Hons.) student at NLSIU.

The Committee is pleased to announce that it is coordinating a research project with the Centre for Law and Policy Research and CCL to bring out a dossier on the Act.

Notifications

A. Events and Conferences

1.The Centre for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transport and Urban Planning at IISc, Bangalore will be organising a day-long seminar, 'Mobilicity 2012', on January 10, 2012.

2. The second Indian Student Parliament will be held in Pune from January 10-12, 2012. Participants must register in advance. Clarifications may be sought by calling +91-8888815421 or sending them an email.

3. Media Matters, in association with UNICEF, is organising a workshop on 'Exploring Participatory Theatre to Advocate for Rights & Entitlements of Children & Young People' from January 23-26, 2012. Applications for participation must be emailed to them by Saturday, December 31, 2011. 

4. The sixth edition of the World Water Forum will be held in Marseille, France, from March 12-17, 2012. The Water Youth Movement is sending a delegation to participate and invites applications to be submitted by January 15, 2012.

B. Competitions and Calls for Papers

1. The GNLU Centre for Food Security and Agro-Economy is inviting submissions for the first edition of its journal, themed on 'Interdisciplinary Perspectives for a Food Secure World'. Abstracts must be submitted by January 7, 2012. For details, contact Alok Nayak on +91 9924222640 or send him an email.

2. USAID in association with Devex is conducting an essay competition on specific themes in relation to food security and health. Submissions must be emailed to them by January 8, 2012.

3. The NLIU Law Review is inviting contributions for its fourth issue which is due to be published in April 2012. Submissions must be emailed to them by January 27, 2012.

Notifications

A. Events

1. Maraa is organising 'City of Pieces', a nine day urban festival that interrogates the violence of the everyday transformation of the city from the perspective of creative practice. The festival has a variety of very interesting activities and begins on Saturday, October 22. The full schedule, details of events and contacts are available here.

2. The Bangalore Mountaineering Club is organising a night trek to Makalidurga on Saturday, October 22. Details may be obtained on +91-9902027262.

3. Suchitra Cinema and Cultural Academy is organising a screening of 'WikiRebels', a film revolving around the life of Julian Assange and chronicling the history of WikiLeaks, at 11 am on Sunday, October 23. The screening will be followed by a discussion. For details contact Anand Varadaraj on +91-9845055034. 

4. The Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre is organising a wildlife conservation and awareness workshop on 'Urban lakes and bird life' on Sunday, October 23. For details, contact Rohit Agarawal on +91-9986304088 or send him an email. 

B. Conferences, Seminars and Calls for Papers

1. Registration is now open for WikiConference India 2011, organised by the Wikimedia India Chapter at Mumbai from November 18-20. For details, check the wiki or send them an email.

2. The association of Students for the Promotion of International Law at the Government Law College, Mumbai are organising the third GLC International Law Summit from February 3-5, 2012. Registration forms and paper proposals on the theme of the summit must be emailed to them by November 1, 2011.

3. The second Global Conference on Femininities & Masculinities is being held in Prague, Czech Republic, from May 3-5, 2012. Abstracts, related to any of the six themes of the conference, are required to be submitted by November 4, 2011. For further details, send an email to Rob Fisher.

4. The Amity Law School Delhi student journal invites submissions for the second issue of its first volume. Papers must be emailed by Saturday, November 5.

5. The Global Education Conference 2011 is being organised at the Acapulco Beach Club and Resort Hotel in Kyrenia, North Cyprus, from November 23-25. Abstracts must be submitted by Friday, November 11. For details, send an email to Aydın Kiper.

6. The National Law University, Delhi is organising a conference on banking law from December 2-4. Papers on the theme of 'Regulatory Infrastructure for Banking & Financial Stability and Inclusive Growth' must be emailed to them by Friday, November 18. For details, send an email to Risham Garg.

The second NLS Union Debate

In a bid to restore what they saw as growing ignorance of principled justifications to policy and falling civil society consciousness and engagement, and promote greater engagement between teachers, students, practitioners and the rest of the legal fraternity, the Law and Society Committee and the Literary & Debating Society of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore came together to organise the NLS Union Debates. The success of the first edition, debating the legitimacy of hunger strikes, featuring Justice Santosh Hegde and Prof. (Dr.) Hargopal, pre-empted many of the legitimacy concerns that were eventually associated with the Lokpal Movement and prompted the organizers to make the event a regular affair open to the public.

Modelled on the Oxford and Cambridge Union Debates, this form of parliamentary debating features three speakers on each team – an expert in the field, a faculty member, and a student of the National Law School. After six speeches, each lasting approximately ten minutes, the floor is thrown open for questions and comments from the audience, after which each team nominates one speaker to deliver the closing remarks for their side. The audience or the “members of the house”, as they are referred to, then vote to decide the outcome of the debate.

The motion for the second edition of the NLS Union Debate is that "Intelligence Agencies in India ought to be regulated by legislation”. In the recent past, the operations of intelligence agencies worldwide are being questioned on the grounds of violating fundamental rights under the official garb of 'higher considerations'. On the other hand, it may be possible to suggest that the public and their political representatives are not competent to understand and take decisions on some matters, especially terrorism and national security. This is made especially confusing as these agencies suggest the need for absolute secrecy for their operations.

This edition features as expert speakers Aditya Sondhi, a practicing advocate and NLSIU alumnus, who is appearing in a PIL before the Karnataka High Court, arguing that the lack thereof is unconstitutional, and in opposition, Dr. S.T. Ramesh, retired DG & IG, as well as former Assistant Director of the Intelligence Bureau in New Delhi. Faculty members Prof. S.V. Joga Rao and Sidharth Chauhan shall be their respective second speakers.

Jayadev Ranade, an expert on National Security and terrorism, who retired as Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat and one time top-ranking official at the Research and Analysis Wing, will deliver opening remarks.

The event will take place on Thursday, September 15, 2011. Opening remarks and clarifications will begin at 5 pm and after a short break around 6 pm, the debate will commence at 6:30 pm.

Date: September 15, 2011

Time: 5 pm

Venue: NLSIU Campus, Nagarbhavi, Bangalore

Picture of the Month: FREEDOM

We are back with our Picture of the Month for August. The theme for this month was FREEDOM. The word itself has various facets to it and we hope that with your entries we were be able to explore most of them! This month we had many interesting entries.

Winner:

Miss Mrinalini Shinde's A Bald Eagle in Captivity

Special Mention: 

Gagan K's Balloon, Identity and Freedom

Congratulations to the Winners ! Here are some of the other entries:

 

Gagan K's The Blast:

 

Gagan K's: Free-dumbs @ Gopalan: 

Mrinalini Shinde's "Dance, when you're broken open. 

Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. 

Dance in the middle of the fighting. 

Dance in your blood.

Dance when you're perfectly free."

— Rumi

Mrinalini Shinde's 

Sometimes, it's worth freeing yourself, 

cutting yourself open with barbed wire, 

if there's light on the other side.

Spandana Reddy's Where the mind is fearless

Rakesh Kumar Meena's Where the mind is without worries, 

And the head is on the desk, 

Where snoring comes out from the depth of the nose, 

In that dream - heaven,

 Let my FRIEND sleep like a child !(With apologies to Tagore):

Rakesh Kumar Meena's For the Love of Freedom:

Rakesh Kumar Meena's Freedom of Speech and 'text'pression:

Sachin Maurya's Freedom on the run:

Sachin Maurya's: Freedom with "precaution" take away a life... and can even give birth to a life!!:

Spandana Reddy's Rocks and Flowers:

Spandana Reddy's Free Spirit:

AWARENESS QUIZ 1: JAGO GRAHAK JAGO: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WMCLJD3

Dear Everyone,

As intimated before, here is Law Soc with it's first ever Awareness Quiz!!

We all have heard about the principle of Caveat Emptor and our all the time Favorite the Consumer Protection Act. But when it comes to the implementation of the above two, a lot of us knowingly or unknowingly fail to exercise our rights, for which the government has launched the campaign of 'Jago Grahak Jago.'

Trying to find out as to how successful this campaign has been within Law School, we decided to conduct an awareness quiz on Consumer Awareness with the help of Jagriti Singh and Janmali who have generated this quiz as a part of their Consumer Law Seminar Assignment. 

Please click on this link and fill this survey to help us collate information on Consumer Awareness in College: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WMCLJD3

(This is a compressed version of the quiz and hard copies of the same shall be distributed in the 11'o clock break tomorrow. We look forward towards an active participation on your part. 

Hope you will help us in creating equal awareness standards within campus.

Regards,

Law Soc

Picture of the Month Contest: I, ME, MYSELF

Law Soc kicks off its 'Picture of the Month' contest with the theme "I, Me, Myself". As individuals, we tend to view society and its problems as something abstract and external. Looking from the outside in on ourselves and our place in society can sometimes reveal tremendous things.

Thank you to all the participants for their enthusiasm and insight. Every photograph provided a new perspective on the theme. We hope that your response will continue to be as encouraging in the months to come.

1st Place: Ashwini Obulesh

"When you aim for the sky, it's seldom that the sun doesn't stare at you... that is when the sky stops being the limit, and you soar higher."





2nd Place: Adhiti Gupta

"Walk on."










3rd Place: Mansi Sood, Photographer - Paldron Tenzin

"A dream is all it takes"











Congratulations to the winners! Here are the other entries.



"Not a Care for the World"
 - Pratik Karki

"New Age Teacher?"
 - Pratik Karki

"Childhood Rains"
 - Pratik Karki

"A smile can light up even the darkest dungeons"
 - Mansi Sood
Photographer: Mrinalini Shinde

"What's life without a little fun?"
 - Mansi Sood
Photographer: Jahnavi Sindhu

"Neverending."
 - Adhiti Gupta

"Viewing beauty in formatted pixels; wondering how beauty sees itself?"
 - Ashwini Obulesh

"An inspiring love story"
 - Ashwini Obulesh

Notifications

A. Events


1. Smita Srinivas, Director of the Technological Change Lab (TCLab) at Columbia University in New York, will be delivering a public talk on 'Models of Innovation: Knowledge problems and problematic context' where she will discuss sector-specific urban technological innovations with their historical, political and regulatory context, at the Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore on Friday, July 29, between 6-8 pm. For details, contact +91-80-22868757.


2. The Wikimedia India Chapter is organising a seminar on Copyright and Open Licensing at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore on Saturday, July 30, between 5-8 pm. Speakers include Sudhir Krishnaswamy and Pranesh Prakash. For registration and other details, send an email to Gautam John.


3. Rafiki is performing 'The Memorandum', a satire play from Czechoslovakia, at Ranga Shankara on July 30-31 at 7 pm. For tickets and other details contact +91-9886334291.


B. Conferences, Seminars and Calls for Papers


1. The Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore and the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT), Ahmedabad are organising a research training and curriculum workshop on 'Locating Internets: Histories of the Internet(s) in India' at the CEPT University campus in Ahmedabad from August 20-22. Abstracts must be emailed in the prescribed format by July 26. Travel support will be provided for selected participants. For queries, contact +91-80-40926283. 


2. The International Consortium for Entrepreneurship Research is organising a conference on 'Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation' at IIM Bangalore from December 8-10. Abstracts must be submitted by July 31. For details, contact +91-80-26993701 or send them an email.


3. The Australian Lesbian & Gay Archives in association with the Gender, Sexuality and Diversity Program at La Trobe University is organising a conference titled 'After Homosexual: The Legacy of Gay Liberation' at Melbourne, Australia, from February 2-4, 2012. Abstracts must be submitted by August 5, 2011. For further details, send an email to Mark Pendleton.


4. The Womens' Studies Centre at ILS Law College, Pune, invites abstracts for their inaugural conference on 'Feminism and the Law' to be held from February 10-12, 2012. Abstracts must be emailed by August 15, 2011. For details contact +91-20-25656775.

Socio-Legal Review: Call for Contributions

The Socio-Legal Review, the annual journal published by the Committee, invites submissions by students and scholars. The journal has been listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals and has been uploaded on Westlaw and Heinonline. It was supported by the Modern Law Review for three years and entered into an agreement with SAGE in 2010, to sponsor the Annual SLR-Sage Essay Writing Competition.

The Journal subscribes to an expansive view on the interpretation of “law and society” thereby keeping its basic criteria for contributions simply that of high academic merit, as long as there is a perceivable link. This would include not just writing about the role played by law in social change, or the role played by social dynamics in the formulation and implementation of law, but also writing that simply takes cognizance of legal institutions/ institutions of governance/ administration, power structures in social commentary and so on. Through this effort, the journal also hopes to fill the lacunae relating to academic debate on socio-legal matters among law students.

The editors seek Articles (up to 8000 words), Short Articles (up to 5000 words), and Notes from the Field (shorter pieces designed to provide a glimpse into a new legal strategy, political initiative or advocacy technique applied in the field, a current problem or obstacle faced in, legal reform or development work, or a new issue that has not yet received much attention and needs to be brought to light) (up to 3000 words). Further details and author guidelines are available on the journal's website.
The deadline for submission for volume 8 (2012) is Nov. 15, 2011.

When Pictures Speak ('PICTURE OF THE MONTH' BY LAW SOC)

Hello everyone!

Law-Soc is back with a new edition of the last year’s photography contest!

We recognize the immense potential and talent in you as stunning photographers and therefore have come up with the ‘PICTURE OF THE MONTH’ for every month of each trimester. All you have to do is send us a picture that you feel is related to the ‘theme for the month’ with a caption of minimum 1 and maximum 100 words and we will make professional photographers select ‘the picture for the month’.

The end result of this exercise would be a compilation of the best pictures across the three trimesters either in an electronic journal or a photography journal (hard copy) that would be distributed in and outside college. The pictures would also constantly be put up on the Notice Board for Law Schoolites, faculty and staff to view, and uploaded on our blog: http://law-soc.blogspot.com and facebook profile: lawsoc.nlsiu@gmail.com, for outsiders to view them.

Well that’s not all! Finally we will hold a Photography Contest during the Univ Week where the best pictures would be awarded with a cash prize and a momento!!!

So if you are born a photographer, a picture freak or love your camera and photography in general, this is the best way you can contribute not only to Law School but also to the society at large!

The first theme for the Picture of the Week shall be out tomorrow.

We look forward to your active contribution!...Lets make pictures speak! J

Shweta

For Law Soc