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.