LAW CAMPUS UPDATES

NUJS releases Diversity Report

The West Bengal National University of Judicial Science (NUJS) has released the Diversity Report 2019. The report is a result of a year-long process conducted in NUJS across five batches of students. Rohit Sharma, a student from the batch of 2020 at NUJS, conceptualised the NUJS, Diversity Report. He writes in the report that “the report is an attempt at presenting the census data collected from the students of NUJS in a proper perspective which enables both institutional changes in the future and individual introspection in the immediate. The idea behind conducting the diversity census was to conduct a serious evaluation of both demographics of students at NUJS and their performance in academic and extra-curricular activities. In addition, information on peer behaviour and support systems would also enable better evaluation.”

The report is divided into three parts—

1) Demographics, which includes data on family, financial, linguistic background and admission category.

2) Performance of students at NUJS across academics, research publications and paper conferences; moots, debates, internships, placements and so on.

3) Life at NUJS studying peer to peer interactions, behaviour, support system and discrimination.

Writing the foreword for the report, Kalpana Kannibiran, professor and director at the Council for Social Development, Hyderabad, cites the importance of such a study and writes, “Events between Rohith Vemula’s protest in 2015 and the movement following his death in 2016 through the death of Payal Tadvi in 2019 till the continuing present in 2020, point to the urgency of addressing questions of pluralism and equality on campuses as the only way of building sustainable cultures of deliberative democracy in our contexts. It is against this backdrop that this study is extremely valuable and deeply instructive.”

Presenting an interesting perspective on diversity in the campus, the report presents some interesting data like, “26.7 percent of respondents identify as Brahmin—not just general category but this caste in the general category which is the largest chunk, because ‘Other Upper Castes’ together constitute close to 32 percent. Dalits and Adivasis together account for about 15.6 percent. However, the fact that within this, Adivasis are only around 5 percent is also a matter of concern especially when one correlates that with their low presence in extra-curricular work, the inaccessibility of effective peer support and ineffective mentorship to this cohort. Respondents identifying themselves as Atheists add up to 10.6 percent, not a small number, but it would be interesting to see how this cuts through caste identification: Is this number drawn from the 15.2 percent who have not reported caste membership, or are they distributed across caste categories?

Clearly from the data on parental income, those reporting lack of knowledge of caste (as distinct from unwillingness to identify self in caste terms) belong to the most affluent families.”

Sports fest at RGNUL

Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala (RGNUL) is organising the third edition of its flagship sports fest, Zelus III. Students can participate in a range of sports including tennis, badminton, basketball, athletics, table tennis, pool, snooker, chess, cricket, volleyball, and football. The sports fest will be held over March 5-8, 2020. Participants can win cash prizes up to Rs. 20,000.

3rd IMUNC at HNLU, Raipur

Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU) is hosting the fourth edition of its flagship event, the Inter-national Model United Nations Conference (IMUNC). The event will be held from February 28 to March 1, 2020. Through this event the university aims to inculcate debating skills and diplomacy in students. The IMUNC will have four committees modelled after the United Nations General Assembly, the United Nations Security Council, the United Nations Human Rights Council and the Lok Sabha. The students will discuss agenda like protection of global climate for present and future generations of humankind, the emerging conflict between the US & Iran and its Global Aftermath, the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people in Kashmir and so on.

The students winning best delegate, high commendation and special mention awards will win cash prizes worth, Rs 10,000, Rs 8,000 and Rs 6,000, respectively.

National Conference at NLUD

National Law University Delhi (NLUD) in collaboration with National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is organising a National Conference on Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013: Issues and Challenges. The conference will have discussion on the latest developments around the Act. The event is scheduled on February 29, 2020 from 10 am to 4 pm. To attend the conference, interested students must fill the form on the website.

Law fest at College of Law, Mumbai

Thakur Ramnarayan College of Law, Mumbai hosted a two-day law fest—Lex Communique. The fest provided a platform to the student community to communicate, deliberate and intermingle to nurture and showcase skills. The event included moot competitions for students, a mock parliament and an experience in client counselling. The law fest is organised annually to train students to analyse a problem, research the relevant law, prepare written submissions and present oral arguments thus further enhancing their reasoning ability.

  -compiled by Nupur Dogra