The Law and Society Committee NLSIU in collaboration with the Oxford Human Rights Hub invite you to be part of a virtual policy consultation on the draft National Policy for Persons with Disabilities this Friday, July 1, 2022 from 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM (IST). We invite Persons with Disabilities, civil society organizations, disability activists, academicians, advocates, and other allies to be part of this discussion, being held via Zoom.
Background: The existing National Policy for Persons with Disabilities was drafted in 2006. It covers several aspects including disability prevention, healthcare, education, accessibility amongst others. However, the policy is now dated as several developments have taken place. These include India’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2006, enactment of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act in 2016, and the adoption of National Education Policy in 2020. Pursuant to these developments, a committee headed by Anjali Bhawra, Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, was set up to draft a new draft policy for Persons with Disabilities. The Ministry has invited feedback and comments on the draft policy until July 9, 2022. In view of this, we are organising the virtual policy consultation on the draft policy. The discussion will be moderated by Mr. Rahul Bajaj, Senior Resident Fellow, Vidhi Center for Legal Policy.
Concept Note: Please find the Concept Note attached here.
In support of framing effective inputs, the Center for Inclusive Policy has very kindly provided a video. To view the video, please click here: Policy Analysis By Center for Inclusive Policy
How do I join?
To join the consultation, please click on this Zoom link
Meeting ID: 939 0553 4269
Passcode: 281032
We look forward to your participation in the virtual consultation.
Please find below the instruction for candidates appearing for NLU-Delhi’s All India Law Entrance Test (AILET) at the NLSIU Test Centre:
- Candidates must enter the NLSIU campus through Gate 1.
- Entry and exit for vehicles at Gate 4.
- Parking facility for vehicles is available in the football ground. Entry (at Gate No. 4) for parents/guardians of candidates shall be limited to the football ground.
- Candidates must show their Hall Ticket /Admit Card to enter the Test Centre.
- Candidate’s temperature will be checked at Gate 1.
- Candidate’s Admit card and Photo ID proof will be verified at the verification desk.
- There will be separate queues for UG & PG candidates. Candidates are requested to follow the queue and the markings outside the gate.
- Candidates must wear a mask and maintain social distance between each other.
How to get to NLSIU?
If you need help in reaching our campus, please click here.
Professor Abdul Aziz, Chair Professor, Religious Minorities, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru will be delivering the Ninth Golden Jubilee Lecture organised by the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru. The lecture titled “Inclusive Development of Minorities in Karnataka” will be delivered online on Thursday, June 23, 2022, between 3.30 PM and 5 PM (IST).
How do I join?
Please use the following web-link to join the lecture:
Zoom link
Meeting ID: 874 8288 5508
Passcode: 931118
Welcome to CLAT 2022!
The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a national level entrance exam for admissions to undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) law programmes offered by 22 National Law Universities around the country. CLAT is organized by the Consortium of National Law Universities consisting of the representative universities.
General Instructions
- CLAT 2022 examination will be held on June 19, 2022 (2:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M). The duration of the test is two hours.
- Candidates shall be allowed to leave the Test Centre only after the test is over.
- Candidates shall not be permitted to enter into the examination hall after 2:15 P.M.
Candidates appearing for the examination are requested to go through the CLAT 2022 instructions to candidates. For candidates writing at NLSIU and Dr. Ambedkar Institute of Technology, please also refer to the “special alert” mentioned below.
Instructions to candidates writing at NLSIU
- Candidates must enter the NLSIU campus through Gate 1.
- Entry and Exit for vehicles at Gate 4.
- Parking facility for vehicles is available in the football ground. Entry (at Gate No. 4) for parents/guardians of candidates shall be limited to the football ground.
- Candidates must show their Hall Ticket /Admit Card to enter the Test Centre.
- To download your Admit Card, click here.
- Candidate’s temperature will be checked at Gate 1.
- Candidate’s Admit card and Photo ID proof will be verified at the verification desk.
- There will be separate queues for UG & PG candidates. Candidates are requested to follow the queue and the markings outside the gate.
- Candidates must wear a mask and maintain social distance between each other.
How to get to NLSIU?
If you need help in reaching our campus, please click here.
Special Alert for Candidates Appearing at the NLSIU Campus
Due to restrictions imposed by the Police in relation to security drills ahead of the planned visit of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi to an adjacent institution, all candidates appearing for the CLAT 2022 Entrance Examination at the NLSIU Bengaluru Campus Test Centre are hereby informed that:
- Candidates must report to the NLSIU Campus by 12:30 PM on June 19, 2022
- All candidates shall be required to enter the campus by 1300 hours (1 PM)
- No candidate or their parents/guardians shall be allowed by the traffic police on the Jnana Bharathi Road, abutting the NLSIU campus, between 1300 hours and 1730 hours (1 PM and 5.30 PM)
- Therefore, all candidates and parents shall be required to stay inside the NLSIU campus after the conclusion of the CLAT examination until 1730 hours (5.30 PM)
- Candidates shall be required to proceed after the conclusion of the CLAT examination to the University football ground where seating arrangements shall be provided to them. They can leave the campus once the police restores access to the Jnana Bharathi Road
- Parents/guardians and Candidates are requested to plan their travel accordingly
Special Alert for Candidates Appearing at the Dr. Ambedkar Institute of Technology
Due to restrictions imposed by the Police in relation to security drills ahead of planned visit of the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi to an adjacent institution, all candidates appearing in the CLAT 2022 Entrance Examination at the Dr, Ambedkar Institute of Technology Test Centre are requested to report to the Test Centre by 1230 hours (12.30 PM).
Seating Arrangements
To know the seating arrangement according to your Roll Number, please refer to the links of the seating chart provided for the test centres below:
For other details on CLAT, please visit https://consortiumofnlus.ac.in/
Speaker:
Mr. Kunal Ambasta, Assistant Professor of Law, NLSIU
Abstract:
The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 was one of the first attempts at reducing the law of evidence to a set of clear and comprehensive provisions, which could be easily employed, and prove equal to the demands of administration of justice in a region far removed from the circumstances of the United Kingdom. At the same time, it also represented a significant moment for the experiment of codification to be carried forward, after the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
This paper argues that in his attempt to craft a code of evidence for India, Sir James Fitzjames Stephen also brought into effect his conceptions of the fundamental principles of the law of evidence, which were at variance with how the common law on the subject had developed, and was arranged. This resulted in a novel method of looking at the subject, and shows forth in his code as well as in his writings on the subject. His principal aim was to arrive at a better system of evidence law for the UK itself, one which would solve the persistent confusions around subjects such as hearsay.
The present paper argues that the Indian Evidence Act was, however, neither interpreted nor understood in the manner that Stephen had intended for it, and instead, common law rules of evidence law were reintroduced into the Act through judicial application, and scholarly evaluation of its schema. The result was that a potentially astute method of trying to solve some of the most persistent problems of the law of proof was completely lost, and remains hidden to this day. Twentieth century codification efforts across the USA and the UK have similarly not considered the Indian Evidence Act as a plausible model for law reform. This is unfortunate, since most of these “modern” statutes could have been designed better with the principled clarity that we find in the Indian Act. This paper argues that Stephen’s work may still serve as a guide to the reform of evidence law, if it is appreciated in its own light, and without the common law tinted glasses that we have always looked at it through.
This faculty seminar is being held on May 11, 2022 at 4.30 PM.
Speaker
Dr. Nanda Kishore, Visiting Faculty, NLSIU
Abstract
The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, is often commended as a piece of legislation that is the embodiment of everything that is good and great. The Code is said to enshrine a rigorous system of procedural techniques that ensure fair play, the right to be heard, transparency, the search for the Truth, the balancing of economic interests, adversarial due process and other goals that the civil justice system supposedly serves. However, given the huge backlog of cases and the inexcusable delays of the civil justice system over the decades, law-makers and judges have frequently explored other ways of resolving civil disputes – ways that might be shorter, simpler, faster and more effective. In this paper I try to study how successful these alternative methods have been- by looking in particular at one area of law: the evolution of the legal regime relating to consumer disputes in India. I argue that in spite of the rhetoric about alternative procedural techniques, a great deal of work is yet to be done if we are to really move away from the detailed procedures contained in the good old CPC, 1908.
This faculty seminar is being held on April 27, 2022 at 4.30 PM.
Speaker:
Ms. Rashmi Venkatesan, Assistant Professor of Law, NLSIU
Abstract:
Property Rights are contentious in any jurisdiction. But the right to property in India, adopted as a fundamental right in Article 31 of the Constitution of the India, 1950 (“Article”), has had a particularly tumultuous legal and political history. It holds the distinction of being the second most debated Article in the Constituent Assembly, the most amended provision of the Constitution and the only fundamental right to ever be deleted. The history of the Article is commonly understood as arising from an ideological institutional conflict between a Parliament in pursuit of socialism and a judiciary safeguarding individual freedoms. However, looking at the Article and its initial amendments from a “law and development” perspective provides a critique of the current narrative of “conflict” and offers an alternative interpretation of the history of Article 31. The paper argues that rather than arising from the pursuit of either authoritarian socialist planning or an egalitarian social revolution, the travails of the Article came in the context of India’s quest for economic modernity through a process of “passive revolution”. The powers of eminent domain reinforced in the Article empowered the state to modernise economic relations in industry and agriculture by restructuring a semi-feudal pre-capitalist property rights regime established during colonialism along productive capitalist lines. In this process, the Article helped to consolidate the powers of the developmental state in the domain of economic policy; forged the relationship between state, market and the individual; and helped shape the regime of private property rights in India. Understanding the evolution of the fundamental right to property in India therefore, not only tells a key part of India’s development story but also contributes to the “law and development” literature by assimilating diverse historical experiences within its framework, which, as critics have long argued, tends to have a strong Eurocentric bias.
NLSIU invites you to the Public Lecture on “The Indian Jail Committee 1919-20 and International Penology: Too advanced, too American, too expensive?” on Thursday, April 28, 2022.
Speaker:
Radhika Singha,
Professor (Retired), Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Her research interests focus on the social history of crime and criminal law, identification practices, especially in relation to colonial governmentality, borders and border–crossing in South Asia. The mobilisation of human, fiscal and material resources from India for World War one became an intersecting research theme. She is now working on ‘foreign’ as a category of governmentality in colonial India and the emergence of an archive of ‘foreignness’. On another research track she she is also exploring the engagement between the colonial penal regime and international penology.
Abstract:
The Indian Jail Committee report of 1919-20 is often cast as the turning point when reform and rehabilitation were added to deterrence in penal policy. This tribute is followed by the admission that very little changed on the ground. Why after all did a cash-strapped, politically- besieged regime sponsor a globe-trotting study- tour of jails and reformatories ? Why did this committee return to enthuse about ‘flexible or indeterminate sentencing’, a penal principle embraced in the USA, but faltering in Britain. One argument is that to push through its post-war constitutional package the colonial regime had to show it was responsive to criticism about the harsh treatment of ‘seditionist’ prisoners. But references to political prisoners are very minimal in its report. Instead there was an effort to change the conversation. The committee’s proposals centred on the idea that criminal and vagrant populations made productive at sites of confinement , such as jails, reformatories and ‘criminal tribe settlements’ were ready for re-integration to society. Far from undermining private enterprise, this design for raising productivity, would check recidivism and benefit a nation on the verge of industrialisation and the tax payer. The report became a reference point for assessing India’s advance towards a ‘scientific penology’ because restrictions on liberty seemed to serve agendas of national economic and social reconstruction. Yet its proposals were also constantly brushed aside for being ‘too advanced’, ‘too American’ and above all too expensive.
Speaker
Prof. Dev Gangjee, University of Oxford
Abstract
Data is increasingly recognised as one of the most valuable resources of the 21st century. Its value derives from its use in machine learning algorithms, a form of artificial intelligence that finds useful patterns within data and learns from experience. This ever-increasing value has led to data being characterised as an asset. Property rights are a tried and tested legal response when it comes to regulating valuable assets. Do we therefore need a new intellectual property right for data?
This chapter argues that we do not. It charts the rapid rise and recent demise of the EU data producer’s right (DPR). The DPR was proposed in 2017, to incentivise the creation, dissemination, and commercial utilisation of machine-generated data. Today it leaves a fading policy footprint in the EU, having succumbed to the compelling arguments ranged against it. However, a right of this nature continues to be debated in international policy discussions. After introducing data as a valuable resource (Section 2), the first contribution of this chapter is to analyse why the proposed DPR was unsuccessful, as a cautionary tale for others contemplating a similar model (Section 3). This obituary emphasises why data remains such a challenging res for intellectually property (IP) law. Its second contribution is to suggest that the EU is developing an alternative framework to private property, as a resource management model for data (Section 4). While the emerging approach prioritises data access rights, this emphasis does not go far enough. There are valuable lessons to be learned from constructed commons models, as an alternative regulatory approach to private property.
This faculty seminar is on April 06, 2022 at 4.30 PM.
Speaker
Ms. Rashmi Venkatesan, Assistant Professor of Law, NLSIU
Abstract
Property Rights are contentious in any jurisdiction. But the right to property in India, adopted as a fundamental right in Article 31 of the Constitution of the India, 1950 (“Article”), has had a particularly tumultuous legal and political history. It holds the distinction of being the second most debated Article in the Constituent Assembly, the most amended provision of the Constitution and the only fundamental right to ever be deleted. The history of the Article is commonly understood as arising from an ideological institutional conflict between a Parliament in pursuit of socialism and a judiciary safeguarding individual freedoms. However, looking at the Article and its initial amendments from a “law and development” perspective provides a critique of the current narrative of “conflict” and offers an alternative interpretation of the history of Article 31. The paper argues that rather than arising from the pursuit of either authoritarian socialist planning or an egalitarian social revolution, the travails of the Article came in the context of India’s quest for economic modernity through a process of “passive revolution”. The powers of eminent domain reinforced in the Article empowered the state to modernise economic relations in industry and agriculture by restructuring a semi-feudal pre-capitalist property rights regime established during colonialism along productive capitalist lines. In this process, the Article helped to consolidate the powers of the developmental state in the domain of economic policy; forged the relationship between state, market and the individual; and helped shape the regime of private property rights in India. Understanding the evolution of the fundamental right to property in India therefore, not only tells a key part of India’s development story but also contributes to the “law and development” literature by assimilating diverse historical experiences within its framework, which, as critics have long argued, tends to have a strong Eurocentric bias.
