These teams made their presentation before an eminent panel of judges consisting of Hon’ble Mr. Justice S.L. Kocher Judge, High Court of Madhya Pradesh, Ms. Shobha Dubey, Member, District Consumer Forum, Indore and Dr. Ganesh Kawadiya, Dean, School of Economics, DAVV, Indore.

The oral presentation and more particularly the critical analysis round was a very thought provoking session in which the young law students discussed the pros and cons of each topic. The competition was organized with an intention to sensitize the society towards the urgent need for democratic reforms in the wake of certain recent events which have tainted the Indian democracy and due to a flawed process which has failed to incorporate the voice of underprivileged in the democratic governance.

After a successful completion of the competition, the judges assembled together to arrive at the difficult decision of choosing the first three winners. Results and prizes were to be declared and given in the evening session of the seminar.

Seminar

The evening session of the seminar began with the dignitaries being welcomed by Mr. Mahendra Kumar Bam, President, Icon educational society. Mr. Bam highlighted the objective of the society and expressed gratitude to the honoured guests for their participation. Mr. Bam also thanked Legal Assistance Forum for jointly organizing the seminar at Indore in association with Indore Institute of Law.

Messages received from Her Excellency Dr. Pratibha Devi Singh Patil, President of India, Hon’ble Mr. Hamid Ansari, Vice President of India and Hon’ble Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Chief Justice of India were read by Mr.Akshay Kanti Bam, Chairman, Indore Institute of Law; Mr. Jayant Sangwan, Member LAF; and Ms.Sneha Kalita, Executive Member, LAF respectively.

Mr.Vijay Hansaria, President, Legal Assistance Forum opened the seminar by enumerating the aims and objectives of the Forum and highlighting the activities undertaken so far. He thanked all the guests and particularly Hon’ble Justice R. V. Raveendran, Judge Supreme Court of India who had kindly consented to preside over the seminar. He also expressed his gratitude to Hon’ble Justice A. K. Patnaik, Chief Justice of the M.P. High Court who had agreed to participate in the seminar at a very short notice. Introducing the topic of the seminar Mr. Hansaria highlighted the need for participation from all sections of the society in the democratic governance and referred to the famous saying of Aristotle that “Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers”. He referred to a recent data published in the media shows that 25% of the MPs of the 14th Lok Sabha have criminal records which also shows that the voice of the under privileged hardly reaches the governance.

<< Page 1 .|. Page 3 >>