In its endeavour to carry the message of Legal Aid to the people who need it the most, the NUJS Legal Aid Society and the North Eastern Hill University’s (NEHU) Law Department jointly carried out a two-day programme (7th-8th April 2010) at NEHU Law Department, Shillong, aimed at creating awareness about Legal Aid and sensitizing the students and the faculty-members there, which would assist in the functioning of the newly established Legal Aid Clinic at NEHU.
The role of the NUJS Legal Aid Society was to bring to bear its almost decade long experience in conducting Legal Aid activities and thereby work towards making legal education more socially relevant. Representing the NUJS Legal Aid Society were Mr. Shameek Sen, the faculty advisor of the Legal Aid Society, and six student-members of the Society cutting across various years, namely, Pratik Datta, Convenor, (5th Year), Vaneesha Jain and Nishant Gokhale (4th year), Akash Jena, Treasurer, (3rd Year) and Pallavi Sharma and Amrita Sarkar (2nd Year).
Having recognized the critical role that NEHU plays in the provision and development of educational opportunities in the North-East, both NUJS and NEHU believe that the establishment of a Legal Aid Clinic at NEHU would be extremely helpful in addressing the concerns of the people of the North-Eastern region, some of whom are unable to afford access to the formal justice system.
Day One commenced with the inaugural ceremony, with the opening address being delivered by Prof. (Dr.) Chintamani Routh, Head of the Department of Law at NEHU and presided over by the Hon’ble Vice Chancellor of NEHU Prof. (Dr.) Pramod Tandon, as well as the Dean (Social Sciences) Prof. Nikhilesh Kumar who, with encouraging words, announced that the Legal Aid Clinic at NEHU was formally established. Following this, presentations were made by the NUJS delegation, discussing various issues ranging from the constitutional mandate and social necessity for access to free legal aid and the historical evolution of legal aid in India to the modalities of running a legal aid society such as the management of finances and enlisting volunteers for various programmes. Further, the NUJS experience of various activities taken up by the Legal Aid Society in and around West Bengal were discussed, such as legal counseling, awareness camps, street plays, and disaster-relief, with the hope that the ideas and learnings of NUJS may prove useful to the NEHU Legal Aid Society as and when they conduct similar activities. The first day’s programme concluded with an interactive session about issues which the newly-formed NEHU Legal Aid Clinic might consider taking up. One suggestion was to try and get some locally produced specialized commodities such as a unique kind of honey or turmeric protected as a Geographical Indicator. Other pointers included highlighting the need for research of tribal laws on succession as well as the need to develop various areas of law such as sports law in light of the increased interest which scouts were showing in the state after the success of the football club, Shillong Lajong. Considering that Meghalaya is an area covered under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, there are several special laws which apply there which need to be understood in greater detail and therefore, there was a brief discussion about the need for the newly formed Legal Aid Clinic to generate awareness about these laws in various parts of the State.
On Day Two, the objective was to forge a working relationship with several civil society groups, government agencies and other key persons working in the state of Meghalaya at the grass-roots level who would want to associate themselves with the newly-established Legal Aid Clinic. The participants were told about the significance of Legal Aid and some specific areas which they could work on were identified. This was followed by an informal discussion with some of these organizations as well as interested students from the Law Department on a host of issues and specific solutions tailored to the conditions existing in the State of Meghalaya.
At the end, it was evident that this two-day programme was an enriching experience for the group representing the NUJS Legal Aid Society, the students and faculty of the NEHU Law Department as well as for the members of all the other organizations which attended the programme.
The NUJS Legal Aid Society expresses its gratitude to the NEHU Law Department’s students, and faculty, especially the Head of the Department, Prof. (Dr.) Chintamani Routh, for their warm hospitality and keen interest in this event and hopes the two Universities establish ties which would extend into other spheres of legal education as well.
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