National Legal Aid Week Celebrated at Faculty of Law, BHU

The faculty of Law, BHU, in collaboration with State Legal Services Authority, Lucknow, celebrated the National Legal Aid Week on Saturday (November 11) by organising an essay writing competition, a poster exhibition and a state-level workshop on the theme ‘Role of University based Legal Aid and Services Clinics in implementation of the Legal Services Authority Act,1987: Issues and Challenges’.

The Chief Guest of the workshop was Justice Arun Tondon, senior judge, Allahabad High Court, & Executive Director of UP State Legal Services Authority. Other dignitaries included Justice Ashwani Mishra, Justice AR Masoodi, Justice Suneet Kumar and Justice SN Shukla (judges of Allahabad High Court). The programme was presided over by acting Vice Chancellor and Registrar of BHU Neeraj Tripathi. The participants of this workshop included 100 law
colleges of Uttar Pradesh and senior judges of 71 districts of Uttar Pradesh.

The website of the BHU Legal Aid and Services Clinic was inaugurated by Justice Arun Tondon. The dignitaries also released the newsletter of Faculty of law, BHU. A book by GP Sahoo, Associate professor, BHU, ‘New Legal Dimensions of Cyber Crime’, was also released.

Justice Arun Tondon emphasised on two issues: victim compensation and free competent legal aid. Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra, focusing on the theme of the workshop, told the gathering that LASC is responsible to reform the lives of the prisoners and how we treat the downtrodden is a parameter for determining how civilized we are.

The plight of marginalized and under-privileged section of society was discussed by Justice SN Shukla.

The workshop also consisted of an interactive session where a platform was given to the audience to ask questions from the dignitaries. The dignitaries cleared all doubts of the audience, the crux of those answers being the need to bring a change and this can only be brought by changing our mindset. The welcome address was given by Prof DK Sharma, head & dean, Faculty of Law, and director of LASC & CLEP. A vote of thanks was given by Prof Shailendra Kumar Gupta, executive director, LASC, and organising secretary of the workshop.