GNLU holds first Gujarat Law Colleges student conference Separation of powers and judicial accountability central themse of discussion

The Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar (GNLU) recently hosted the first Gujarat Law Colleges Conference which had students and young law scholars from the state present their papers. The theme of the conference, which was held on February 26 2012, was separation of powers and judicial accountability..The conference was held in collaboration with the Commissionerate for Higher Education of Gujarat and was inaugurated by Justice (Retd) Shethna, former Acting Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court. Sethna spoke on the misuse of judicial office, corruption within the judiciary and the techniques adopted by the judiciary to avoid accountability. Dr. Jayanti Ravi, the Commissioner for Higher Education, Gujarat outlined various measures taken by the state government to enhance the the standards of higher education across the state. Dr Bimal Patel, GNLU’s, advocated a need for a greater collective participation by the institutions of law-making, governance and judiciary. Also present at the event was the Gujarat Law Minister, Mr Pradeepsingh Jadeja..Following the inauguration speeches, students from various colleges including GNLU presented their papers. Speakers included Akil Saiyed from P.M. Patel College of Law and Human Rights, Kalpesh Gupta from IIM-Ahmedabad, Renjith Nair and Mohak Sharma from Nirma University and GNLU’s Teaching and Research Assistant (Law), Jaya Hemnani. A total of 16 papers were presented at the conference..The conference also saw the launch of the second volume of the Gujarat Law Journal and the release of book on Judicial Accountability, Separation of Powers and the Indian Constitution..Speaking to Bar & Bench, Hemnani, who also organised the conference, said that it had been an “extremely educative” experience for her and she hopes that such initiatives enhance legal education in the state. She says that such conferences are held in the belief that giving back to society is one of the best ways in which a university can fulfil its role in the public sphere..(This report is courtesy GNLU student Kinnori Ghosh. The organisers had also made a small video on organising the event which can be seen here)