IDIA holds its annual awards, Justice Sikri addresses the gathering

IDIA (Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access) held its annual awards ceremony at the Constitution Club of India in New Delhi on Friday.

IDIA aims at reaching out to the marginalized and under-represented sections of the society, sensitize them to law as a viable career option and help interested students from these sections to acquire admissions to law schools.

The initiative believes that good legal education enables the cultivation of personal autonomy, intellectual independence and development of critical life skills beyond the traditional goals of teaching, training and learning of specific skills.

The award ceremony is held every year to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of all the trainers, volunteers, sponsors and the students.

This year, the event was attended by Supreme Court Judge Justice AK Sikri, Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court Gita Mittal, her brother judge Justice C Hari Shankar, Senior Advocate Salman Khurshid and Delhi Judicial Academy Chairperson Prof. MP Singh among others.

The evening started with Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar meeting with the students (proudly referred to as scholars at the IDIA) who got admission at various top law schools in India.

Addressing the gathering, Justice AK Sikri stated that he admired the idea of IDIA. He said,

“It seems a little paradoxical that you would encourage young students to take up law. Earlier it used to the be the other way round. Law used to be the last resort for students. Now it has become a matter of choice. Brilliant students are coming into the stream.”

He further stated that the gap between India and Bharat is widening and it is important to help the marginalized and under privileged sections. These students only need a chance and they can definitely come up,

“Whatever IDIA is doing is commendable. It is making these students better citizens, which shall help the country in moving forward.”  

Justice Sikri and Prof. MP Singh (Chairperson Delhi Judicial Academy and Truste, IDIA) exchanged their days in Law Faculty that kept the crowd entertained. Justice Sikri was a student when Prof. MP Singh had just started teaching in Delhi Law Faculty.

Prof. MP Singh said: “everyone was talking of Sikri. I wanted to meet him. He (Sikri) had a beard and i met him in the library studying. He was a rank student.

He added, Its great of him (Justice Sikri) to take time and participate in all events that encourage students and faculty .

Justice Sikri’s address was followed by beautiful performances by the IDIA scholars.

Professor Shamnad Basheer (Managing Trustee of IDIA), spoke about the drive behind the IDIA initiative, passion of the volunteers and trainers and the spirit of the students who joined the pan India movement. He also spoke about the challenges of presenting law as a career option to the families of these under privileged students especially in the rural areas.

Heart warming short films depicting the struggles and accomplishments of some students were also played out for the audience. A young girl in one of the videos stated,

“IDIA did not treat me as person in need of rescuing but saw me as an agent of change.”  

Citi India, Sony, Allen & Overy were awarded for their support to the initiative. Various team leaders, student trainers and budding volunteers were also awarded at the event.

IDIA awards night was hosted by Abhimanyu Bhandari of Axon Partners.

On Day 2, Bezwada Wilson was the keynote speaker who opened up a new dimension for law students and scholars. He spoke about his challenges before the Supreme Court during his petition on manual scavenging. Here is a clip on the rights of citizens and how everyone is born equal under the constitution.

There were panel discussions on Law and Creativity, Lateral Lawyering: Lessons from India’s Privacy Battle and Cultivating Creative Lawyers.

Justice S Ravindra Bhat, Judge, Delhi High Court; Justice C Hari Shankar, Judge, Delhi High Court; Prof. Manoj Kumar Sinha, Director, Indian Law Institute; Dr Usha Ramanathan, Academic and Right to Privacy activist; Prof. Ranbir Singh, Vice Chancellor, National Law University Delhi; Prof JS Patil, Vice Chancellor, National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam; Prof Purvi Pokhariyal, Director and Dean, Institute of Law, Nirma University; Mr Amarjit Singh Chandiok, Senior Advocate; Mr Pravin Anand, Managing Partner, Anand & Anand; Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Advocate; Dr Arghya Sengupta, Research Director, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy participated in these panel discussions.

Overall it was inspirational to see the development of scholars, learnings for the entire society on the how these young students overcome their personal challenges to create an impact.