The Institute of Law, Nirma University celebrated its 14th Foundation Day on 18th August, 2020. As part of celebration of 13 glorious years, the foundation day function and a Foundation day Public Lecture was organized. The foundation day Function was graced by the presence of Shri Shubhash Ghai Film Director, Producer and Screenwriter. The Foundation Day Public Lecture (through webinar) was on the theme Federalism: Origin, Evolution and Post-COVID Times, by Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Eminent Jurist, Third-term sitting MP, Former Chairman – Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law, and Former ASG of India.
Shri Subhash Ghai gave an enlightening speech on the topic “Creativity and Art”. He drew a beautiful parallelism between the actors and the Lawyers, wherein both of them perform their part in movies and courtrooms respectively. Both the lawyers and the actors become renowned due to their intellect and wisdom to enhance their creativity. It is their creativity which enables them to accomplish greater heights in their career. Mr. Ghai also emphasized the essence of psychological study of life and characters in the field of law. He referred to the Ramayan and Mahabharat as containing wonderful examples of dealing with role conflicts. He stressed that Theatre and the legal field go hand in hand. The lawyers need to have great oratory skills which can be acquired through the art of theatres. There are two types of lawyers, a good and a great lawyer. A good lawyer has the knowledge of law; however a great lawyer has the creativity to present its story in the most convincing manner. He urged the students to develop compassion towards fellow human beings.
The announcements of medals for students in various scholastics, Co-curricular and Extra Curricular activities were also made at the event. The event also had a poetry recitation competition where both faculty members and students presented some beautiful poetries. It was followed up by Musical Concert with Mr. Pritankit Jaiswal as Special Guest. Our student- Aditi Bhardwaj too came up with a wonderful singing performance. The musical concert was hosted by Aditi Mishra.
Dr. Abhishek Singhvi: Eminent Jurist, Third-term sitting MP, Former Chairman – Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law, and Former ASG of India, explained the origin of federalism and differentiated the concepts of federalism and operational reality. The Indian constitution doesn’t define the term federalism but over a period of 75 years the operational reality is that India has emerged has one of the federal constitution’s and it has also been stated by Supreme Court that Federalism forms part of basic structure. The factors responsible for strengthening the Federal structure are: Linguistic federalism (reorganization of 1956 act on basis of language), Judicial Federalism, which related to the role of judiciary in strengthening of Federalism. He stated that Article 356 of the Indian Constitution which is anti-thesis to federalism was used about almost a100 times prior to 2000, but post 2000 it has been used only 14 times. The credit for the same goes to Judiciary. He also refereed to Fiscal Federalism, Decentralization of Power and Political Federalism. In the end, he concluded that Federalism is what federalism does. Governments come and go, but the sanctity and credibility of institutions must be preserved at all times.
Earlier, Prof. (Dr.) Purvi Pokhariyal, Director and Dean, Institute of Law welcomed the Guests for the event. The event also marked the esteemed presence of Shri K K Patel, Vice President, Nirma University, and Dr. Anup K Singh Director General, Nirma University. Prof. Nikita Koradia, Assistant Professor at the institute was the anchor for the event. Dr Arun Prasad and Dr. Tarkesh Molia, respectively delivered the vote of thanks for the two sessions.