Dr. Colin Gonsalves, a Senior Advocate practicing at the Supreme Court is also the founder director of Human Rights Law Network (HRLN).
Since the establishment of Human Rights Law Network in 1989, under Dr. Gonsalves the organisation has grown from its humble roots in Mumbai into India’s leading public interest law group with over 200 lawyers and paralegals working for the group.
Dr. Gonsalves is an active litigator in the Supreme Court, and he was instrumental in the development of the Indian People’s Tribunal, an organisation that has published reports on various issues such as slum relocation. These reports were often the basis for many PILs filed on this issue.
He also represented the People’s Union for Civil Liberties as a senior counsel in the landmark case which acknowledged right to food as a legal right. He has also represented Bachpan Bachao Andolan in a matter concerning child rights, where the apex court ordered the Union Government to effectively implement the JJ Act.
He is also co-founder of Combat Law, a leading journal on human rights, and is also a columnist for the Indian Express. Dr. Gonsalves having numerous human rights cases to his name has laid a strong testimony of the impact that we can create through litigation and its interaction with the governmental apparatus. His lecture would revolve around social change through legal machinery, which would not only motivate students to channelize their actions for larger public interest and remind us of the power and responsibility we as aspiring lawyers need to be ready for but also be intriguing for students interested in law and society research. Through his lecture, we at Nyaya Forum aim to imbibe what Prof (Dr) Ranbir Singh meant when he wanted legal education to be socially stimulating, and what Prof (Dr) Madhava Menon intended by terming graduates of institutions such as ours as “social engineers.”
This Republic Day, the Nyaya Forum is thrilled to host this bulwark in the field of public interest litigation and rights jurisprudence in India.
Picture courtesy: MTFD.