Kashmir Gets It’s First Rhodes Scholar Sameer Bhat; Also Awarded To Rahul Bajaj Who Was Born Blind

Nagpur University graduate Rahul Bajaj and GNLU Gandhingar's Sameer Rashid Bhat have been awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, enabling them to pursue a postgraduate course in Law for a year at Oxford University.

Rahul, who was born blind due to a “rare retinal condition called Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis”, is currently working as an Associate at Trilegal. He graduated from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar College of Law, Nagpur and was selected as a SpicyIP fellow in 2016.

In a Facebook post, IDIA-Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education congratulated Rahul and wrote, "We are delighted to hear that Rahul Bajaj has won the Rhodes Scholarship! Cannot think of anyone more deserving than him and rarely does one come across someone with as much grit as Rahul. Rahul has played an instrumental role in the disability vertical at IDIA and has been an ardent champion of the cause. We are sure that this is just the beginning and he will go one to achieve greater feat! Congratulations, Rahul - the IDIA Family is proud of you!"

Meanwhile, Sameer is being pegged as the first Rhodes scholar from Kashmir. He is a currently in his final year at the Gujarat National Law University. He also has, reportedly, received a pre-placement offer from Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. He plans to study Comparative Human Rights Law, Criminal Justice, Security and Constitutional Theory in the BCL programme at Oxford.

Rejoicing at his achievement, Sameer told Rising Kashmir, “This achievement is not my achievement alone. Everyone that I have interacted with has contributed to this.

The list of people that I have to thank is endless. I'm highly indebted to my professors at GNLU, teachers at IMI and Modern Public School and the staff at each of these institutions.

One person who has inspired me the most is my batchmate at GNLU, Gayathree Devi. I've learnt a lot from her and this one goes to her.

This wouldn't have been possible without the support of my family, friends and a whole lot of well wishers."