NLSIU : Prof. V. S. Mallar Memorial Legal Aid Competition, 2022

A joint initiative by the Centre for Environmental Law, Education, Research and Advocacy, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru and Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India

ABOUT THE LEGAL AID COMPETITION

Access to legal education is a necessary corollary to the right of free legal aid. With the advance of digital technologies, this right has become all the more accessible. This being stated, limited access to digital technologies may stand as a barrier to the effective enforcement of this right. As a legal literacy dissemination agency, CEERA, NLSIU is endeavouring to ensure the spread of legal literacy and awareness not only through digital platforms but also through engagements with institutions at the ground level to achieve the visionary efforts of the Department of Justice. In this regard, the catalytic efforts of legal aid clinics and legal aid cells are key to ensuring dissemination of legal literacy at a grass-root level.

Legal aid clinics, particularly those functioning under the aegis of educational institutions, play a pivotal role in improving community access to legal information and education and in engaging the youth in mass literacy dissemination efforts. They serve as vital bridges in bridging the information asymmetry between public institutions and the general citizenry, especially with regard to the latter's rights and entitlements. However, the state of affairs in India depicts the need for more impetus to tap into the potential of legal aid cells and clinics. At present, around 907 legal services clinics housed within law schools/ universities exist in India.^[1] But the number of such cells and clinics which are functional or are actively involved in dissemination of legal literacy remains dismal. At this juncture, the Prof. V. S. Mallar Legal Aid Competition stands to provide an important platform to encourage active involvement of legal aid clinics with the community at large

The endeavor of the competition is to augment the activities of the legal aid cells across the country to spread essential legal awareness by conducting awareness drives and various other creative initiatives and campaigns to bring to the fore the presence of informational asymmetry contributing directly to the lack of legal awareness. This initiative shall encourage budding lawyers to explore creative means to disseminate legal awareness about the issues that they feel need to be addressed by the mainstream society. The competition is sought to serve as a unique platform for young changemakers to disseminate legal awareness through innovative means by identifying areas and target groups to ultimately create tangible legal awareness dissemination drives.

This initiative primarily aims at building on legal literacy across India that translates to spreading knowledge of a primary level in law. This is the need of hour as law students need to take the mantle of disseminating legal awareness and explore innovative ways to spread legal literacy. This endeavor shall culminate in the creation of a nation-wide movement that shall bring out issues that that were non-existent in the pre-pandemic world.

AWARDS AND PRIZES

The following cash prizes along with citation shall be awarded at the end of competition

Winners - Best Legal Aid Clinic – INR 25,000

First Runners Up - Best Legal Aid Clinic – INR 20,000

Second Runners Up - Best Legal Aid Clinic – INR 15,000

Best Rural Legal Aid Clinic – INR 15,000

Best Faculty Coordinator Award – INR 10,000

Best All India Legal Aid Clinic Student Lawyer – INR 10,000

STAGES OF THE COMPETITION

The Competition shall comprise of six core deliverables which will include:

WHO CAN REGISTER FOR THE COMPETITION?

The Legal Aid Competition is open to all legal aid clinics/committees housed in any educational institute.

Last Date to Register: June 30^th, 2022.

TEAM COMPOSITION

The representatives of the participating university for all purposes and for the entire duration of the competition shall comprise of the following:

• 1 Faculty Coordinator/Advisor
• 1 Student Coordinator
• Maximum of 08 other students, who will form the Core Team

REGISTRATION FEE

The registration fee for a team is INR 4,000 (Rupees Four Thousand Only).

Institutions interested in participating in the competition may register by filling in the google form, the link for which is attached below

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd8EEm2c3g_pDq3mq-I7LkwfhOtgfc9uF9Ly0oJdnoAYUWU0Q/viewform?usp=sf_link

REGISTRATION FEE

Amount: INR. 4,000 (Rupees Four Thousand only/-)

Kindly Note: The registration amount may also be paid via Google Pay/Demand Draft/NEFT/IMPS by making the payment through Bank Remittance/Transfer to the account details provided herein below.

Upon registration., kindly annex a screenshot or scanned copy of the transaction details including bank account details, phone number and e-mail address along with to ceera@nls.ac.in and a carbon copy (marked as CC) of the same shall be sent to Ms. Susheela Suresh at email id: susheela@nls.ac.in

BANK DETAILS FOR REMITTANCE OF REGISTRATION FEE:

CLARIFICATIONS AND QUERIES

All registered institutions will be provided with further details of the competition at the launch of the competition. The launch will be conducted via the ZOOM App on July 1^st, 2022. Registered institutions will be shared with a zoom link to join the launch of the competition, details of which will be shared in due course. All clarifications shall be addressed to Mr. Vikas Gahlot on vikasgahlot@nls.ac.in with a cc to ceera@nls.ac.in with subject line: Clarifications to VS Mallar Legal Aid Competition 2022