In A First, Delhi High Court Bar Association Honours Litigants In Landmark Cases; Confers 'Fight For Justice' Awards

The Delhi High Court Bar Association with Live4Freedom LLP on Monday organized first edition of “Fight for Justice Awards 2023” to honour litigants who have won cases resulting in landmark judgments.

Former Chief Justice of India, Justice N.V. Ramana, was the Chief Guest of the event which will be held annually.

Justice Ramana was joined by Delhi High Court Bar Association's President, Senior Advocate Mohit Mathur; Vice President, Advocate Jatan Singh and Hony. Secretary, Advocate Sandeep Sharma.

Awardees of the first Fight for Justice Awards, 2023 are as follows:

- Criminal Cases Category: Asha Devi (Mother of Nirbhaya who was gang raped in 2012)

- Women Cases Category: Shayara Bano (woman who fought the case against the practice of triple talaq)

- Administration and Governance Cases Category: Commander Annie Nagaraja and Commander Priya Khurana (women who fought case regarding permanent commission to female officers of armed forces in India)

- Labour Cases Category: Bezwada Wilson (Indian activist and one of the founders and National Convenor of the Safai Karmachari Andolan who fought for rights of manual scavengers)

- Environmental Cases Category: Late Abdul Jabbar Khan (who fought for victims of Bhopal gas leak tragedy)

- Specially Abled Person Cases Category: Nipun Malhotra (disability rights activist)

- Child Rights Cases Category: Bachpan Bachao Andolan (the litigation resulted in establishment of SOP on enforcing provisions of Juvenile Justice Act)

- Lifetime Achievement Category: Neelam Krishnamoorthy (mother of children who died in Uphaar cinema fire tragedy. The litigation led to the betterment of fire safety norms and creation of trauma centre in Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital)

The jury members included:

- Justice Rajendra Menon, Chairman, Armed Forces Tribunal and former Chief Justice, Delhi High Court

- Justice Kailash Gambhir, former Justice, Delhi High Court

- Justice Challa Kodanda Ram, former Justice, Telangana High Court

- Vikas Pahwa, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India

- Mohit Mathur, Senior Advocate

- B.K.Gupta, former Commissioner of Police, Delhi

The nominees for the eight categories were shortlisted through a rigorous process by a team of legal researchers comprising of Ananya Khanna (Law Researcher a/w Justice Siddharth Mridul) High Court, Aehsas Puri (Law Researcher a/w Justice Hima Kohli), Siddharth Singh (Independent Counsel), Abhishek Budhiraja (Law Researcher a/w former Justice Poonam A Bamba) and Rohit Sharma (Independent Counsel).