CEWCL, IFIM LAW SCHOOL in association with JURIS LAW OFFICES, NEW DELHI

Organises

**“Feminae Empoderamiento”**

NATIONAL LEGAL DRAFTING COMPETITION, 27^th & 28^th September, 2018

“THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD”

Edward Bulwer Lytton

CONCEPT NOTE

Greetings for the day!

We are pleased to inform you that ‘Centre of Excellence for Women, Child and the Law’ @ IFIM LAW SCHOOL, in association with Juris Law Offices, Delhi is organising ‘Feminae Empoderamiento’ –National Legal Drafting Competition 2018.

CEWCL is a Centre of IFIM Law School which works for the issues relating to women empowerment, child rights, spreading awareness about gender equality and proving people that feminine is not anymore, a weaker gender. Last year, CEWCL had organised two mega events in the IFIM Law School campus – a Panel discussion on UCC in securing Gender Justice and celebration of International Women’s day.

ABOUT THE ORGANISERS

IFIM LAW SCHOOL:

IFIM Law School, located in the heart of Electronic City, Bangalore, is a unit of IFIM Institutions which have been at the fore front of quality education in India for more than two decades. IFIM Law School, approved by the Bar Council of India (BCI) and affiliated to Karnataka State Law University (KSLU), Hubballi was established in 2015 with an aim to impart quality legal education that will produce competent and socially responsible legal professionals. The college adopts Socratic method of teaching and with an aim to create a good research culture, the college has established various Research Centres including the Start-up Law Incubator Clinic; Centres for Excellence on Corporate and Commercial law; Medical Law; Women, Child and the Law; Consumer Laws and Alternative Dispute Resolution. These Centres focus on research and conduct lot of research related activities. Our students are further encouraged to participate in various national and international moot court and debate competitions.

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR WOMEN, CHILD AND THE LAW (CEWCL):

The CEWCL was established at IFIM Law School with a focus on “empowering women and children to live with dignity by striving to achieve secure society – free from all kinds of violence and discrimination”. In the year 2017, the Centre had organised One-day Panel Discussion on the burning topic ‘Uniform Civil Code- an endeavour seeking Gender Equality’ and has also undertaken various female – oriented initiatives to fulfil its Objectives.

This year 2018, the Centre strives in achieving its Mission of ‘uplifting subjugated class through legal machineries and fight for their justice’ by inviting legal fraternity to delve into the current Socio-legal issues affecting the Women/Child at large and there-by play a pro-bono role in providing a comprehensive solution through legislative framework.

JURIS LAW OFFICES, NEW DELHI:

Juris Law Offices is a global Network of Independent law firms with more than 60 lawyers in India and abroad. With 5 Offices in India, the firm is on the panel of many leading names in respective industries.
They work with a motto of continuously evolving themselves.

ABOUT THE EVENT

The word ‘Feminae’ is derived from Latin language which means ‘Women’, whereas ‘Empoderamiento’ is derived from Spanish which symbolises ‘Empowerment’.

Law has the undeniable ability to bind the people it applies to, which imposes a huge responsibility on the drafters to cover all the aspects and plug all possible loopholes. The legislature also seeks assistance from the Public to play the role of quasi-legislative when matters of Public Policy are involved. This opportunity would allow the legal fraternity to step into the shoes of Drafters and to submit their drafts before the legal luminaries and present a broader angle at the very debate regarding contentious issues plaguing the nation.

The CEWCL along with Juris Law Offices will be conducting the competition to give legal fraternity a crack at drafting some of the most contentious Acts/ Bills that are well debated in our nation and which unfortunately are kept in cold storage because of political and other related issues.

The best drafts will set the stage on fire for some serious action in the concerned Department/Parliament.

As the part of the competition the participants are expected to draft a ‘BILL’ on any one of the topics mentioned below.

TOPICS:

1. THE HEINOUS CRIMES BILL, 2018

2. CHILD NEGLECT (PREVENTION AND PROTECTION) BILL, 2018

3. THE UNIFORM CIVIL CODE, 2018

4. THE COMPENSATORY SURROGACY (REGULATION) BILL, 2018

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

Eligibility:

The event is open to all the law students including law students at their Master level /Graduate level (either pursuing 3 years or 5 years Law Course/s from any recognised University or Legal Institution) within the territory of India.

Students pursuing Law at Master Level – are eligible to draft only on Sl No. 2 or 3 issues.

Students pursuing Law at Degree Level – are eligible to draft on any of the 4 issues.

Number of Participants: One team per college (Maximum 03 and Minimum 02)

Participation Fee:

Rs. 2000/-

Registration Procedure:

Each team must register with the CEWCL by sending an email to ashmithafightfordignity@gmail.com

The mail shall contain the following;

name of the participants,
name of the institution/organisation/Office and
year of study/experience
a scanned copy of institutional/organisational identity card.
Teams are requested to send their first soft copy of the E-draft (800-1000 words) on or before 21^st July 2018.
Short listed teams for Final round presentation will be announced on 25^th July 2018.
Qualified teams for final rounds need to submit their soft copy of the E- Draft Bill on or before 28^th August 2018.
Hard copy of the E-draft shall reach the organising committee on or before 30^th August 2018.
They need to present their draft before the Selection Committee on the day of the event.
The marks awarded by the Selection Committee shall be final and binding on the participants. No further Appeal shall be entertained in this manner.
Accommodation can be arranged on special request and on payment of extra money.
The draft (Prelims and/or final) shall be based on the following themes. Some of the themes out of the legal box are listed keeping in mind the present scenario.

BRIEF ABOUT THE THEMES:

1. THE HEINOUS CRIME BILL, 2018

The heinous crimes such as murder, sedition, rape etc include atrocities that affect not only the victims but also the society with great depth. Though JJ Act has widened the scope of law by allowing juveniles to be tried as adults in the cases of heinous crimes but that doesn’t deter the offenders from committing such heinous crimes against children and women. Also, JJ Act needs amendment as it does not talk about the physical or mental maturity of a juvenile.

A separate legislation in this regard needs to be drafted and The Heinous Crime Act 2018 must be enacted so that anti-social elements shall not use children/women as means of conducting serious, heinous crimes against humanity and classify these atrocities and punish them with severe imprisonment for the same. It should be taken as an attempt to reduce crime by publicly establishing the severity of the actions and make victims feel a securing sense of ‘Justice’.

* Madhya Pradesh aims to bring out a Public Safety Bill which will enforce death penalty as the minimum punishment for heinous crimes committed against children. The matter of death penalty is controversial, but this is an attempt to take a stand. *

2. CHILD NEGLECT (PREVENTION AND PROTECITON) BILL, 2018

Neglect is often said to be an act of omission which is why it’s said to be difficult to be identified. It can be defined as maltreatment or negligent treatment and the failure to provide the child with the required and age-appropriate help and care that’s needed. According to the professionals, child negligence can be broadly categorized into 4,

Physical,
Emotional,
Medical and
Educational

Though negligence is hard to identify, it causes as much injury to the child as would anything else. After much research, it’s been found that the youngest children ranging between the ages of birth till 3 years had the highest victimization rate. The children at such an early age require proper supervision and care and not being able to get that, scar them emotionally and mentally. It’s been analysed that the children who are victims of negligence grow up to abuse become addicted to alcohol and drugs, behave irrationally and are mentally unstable. It’s been found out that most of the parents do not hurt or neglect intentionally and that many of them were abused or neglected themselves. In the case of the parents who get addicted to alcohol and drugs it is more likely for the child to be neglected. Depression, anxiety and dissociative disorder are the common paths that the children who have been abused lead on.

In India, there isn’t a law that revolves around the safety of children at home or negligence. If we see the broader picture, no State or country has a fixed law against child negligence and hence the reports of such crimes increasing threefold are a serious matter that needs to be discussed vigorously. Hence, a strong law must prevail that entails the parents to take better care of their children and provide them with what they deserve.

3. THE UNIFORM CIVIL CODE, 2018

Practically speaking Personal laws minus General laws differ in their concept and applications causing grave injustice to the subjects who have been assured of equal protection of laws in India. One such point for deliberation is the need for having a UCC in India which could surpass all religious irregularities and establish a platform for all Indians to be treated equally. Through UCC we can dream of having a Uniform law with respect to Marriage, Adoption, Divorce, Maintenance, Inheritance, and Succession. Through UCC maybe WE can achieve gender equality and justice by bringing all religions under one umbrella without sacrificing their sanctity.

4. THE COMPENSATORY SURROGACY (REGULATION) BILL, 2018

Gifting bundle of joy to a childless couple is indeed a noble act which can’t be measured equally in terms of money. The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2015 by terming this noble act as ‘commercial’ in nature and there-by prohibiting Compensatory surrogacy has insulted womanhood and deprived childless couples from Right to Family. The increasing rate of infertility and the conservative mindset of Indians will turn altruistic surrogacy into a complex web damaging the close relationships within a family. On the other hand, permitting Compensatory surrogacy would provide livelihood to the Surrogates and allow them to sustain their families. A comprehensive legislation which could balance both altruistic and compensatory surrogacy is the need of the hour.

RULES FOR DRAFTING:

As the topics are innovative and don’t have any sort of written literature by way of pending Bills in the State/Centre, the teams are directed to follow standard rules of drafting a legislation. Inference can be taken by the Acts for the time being in force in India or from the link provided –CLICK HERE

Scoring criteria:

The scoring will be based on parameters set by Juris law Offices, New Delhi. It will be based on the practicality and viability of the Bill presented.

Scoring parameters are attached at the end of this brochure (ANNEXURE – ‘A’).

Citation Style: Uniform Style of Citation should be adhered to.

Format of the Main Text & the Footnotes:

Times New Roman, 12 font sizes prescribed for all drafts. Further, the footnotes shall be in font size 10 and in the Times New Roman font. A line spacing of 1.5 for the main text and 1.0 for the footnotes is to be followed.

The best draft from each theme shall be published on the IFIM Law School website and shall also be forwarded to the concerned statutory department for their kind perusal.

The prizes are as follows,

The Best team – cash prize of 7,000/- and certificates

The Runner up team – cash prize of 5,000/- and certificates

The Second runner up team – cash prize of 3,000/- and certificates.

All the other participants (final round) will receive ‘Certificate of Participation’ and the representative colleges will receive memento as a ‘token of gratitude’.

Important Dates:

Preliminary registration of the teams	21^st July, 2018
Submission of first E- draft	21^st July, 2018
Communication of acceptance of first E- draft	On or before 25^th July, 2018
Registration of team for final rounds (payment)	On or before 04^th August, 2018
Submission of final E- draft Hard copy of final draft	28^th August, 2018 30^th August, 2018
Date of event	27^th and 28^th September, 2018

Further queries, please contact the Organising Committee:

Shagufta Anjum

Faculty Convener

9886294397

Manju Shri. V

Student Convener

9738483409

Sai Prasad

Student Co-ordinator & Campus Ambassador

Juris Law Offices, New Delhi

T S S Vaishnavi