Asian Law College (ALC) organized a Distinguished Guest Lecture on the topic “Constitutionalism and Judicial Activism through PIL (Public Interest Litigation)” for its B.A.LL.B. & LL.B. students on 12th September 2019 at its Noida campus. The lecture was delivered by Ms. Ashima Mandla who is an Advocate at the Supreme Court and Secretary at Criminal Justice Society of India. She has worked under Senior Advocate K.T.S Tulsi at Supreme Court. She has to her credit filing of the important PIL of Tehseen S. Poonawalla vs Union of India.
During the session, the erudite speaker talked about Judicial Activism and explained that “it refers to the action of Judges when they overstep boundaries and take the role of executive and legislative.” She also spoke about the ‘Writ of Mandamus’ and described how it plays an important role in the filing of PILs which, in turn, amounts to ‘Judicial Activism’.
Some of the specific constitutional laws and cases that she knowledgeably quoted and expounded upon were “Criminal Law Amendment Bill 2019 & Gender Equality in Rape Laws”, “Gender Neutrality under all Sexual Offences”, and “Judicial Activism of Food Security”.
Ms. Ashima Mandla’s learned talk was interspersed by several questions put up by ALC law students to which the distinguished speaker answered convincingly.
The Speaker summarized the importance of Judicial Activism when she referred it as ‘Judicial Activism is an important aspect of our constitutional law which helps the judiciary to deal with the matters which have not been brought in the limelight. It has evolved according to changes in society from time to time as the law is bound to be flexible to accommodate the need and requirements of society. The concept of Judicial Activism can be best understood when we go through the expanded scope of Article 21 of our Indian Constitution.”
Asian Law College (ALC) part of Asian Education Group ( AEG) believes in providing the first-hand legal industry experience to its students of BA LLB and LLB by providing them a platform for academic discussion with an industry expert, Legal Advisor, In-house Counsel, Advocates of High Court and Supreme Court, etc. The Traditional Law Course of BA LLB and LLB at ALC is improvised through practical exposure and knowledge.