Senior Advocate and an eminent labour law practitioner, Dr. SHRIKANT MALEGAONKAR – Advocate & Consultant, Malegaonkar & Associates, Pune Labour/Industrial Court & Mumbai High Court – delivered a most knowledgeable and insightful live interactive webinar session on the topic “LABOUR LAWS IN INDIA” at Asian Law College (ALC) for its BA-LLB & LLB students and aspirants on Thursday, 28th January 2021 at 4:00 PM under its Legal Lecture Series (LLS). The webinar presented itself as a highly informative and helpful session for all who participated in it.
Dr. Shrikant Malegaonkar is a specialist in Labour Laws and Industrial Relations & is a practicing Advocate at Pune Labour / Industrial Courts and also at the Bombay High Court for the past 22 years. He runs his consultancy by the name,” Malegaonkar& Associates”, which engages in litigations, consultations & training in all dimensions of Labour Laws. He is associated with numerous renowned public, private and government undertakings as their advocate and labour management consultant.
He stood ‘First Class First’ in the University of Poona. He later turned to Law, where he again stood ‘First Class First’, at LL.B, in the University of Poona. He simultaneously pursued Management while studying Law and has an MBA (Human Relations) to his credit. He proceeded to England, where he delivered lectures at The London School of Economics, London, The School of Oriental and African Studies, London, at The University of Maiduguri, Nigeria, and at The Peoples Institute, Histadrut, Israel besides pursuing academics at the Berlitz School of Languages, Oxford Circus, London. He completed his Master’s degree in Law (LL.M.) with flying colours and then started his practice at the Bar. He is recipient of the prestigious ‘Setalvad Prize’ from, The Bar Council of Maharashtra, Bombay. He successfully led an Indian delegation to Shanghai and Beijing to study the comparative Labour Law situation between India and China. He is a visiting faculty in Labour & Industrial Laws at the ILS Law College, Pune for the past several years.
Dr. Shrikant Malegaonkar has been associated with companies like DSM, Mercedes, FEV, Bericap, Tranter (German), Robbins Myers, Valmont, Inteva (USA), UMW (Malaysia), Vodaphone (UK), Dong Shin (Korea), Magnetti Marelli (Italy), Haier Applicances (China) , IT Companies like Digital, Katellyst, Allied Analyctics, Synygy, The Digital Group, Audience Science (USA), IFM, WAVELET, 5 Star Hotels Westin, RADISSON, Novotel, Starwood , HHI, Sagar Plaza, 20 Banks, Sugar Factories, Govt/Corporations, various Schools and Colleges, as their advocate and labour management consultant.
He is a visiting faculty in Labour & Industrial Laws at the ILS Law College Pune. He has authored books and produced TV serials on Labour Laws. Dr. Malegaonkar has recently been awarded with the prestigious “Samajshree” award from The Indian Council of Management Executives, Bombay, which was conferred on him at the auspicious hands of the Hon. Minister for Culture, Maharashtra State. Dr. Malegaonkar has been the content expert in a T.V. Serial on ‘Domestic Enquiry’ which is being telecast on D.D.- 1, which is based on live & reported cases. His distinguished academic and social work was publicly recognised by Pune Municipal Corporation, on 15th August.
His Consultancy, “Malegaonkar& Associates” imparts training in Labour Laws. He has conducted more than 1500 training programmes for esteemed companies like Mercedes, Volkswagen, Telco, Fiat, Parle G, Hyundai, Finolex, etc.
He is a Director of an LPO ‘de jure’, which operates from India and New Jersey.
He is presently on the Core Committee – HR of the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries & Agriculture, Pune and a visiting faculty at the ILS Law College for the past several years. He is the Ex- President of the Labour Law Practitioner’s Association of Pune, a member of the LMC of Wadia Colleges Pune & Director, Sahyadri Group of Companies, India. He was elected as The General Legal Counsel of The Poona Junior Chamber, Pune for several years till he rose to become its President in the year, 1991. He was also on the Board of Trustees of NGO’s like CASP etc. Dr. Malegaonkar has widely travelled in Africa, Europe, and South East.
A core initiative of Asian Education Group (AEG) – considered as the largest centre for professional media, IT, law, management, fashion & hospitality education in Asia with world-class facilities – this webinar was organized by Asian Law College (ALC) – which is a constituent group college of Asian Education Group and is ranked as one of the one of the best Law Colleges in Delhi NCR – for all B.A.LL.B. & LL.B. students & aspirants. The webinar was followed by a lively Q&A Session with the most distinguished guest.
The webinar session started with the illustrious guest, Dr. Shrikant Malegaonkar, thanking the ALC team for inviting him for this session. He then straightaway got on to the topic of the day, i.e. “LABOUR LAWS IN INDIA”, and said that “Labour Law is an all pervading subject that affects at least 136 crores of people in India in a big way.”
The erudite speaker then briefly traced the history and evolution of Indian labour laws from the time of India’s independence and especially in context to the vigorous spate of industrialization undertaken within the country under the leadership of our first Prime Minister, Late Shri Jawaharlal Nehru. He specially spoke at length about the concept of 5-Year Plans and the establishment of various Public Sector Undertakings that necessitated the defining of the entire range of Industrial Laws like Industrial Dispute Act 1947, Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 1946, Minimum Wages Act 1948, Factories Act 1948, Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970, and so on.
Drawing the current scenario, the eminent labour law practitioner said, “Today, Labour Laws applies to roughly 30% of the people in India and it is something that both the employee and the employer cannot do without.” He further stated that “in the tussle between the have & have-nots – like husband & wife or landlord & tenants or even employee & employer – such laws always favour the weaker sections.”
With this note of optimism, Dr. Shrikant Malegaonkar opened the session for questions from the students and participants. Expectedly, there was a series of questions related to the topic of the day, i.e. “LABOUR LAWS IN INDIA”, to which the highly experienced and learned labour law practitioner provided the most convincing answers.
Towards the end of his talk, the renowned advocate had some great words of career advice to give to all aspiring would-be lawyers. Remembering an inspiring thought that he had come across in one of his earlier organization that read “Economic justice can be best won by a free man through free enterprise”, he said, “If you want to be free, you should become a lawyer!”
Once done, Dr. Shrikant Malegaonkar was presented with a glittering “Memento” on behalf of Asian Education Group.
With this, the most knowledgeable and insightful session with the Senior Advocate and eminent labour law practitioner, Dr. SHRIKANT MALEGAONKAR came to a solemn end!