PUBLIC LAW SKILL – II ASSIGNMENT

SUMMARY REPORT:
ON THE THREE GUEST LECTURES

SUBMITTED TO:
Dr. DHANAJI JADHAV &
PROF. ABHINAV SHRIVASTAVA

SUBMITTED BY:
ISHITA AGARWAL
IIIyr LLB
19010122096

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Q1. What are the skills you acquired from the lectures conducted under
Public Law Skills Course?

The public law skill lectures were very informative. The well-known guest lectures
conducted by the institution educated me about the practical skills that is required to be
instilled to become a good and efficient lawyer. Various popular guests i.e. Adv Chaitanya
Dharukar; Adv Santosh Shah; Adv. Sanjeev Deshpande, etc. were invited, who educated us
on various theoretical aspects like drafting RTI application, Filing PIL etc. and also taught us
valuable lessons through their experiences.

In my opinion, the lecture given by Adv Chaitanya Dharukar, also a very popular orator,
taught me skills that every lawyer requires to be good in his profession. He mentioned that a
good lawyer shall have a command over his communication skills and shall not only give
importance to English language but be well aware of his roots i.e. his mother-tongue. he
suggested to be try to be eloquent i.e. articulate and for an individual to be good orator, it is
very important for him to practice “like a singer does with his riyas”. The lecturer further
made the students understand the value of intricate writing and the importance of reading
anything and everything. He also suggested to read 8 auto biographies like Rose and
December, before memory fades, to best of my memory etc. He further laid an emphasis on
visiting government offices to understand the atmosphere and the principle around and the
working habits of the people. He further made understand about the habit of being a keen
observer and how that skill is required to vast one’s knowledge around. He quoted a
statement of William Shakespeare that “whole world is a stage and we are players” and said
that the whole journey from your birth to your death is followed by law at every moment. He
had successfully explained the importance of all these skills through various illustrations like
the censor certificate; birth of child; example of sitting of division bench by High Court in
Bombay etc.

Further, the lecture by Adv Sanjeev Deshpande i.e. the ex-government solicitor general of
India explained me the importance and scope of PIL. I learned the skill of filing an effective
PIL i.e. to have awareness about mentioning valid facts, procedural requirement, grounds,
details etc. One must do a thorough research before filing PIL and he said that “lawyers are
the most effective means of change”. Also, the lecture by Adv. Santosh Shah was about RTI
application and its application to bring a huge difference in the living conditions of people.

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He explained this by providing various instances like illegal constructions etc. He taught me
how to file RTI application and that an effective RTI can tend to put pressure on the
government to better the living situations of citizens.

Q.2 Which lecture inspired you to pursue the subject and advance the
skill acquired through the lecture.

In my opinion, all the guest lectures were very informative and inspired me in different ways
that helped me to advance and acquire different skills on various topics. Firstly, Adv. C.V
Dharukar taught the students about the basic skills required for a law profession. He had
successfully taught us those basic skills as abovementioned in the first answer, through
various illustrations. For instance, while explaining us the importance of being a keen
observer, he gave an example of the censor certificate, which includes all the deleted scenes
instructed by the censor board in film. This certificate is kept by the producer in the cinema
halls, which every viewer or general public has the right to access to. Similarly, he suggested
us to read and listen to various talks, speeches and autobiographies of prominent leaders to
understand the importance of being a good reader and listener. For instance, autobiography of
Justice CP Gajendra Gadkar, “All men are my Brothers” by Mahatma Gandhi and he also
quoted a Marathi Writer that “more you write personal, more universal it becomes”.

Further, the lecturer Adv. Santosh Shah taught us on the scope and importance of RTI and
explained us the moral duty of the lawyer to have an understanding of filing an effective RTI
and also made the students aware about the problems of information department. That is how
general public is exploited with lack of information or right data on various sources like
websites, newspaper etc. He provided instances like garbage departments etc. to successfully
explain us the importance of RTI. He mentioned how the fees availed from general public be
minimal but still a big earning for the government.

The lecturer provided us with a detailed step of filing an RTI application:

1. Handwrite or type the application in English, Marathi, or the official language to the
department from where the information is required to be extracted. The application must
contain the office name, address, etc. A written statement from the public information officer
can also be requested. In the subject line, a clear statement of the information that is required
to be extracted shall be mentioned under the RTI Act, 2005.

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2. State your request as a series of precise, comprehensive inquiries, together with the time
period and year in which it falls. If necessary, request papers or document extracts. The
petitioner must pay Rs. 2 per page in order to get papers. Pay Rs. 10 to file the plea. This can
be done in the form of cash, money order, bank draft or a court fee stamp. The stamp should
be affixed to the application.

3. Provide your full name and address, contact details, email address and sign the application
clearly. Put in the date and the name of your town. Take a photocopy of the application and
keep one with you for future reference. Send your application by post or hand it in personally
to the department concerned.

4. The law mandates that information be provided in 30 days. If this does not happen, you can
file an appeal. The first appeal should be addressed to ‘The Appellate Authority’ with the
name of the department and the address. The appellate authority is mandated to revert in 30
days from the date of receipt of the appeal. If this does not work, then the public information
commissioner can be contacted.

Q.3 Provide a brief description of a lecture conducted on Public interest

litigation?

The lecture of Public Interest Litigation was conducted by Advocate Sanjeev Deshpande,
who introduced and explained us the application and scope of filing a PIL. He explained us
the history of PIL and explained us that the phrase “public interest litigation” was first
prominently used by American academic Abram Chayes to describe the practice of lawyers
or public spirited individuals who seek to precipitate social change through court- ordered
decrees that reform legal rules, enforce existing laws and articulate public norms. He
explained four inimitability of public law litigation in U.S. which is common to PIL in
India. Today, all parties with an “interest” in the controversy can join litigation and the
courts have given increasing importance to equitable relief. The lecturer said that public
law litigation concerns not only the parties, representing two sides of disagreement but also
the public interest. As such, the court must play a role in finding and evaluating those facts
that might have an impact on outcome of suit.

The lecturer further explained the ADM Jabalpur case, which virtually took away rights of
citizens. He explained the splendid efforts of Justice P.N. Bhagwati and Justice V.R. Krishna

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Iyer that were instrumental of juristic revolution of 80’s as a result any citizen of India or any
consumer groups can approach the apex country of country seeking legal remedies in cases
where interest of general public are at stake. The lecturer further mentioned various landmark
judgements like Sunil Batra v Delhi Administration, where the court treated the letter of a
prisoner as a writ petition and while issuing various directions opined that “technicalities and
legal niceties are no impediment to the Court entertaining even an informal communication
as a proceeding for habeas corpus if the basic facts are found.” He further referred the case
of Hussainara Khatoon v State of Bihar. This case was concerned with the plight of prisoners
in State of Bihar, where the writ petition filed by the advocate was accepted by Supreme
Court as locus standi to maintain the writ petition. Various other judgements were also
reiterated by the lecturer like “Parmanand Katara v union of India”, “S.P Gupta v Union of
Inida”, “Bandhua Mukti Morcha v Union of Inida” also environmental cases like “ shriram
Food and Fertilizer case”, etc. The lecturer further explained “State of Uttranchal v Blawant
Singh Chauhan” case, where he explained the 8 guidelines of Supreme Court, which was
very informative.

Further, the lecturer also presented a draft PIL filed by him under Article 226 and 227 in
Bombay Bench at Aurangabad under rule 4C of Bombay High Court PIL rules 2010, dated
October 25th 2021 to explain make us understand about the effective drafting. The PIL was
regarding challenging the agreements executed by many of sugar factories in Nanden region
whereby they have sculpted the obligatory payment of interest on delayed payment of
purchase of sugar cane. The various things to mentioned under an effective PIL are:

1. Subject Matter in Brief.

2. Particulars of petitioner.
3. Declaration and undertaking of petitioner.
4. Facts in brief constituting the cause shall be chronological events.
5. Specific Grievances raised by petitioner, legal injury suffered by petitioner. These were
done by mentioning grounds.
6. Source of information to be disclosed by petitioner: this means that on what basis or
document is PIL filed for authentication.
7. Nature and extent of injury caused.
8. Representations made, if any: No of representations given to respondent raising the
grievance regarding non- payment. i.e. party shouldn’t directly come to court but exhaust
all prior remedies.

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9. Delay in filing petition, if there was any delay.
10. Documents relied upon.
11. Interim relief prayed for.
12. Caveat. (if any caveat filed by any of the parties and whether received by the other
party).
13. Reliefs prayed for by petioner.

Q. 4) Explain how you can use those skills in profession and, corporate
life.

The skills gained by the students in the guest lectures will be very helpful in their
professional and corporate life. In my opinion these skills gained by the students from the
lecturer swill benefit the students in the long run.

The written communication skill of drafting various agreements like PIL and RTI, etc from
will help because as a lawyer A lot of our work as a lawyer will involve writing, it’s
unavoidable. We will draft documents, write letters to clients, draw up contracts among other
things. Typos and Grammatical errors will undermine your work, while a fluent and articulate
writing style will give clients confidence in us. I also learned the importance of teamwork,
which would prove to be essential to my job. In a team, basic skills of respect and empathy
become essential and those who lack the ability to listen and take on board the opinions of
others will find themselves out of step. If people enjoy working with me, they will want to do
so again and recommend me to others; undoubtedly the best way to progress in your career.
I have also learnt that while teamwork is fundamental to success, it is also essential that we
can be decisive when the situations demands it. As a trainee lawyer, we will be given
responsibility and you must rise to that, devising our own solutions to problems rather than
relying only on others. That does not mean that we must struggle alone, taking initiative
includes the ability to know when to ask questions or to ask for help. I also learned that law a
profession is not void of creativity but the opposite is true. The answer to a client’s problem
may not be obvious and my job will be to explore new avenues, arguments and ideas to
achieve the desired result.

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