As part of the celebration of Constitution Day, the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay is organising an Institute Talk (online) on Saturday, January 22, 2022. The details of the talk are given below:

Title:   "Human Rights Controversies in India"

 Speaker:   Dr. Colin Gonsalves, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India and the founder of Human Rights Law Network (HRLN)

 Day & Date: Saturday, January 22, 2022

 Time:  3.30 pm

About the speaker: 

Dr. Colin Gonsalves is Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India and the Founder of Human Rights Law Network (HRLN).

A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Dr. Gonsalves started his professional life as a civil engineer but was drawn into the field of law through his work with the unions in Bombay. He commenced formal legal study in 1979 and litigated his first case, while still in law school, on behalf of 5,000 workers locked out of their jobs.

Dr. Gonsalves’ most significant victories in the courtroom include the 2001 ‘Right to Food’ case, which saw India’s Supreme Court issue far-reaching orders enforcing a free midday meal for all schoolchildren and subsidized grain for over 400 million Indians living below the poverty line. His other prominent cases include the reinstatement of a teacher having cerebral palsy, stays on the demolition of slums, reduction in the prices of essential medicines and the enforcement of sexual harassment law throughout the country.

He was presented with the ‘International Human Rights Award’ by the American Bar Association in 2005. In 2010, he was conferred a Doctorate of the University, honoris causa, by the University of Middlesex, UK. He was also given the ‘Mother Teresa Memorial Award’ for Social Justice in recognition of his remarkable contribution to legal services addressing human rights in 2010. Most recently in September 2017, Dr. Gonsalves was awarded the prestigious Right Livelihood Award ‘for his tireless and innovative use of public interest litigation'.