Conference Programme

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

Organisers: Dr. Kalindi Kokal (IIT Bombay); Siddharth Peter de Souza (Tilburg University/Justice Adda)

Partner: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, New Delhi and Justice Adda.

Date: 23rd and 24th April 2021

DAY ONE

April 23 - Day 1 - 9.00 - 10:00 – Welcome

Welcome Note

Mr. Peter Rimmele, Resident Representative to India, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
Dr. Kalindi Kokal, Post Doctoral Researcher, IIT Bombay
Siddharth Peter de Souza, Post Doctoral Researcher, Tilburg University/ Founder, Justice Adda.

PANEL 1: April 23 - Day 1 - 10:00 to 11.30

Chair: Dr. Katrin Seidel (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)

State: Ideas, Perception and Responses. This panel will examine papers that analyse people’s preferences and mechanisms in dispute processing and what this tells us about society’s perception of the state.

Dr. Suchandra Ghosh (Vidyasagar University): Religion-based ‘Personal’ Law, Legal Pluralism and Secularity: A Field View of Adjudication under Muslim Personal Law in India
Kamongla Longkumer (National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam): Customary Courts and The Law: A Socio-Legal Analysis of The Dual Justice System In The State Of Nagaland.
Rajashree Raju (Queerala) : Seeking Legal Justice Against Anti-LGBT+ Conversion Therapy in Kerala: Possibilities and Limitations

PANEL 2: April 23 - Day 1 - 11.45 to 13.15

Chair: Dr. Usha Ramanathan (Independent Researcher)

Non-state actors in changing times: We observe with changing contexts – including the most recent one of Covid 19 - protagonists have used different modes and platforms for processing their disputes. The increasing usage of social media as a platform for ‘naming and shaming’ and thus, dispute processing is only one example.This panel will examine papers that look at the life of grievance redressal and dispute processing experiences in these alternative worlds.

Dr. Subir Rana (Independent Researcher): Politics of Aesthetics, Street Art and Ideas Of Justice: Dissent, Democracy And Discourse In Times Of Exception
Dinushika Dissanayake (Legal Practitioner): Writing Wrongs- An Analysis of The Use of Digital Platforms as Forums Offering Gender Justice for Sexual Crimes In South Asia
Dr. Vidya Subramanian (Institute of South Asian Studies Harvard University): Looking for Justice Online: How Social Media And The Internet Shape Justice Seeking

PANEL 3 April 23 - Day 1 - 15:00 - 17:00

Chair: Siddharth Peter de Souza

The role of the non-state within the State. This panel seeks to examine what sort of a role the state legitimates non-state actors to play. It includes research analysing case laws and discourses developed by the state and empirical evidence in this regard.

Dr. Deblina Dey (Jindal Global law School): Techniques of Dispute Resolution and Grievances of Older Persons towards their Adult Children
Trishna Senapaty (Cornell University) : The Closed and the Open Prison: Narratives of Reform and Rehabilitation within and beyond Prison Walls
Prakhar Dixit, Pranjal Sinha (Legal Practitioner, Sama): Online Lok Adalat- New Contours of Alternative Dispute Resolution
Sejal Makkad, Nikhal Parakh (Amity University Chattisgarh, Legal Practitioner): State and Non-State: Working With Boundaries And Binaries?

April 23rd 17:00 to 17:30

Launch of the forum mapping platform on Justice Adda.

DAY TWO

Plenary

PANEL 4: April 24 - Day 2 - 8.30 - 10:30

Chair: Prof. Anindita Chakrabarti (IIT Kanpur)

State and Non-state: Working with Boundaries and Binaries? This panel discusses more theoretical presentations analysing the usefulness of concepts like ‘state’ and ‘non-state’ and the perceived binaries these create. The panel will also focus on analysing the dialogue between the state and non-state in India to examine the ideas of justice that arise from this.

Prof. Gopika Solanki (Carleton University): Governing Hindu Marriage? : Policy Contradictions, Religion-Making and State-Society Relations in the Adjudication of Inter-religious Marriage in India
Justice Madan Lokur (former Supreme Court Judge): The Pandemic and Fault Lines in Access to Justice
Dr. Nidhi Gupta (National Law University Jodhpur): Is Legal Pluralism Bad for Women?

April 24 - Day 2 - 10:45 – 12:00

Virtual Exhibition

Join us for a ‘hangout’ where the artists presenting artwork on the theme of justice and art as part of this conference will be available online for any discussions or questions.

PANEL 5: April 24 - Day 2 - 13:00 - 14.30

Chair: Dr. Kalindi Kokal

Non-state actors: Experiences with dispute processing. This panel includes papers that are based on empirical research that explores the working of different non-state actors engaged in dispute processing, the forms these actors take and the processes they adopt.

Dr. Devika Bordia (Shiv Nadar University): Mediating Rage and Revenge: Mautana Custom and Panchayat Practices among Bhils in Rajasthan.
Dr. Sagnik Dutta (Jindal Global Law School): Boundaries of the law: dispute resolution in women’s sharia courts in Mumbai

April 24 – Day 2 - 14.30- 15.00

Vote of thanks

Mr. Ashish Gupta, Research Officer, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung-India Office
Kalindi Kokal and Siddharth Peter de Souza