ESSAY WRITING COMPETITION (ONLINE)
ABOUT CRIMEAN As the country has witnessed major paradigm shifts in various domains of criminal law in the recent times, Amity Law School, Noida has taken the initiative to organize this one of its kind conclave to foster intellectual curiosity among young minds about the ever-evolving nature of the crime and criminal law. The Conclave provides a unique opportunity to law students all over the country to exhibit and cultivate their interests in criminal law by participating in diverse kinds of competitions like legal quiz, debate, legislative drafting and essay writing, which are being organized as part of this event. In addition to this, we endeavour to contribute to the positive development of criminal law regime by organizing a Panel Discussion, where renowned experts, politicians and industrialists would come together to have a conducive discussion over some of the most important contemporary issues related to the functioning of the criminal justice system in India. CONCEPT NOTE Dr. B R Ambedkar, the father of the Constitution of India, had remarked in his final address to the constituent assembly that principles of liberty, equality and fraternity are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy. The so called caste system, a phenomenon peculiar to India, has been undermining this virtue of fraternity, and has been the root cause of antipathy, amongst different sections of Indian society for thousands of years. Since time immemorial, Dalits (Scheduled Caste) and Tribals (Scheduled Tribes) have lived a life of paucity and endured hate crimes of atrocious nature, without a minutest scope of ameliorating opportunities or any hope for justice. Even after independence, laws such as Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 turned out to be inadequate to contain the ever-increasing barbarity of caste-system. Recognizing the gravity of the issue, the Parliament enacted the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 & Rules, 1995 ( POA Act ), to make unethical practice of untouchability as cognisable and non-compoundable offence. In 2015, amendments were made to the POA Act to widen the scope of prosecution under it. Some new offences were added and provisions were made for establishment of special Public Prosecutors and Special Courts. Among these reforms, a notable provision, which
empowered the Court to take direct cognisance of any offence committed under the said Act, was hugely lauded by SC/ST community. Recently, the Supreme Court of India, in its judgment in the case of Dr. Subhash Kashinath Mahajan vs. The State of Maharashtra [Criminal Appeal No.416 Of 2018] has diluted the effect of these amended provisions. The apex court, observing a growing tendency of beneficiaries of the Act to abuse its onerous provisions to attain personal vendetta, introduced certain safeguards to prevent the Act from becoming an instrument of harassment of innocent citizens. For this purpose, the Court, inter alia, allowed anticipatory bail of an accused under the POA Act and imposed certain conditions on arrest of any party, particularly public servants, under the Act. This decision, which sparked a widespread uproar across the country, has led to a major divergence of views among lawyers, academicians and public at large as to whether the laxity in procedure would actually prevent harassment of the innocent or would it prove to be another evil added to the plight of the oppressed? In this context, we invite the participants to submit their essay on the following main theme: Preventing atrocities against marginalized sections of Indian society: What is the right way forward? ELIGIBILITY This Competition is open to students (Undergraduate/Post-Graduate) from all colleges in India duly recognized by UGC. Multiple entries from one participant are not permitted. Co-Authorship of up to two authors is permitted. FORMAT The language for the competition will be strictly English. The font used must be Times New Roman, size 12, double line spacing, One-inch margin on each side typed on A4 sized paper. The word limit of the essay should not exceed 3500 words. The Essay would be preceded by an abstract which shall not contain more than 250 words.
Font Type and Size of footnotes must be Times New Roman, 10. For citation, the Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA), 4 th Edition, must be followed. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES AND GENERAL RULES All Teams must send electronic copies of their legislative draft in.docx (Microsoft Word) and.pdf formats and such files shall be compatible with latest versions of Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat Reader. Files shall be mailed to crimean.essaywriting@gmail.com. No hard copy of submission is required. The cover page of the submission will be separately attached, comprising of the title of the essay, name of the Author, name of institution, address, email ID and contact number. In case of co-authorship, the cover page must include details of both the coauthors. The copyrights subsisting in the essay submissions shall vest in Amity Law School, Noida. All submissions will undergo strict online plagiarism checks. Any submission found to be plagiarized will be disqualified. Any violation of rules shall result in direct disqualification. In case of any dispute, the decision of the Organizing Committee will be final. EVALUATION CRITERIA Basis Marks Issues covered and their relevance 25 Argumentation 20 Legal content and use of authorities, references etc. 30 Use of Language 10 Novelty, ingenuity of ideas, creative writing skills and clarity of thought 15 Total 100
PRIZES First Prize - Cash Prize of Rs. 5,000/- and Certificates. Second Prize - Cash Prize of Rs. 3,000/- and Certificates. Third Prize - Cash Prize of Rs. 2,000/- and Certificates. The 4 th and 5 th position-holders would be given Certificate of Merit. IMPORTANT DATES Last Date of Registration - 15.08.2018 Last Date of Submission - 21.08.2018 Announcement of Results - 1 st week of September, 2018 REGISTRATION Registration fees is Rs. 400 per submission. For Online Registration, https://goo.gl/forms/8twf0bceh3dxwqnh2. In case participant(s) wish to register offline, the registration fees, along with accommodation charges i.e. Rs. 400 per person (if applicable), must be sent via demand draft in favour of Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, payable at Noida. A soft copy of demand draft, as well as Name of the Institution, Course and Contact Number(s), is to be sent through e-mail at crimean.essaywriting@gmail.com to us latest by 15 th August 2018. For any further enquiries and clarifications, contact: Divya Sharma +91 7087695167 Isha Tiwari +91 9999238482 Pritika Juneja +91 9871354113 E-mail: crimean.essaywriting@gmail.com