Today (25 May 2023), being the final day of the PIL law course organized by the Goa Foundation and Kare College of Law, the concluding event is being thrown open to the media as well. Press is warmly invited.
Today’s final session is a unique event in which 8 of Goa’s leading advocates join a grand panel to which participants can direct any question they have about law, the courts, crime, property fraud, corruption, PILs, High Court, Supreme Court etc.
The grand panel will comprise of former AG and current Aldona MLA, Carlos Alvares Fereira, Mr Cleofato Coutinho, former civil judge, Adv. Ms Norma Alvares, Adv. Ms Caroline Colasso, Adv. Abhijit Gosavi, Adv. Byron Rodrigues and Adv. Radharao Gracias. Dr Saba V.M. da Silva, Principal of Kare College of Law, will also be a member of the panel.
The PIL law course is an extremely popular course in Goa. During the course of two months, participants attend 90 minute sessions on various aspects of the law including the various courts and their jurisdiction, nature of criminal and civil courts, how to file PILs on issues of public interest, how to argue your own case, how to effectively use the RTI Act, administration law, and a whole host of legal issues that the public is concerned about. One of the lectures dealt with what to do if you are arrested. Laws that directly affect citizens in their neighbourhood including garbage rules, noise rules, nuisance procedures are explained in detail, with emphasis on concrete steps that can be taken for redressal of complaints.
The Kare College of Law was delighted to collaborate with the course organizers as one of its major activities include wider engagement of legal professionals with ordinary members of society.
A distinguished list of speakers addressed the participants who rarely missed sessions. Attendance rate was always 90%. Speakers included Daulat Havildar (former Secretary to the Goa government), Desmond D’Costa and Cleofato Coutinho (both former judges), Carlos Alvares Fereira (former Advocate General), criminal lawyer Raju Paulekar, Adv. Girish Sardesai, Ms Norma Alvares, Adv. Anamika Gode, Adv. Benedict Nazareth, anti-corruption activist Gaurav Bakshi, Dr Solano da Sila of BITS Pilani, and Claude Alvares, Goa Foundation Director.
Media may be interested in meeting the very active participants of the course and reporting their response about what it has done for them in terms of their understanding of law, of course, with a strong environmental bias.