DHCBA, Live4Freedom LLP honour litigants in landmark cases

New Delhi: Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) along with Live4Freedom LLP on Monday organized the first edition of ‘Fight for Justice Awards’ to honour the litigants behind landmark judgments of the Supreme Court.

Former Chief Justice of India NV Ramana delivered a speech at the inaugural ceremony and said “Recognizing and felicitating these crusaders of justice will go a long way in inspiring upcoming generations to stand up for public issues.”

For several decades, the Indian judiciary has endeavoured to uphold the rights of the most underprivileged and has given relief and justice to the needy sections of our society, the former CJI added.

The organizers of “Fight For Justice Awards 2023”, Suneal Mangal and Advocate Jatan Singh, DHCBA Vice President said that this is the first time that hearts behind the landmark judgments of the Supreme Court are being awarded, this will encourage people to public service.”

Awardees of Fight for Justice Awards, 2023 are as follows:-

• Criminal Cases Category: Asha Devi (Mother of Nirbhaya who was gang raped in 2012)
• Women Cases Category: Shayara Bano (woman who fought the case against the practice of triple talaq)
• Administration and Governance Cases Category: Commander Annie Nagaraja and Commander Priya Khurana (women who fought case regarding permanent commission to female officers of armed forces in India)
• Labour Cases Category: Bezwada Wilson (Indian activist and one of the founders and National Convenor of the Safai Karmachari Andolan who fought for rights of manual scavengers)
• Environmental Cases Category: Late Abdul Jabbar Khan (who fought for victims of Bhopal gas leak tragedy)
• Specially Abled Person Cases Category: Nipun Malhotra (disability rights activist)
• Child Rights Cases Category: Bachpan Bachao Andolan (the litigation resulted in establishment of SOP on enforcing provisions of Juvenile Justice Act)
• Lifetime Achievement Category: Neelam Krishnamoorthy (mother of children who died in Uphaar cinema fire tragedy. The litigation led to the betterment of fire safety norms and creation of trauma centre in Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital)

Notably, the nominees for the eight categories were shortlisted through a rigorous process by a team of legal researchers comprising of Ananya Khanna (Law Researcher a/w Justice Siddharth Mridul) High Court, Aehsas Puri (Law Researcher a/w Justice Hima Kohli), Siddharth Singh (Independent Counsel), Abhishek Budhiraja (Law Researcher a/w former Justice Poonam A Bamba) and Rohit Sharma (Independent Counsel).