Common Cause Events
Edit-a-Thon at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore
On January 5, 2025, the Justice Definitions Project of Daksh organised an Edit-a-Thon at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Radhika Jha from Common Cause was one of the resource persons during the event. Fifty-four law students participated in teams during the event for drafting legal definitions of 15 legal terms across various thematic areas on the Justice Definitions Wiki Platform.
Campaign for Right to Information Act
On February 20, 2025, a meeting at Common Cause House was held on the Right to Information Act and the newly introduced Digital Personal Data Protection Act that surreptitiously tries to make the RTI Act meaningless. Common Cause offered a platform which brought together representatives of around 20 civil society organisations for the cause. Collectively, all the organisations agreed upon the strategy for saving the RTI and creating awareness about the recent changes.
Consultation and Lectures at the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
The NHRC invited Dr Vipul Mudgal, Director and Chief Executive of Common Cause, for a guest lecture on “Media and Human Rights” at a short-term internship program conducted between January 27 and February 7, 2025, New Delhi.
Lecture at Ashoka University
On March 28, 2025, the Ashoka Public Policy Society, in collaboration with the Ashoka Law Society of the Ashoka University, organised a conversation with Common Cause Director Dr Vipul Mudgal on Public Interest Litigation, judicial activism, and challenges in law advocacy. The interactive conversation with enthusiastic students from different departments covered some of the recent PILs, such as the Electoral Bonds case 2024 and Misuse of Section 124A and IPC on Sedition 2016, and the Status of Policing in India Reports.
Representations:
On February 28, 2025, Common Cause was a signatory to a letter addressed to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Bhopal, against an alert order issued by the Forest Department regarding the search and surveillance of ‘infamous hunting communities’ in forest circles. The letter, drafted by the Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project, Bhopal, highlighted the unconstitutionality of the alert order, asserting that it discriminates against tribal communities, violates their right to privacy and vitiates the principles of forest governance and criminal justice.
Representation on the DPDP Rule Act
On February 14, 2025, Common Cause submitted its recommendations for the Draft Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules, 2025. The recommendations highlighted the shortcomings in the Rules and sought clarity on them. A general comment on the crippling effect of the DPDP Act 2023, via the amendment made to Section 8(1)(j) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, was also included in the recommendations to voice the overwhelming concern shared by civil society organisations across the country of the Right to Information Act being transformed to the “Right to Denial of Information Act”
Second Surjit Kishore Das Memorial Lecture at Doon Public Library and Research Centre, Dehradun
On February 8, 2025, the Doon Public Library and Research Centre hosted the Second Surjit Kishore Das Memorial Lecture, in memory of the former Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand and mentor of the institution. Dr Vipul Mudgal, Director of Common Cause India, delivered the lecture on “Public Interest Litigation as a Tool of Social Change: The Civil Society Experience.”
The prestigious and well-attended lecture shed light on some of the most meaningful PILs of our times, such as the revocation of the Electoral Bonds Scheme and the 2G and Coal Block allocation verdicts. The other cases highlighted at the lecture were of the patients’ right to die with dignity (Living Will case) and the ecological concerns raised by the PIL challenging the Chardham Highway project. Dr Mudgal emphasised that transparency in elections and governance owes much to sustained civil society interventions. Tracing the roots of PILs to post-Emergency India, he stressed the urgent need to defend independent institutions to safeguard democracy.
The event also saw the launch of a book of poems by Surjit Das. Tributes were paid by Prof B K Joshi, Nicholas Hofland, Vibha Puri Das, Geeta Sehgal, and others. Dr Das was also associated with Common Cause after his retirement from the Indian Administrative Service.
NEXT »
