CHENNAI: The Crescent School of Law was inaugurated at B S Abdur Rahman University by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ibrahim Kalifullah on Wednesday. The law school offers two five-year programmes - B Com LLB (Hons) and BBA (Hons) spread over 10 semesters. It has attracted more than 50 students.
Speaking at the inauguration, Justice Kalifullah urged the young aspirants to seek ways to use the law to help the underprivileged by narrating an incident that occurred during his stint in the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.
“A young lawyer brought a writ petition stating no cases should be registered against her client. I was immediately inclined to dismiss the petition for obvious reasons but I asked her about the reason behind the outrageous petition. The lawyer explained how her client had been implicated in every theft case since he was caught shoplifting a bun from a bakery in his locality. This constant insinuation by the police had hampered his marriage. I had to dismiss the petition but I made sure the police didn’t bother him by informing the taluk judicial officers,” he said.
Justices Akbar Ali and K N Basha, who had retired from the Madras High Court, highlighted the evolution of law and the budding of specialised streams such as cyber law and intellectual property rights.
Aditya Bhatt from leading law firm AZB and Partners explained how the time-sapping profession of law was to the first batch of the law school. “Law is a jealous mistress,” he said. The institute has brought in lawyers from Herbert Smith Freehills, one of the biggest law firms in the world. The students will have the chance to do summer internship there during their penultimate year.
Arif B Rahman, chairman of B S Abdur Rahman University, said the law school was a dream of his late father. The school of law will be headed by P V Nagendra Sarma, a veteran who has also headed law colleges in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.