CUPB School of Law organized three-day lecture series with eminent Academicians and Legal Practitioners

Bathinda : The School of Legal Studies of the Central University of Punjab, Bathinda (CUPB) under the patronage of Vice Chancellor Prof. Raghavendra P. Tiwari organized a three-day lecture series from 27—29 July, 2021 to raise the quality of research in the discipline of law & to enhance understanding of the current state of police reforms & administration of criminal justice. The distinguished speakers of this lecture series were Prof. Veer Singh, Former Vice Chancellor, NALSAR and Former Director, Chandigarh Judicial Academy; Prof. G.S. Bajpai, Vice Chancellor, Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala; and Dr. Meeran Chadha Borwankar, IPS & Former Director General, Bureau of Police Research & Development, GOI.

The first lecture of the series was delivered by Prof. Veer Singh on the topic ‘Artificial Intelligence and Research in Higher Education’. He shared the types of AI Systems (including Knowledge-based AI Systems and Statistical Learning AI Systems) and discussed its advantages as well as disadvantages. He emphasized that AI could help the teachers to develop more effective student-centric learning modules and automated processes to evaluate students during the time of online learning and smart classroom environment. Prof. Veer Singh advised researchers to use AI based techniques/software to enhance the quality of their research work in the stages of data collection, hypothesis testing and to check the similarity/ originality of their work etc.

In the second lecture, Prof. G.S. Bajpai delivered an expert talk on ‘Selection of Topics for Research, Research Proposal and Quality of Research’. He stated that objectivity, quantification, generalization and methodology are the core elements of research in the discipline of law. He underlined that in a research proposal, a researcher should clearly state the problem of research, contextualize its significance, specify the research design and elaborate its social relevance. He recommended youngsters to conduct on qualitatively analyze the concept of legal justice and assess the impact of of laws among civilians.

During the third lecture, Dr. Meeran Chadha Borwankar enlightened participants on ‘Police Reforms and Administration of Criminal Justice’. She highlighted that pendency of a large number of criminal cases in courts of India and the low rate of conviction is a matter of serious concern which not only enhances the morale of criminals but also reduces the faith of civilians in the judicial system. She focused on the 2006 Supreme Court Ruling on police reforms and threw light on the efforts of the Maharashtra Government regarding its implementation. She stressed the need of filling up vacant posts, investment in infrastructure, regular training of police persons to upgrade standards of legal enforcement in our country.

In his presidential address, Prof. Raghavendra P. Tiwari, the Vice Chancellor, expressed his gratitude towards expert speakers for delivering the scholarly address. He encouraged researchers to focus on the societal problems to promote social justice, which will further promote equality, peace and happiness among citizens of our nation.

At the start, Prof. Tarun Arora, Dean, School of Legal Studies welcomed the participants, introduced the keynote speaker & threw light on the programme theme. Prof. Vinod K. Garg, Dean Student Welfare and Prof. R.K. Wusurika, Dean Incarge Academics extended formal greetings to the speakers of the programme and shared their remarks towards the end. On this occasion, Dr. Deepak Chauhan, HoD, Dept. of Law, Dr. Puneet Pathak, Dr. Sukhwinder Kaur and research scholars of the CUPB Dept. of Law were present. The programme was attended by faculty and students of the university as well as other educational institutions of different states of the country.