Aug 31 2025 to Aug 31 2025 11 a.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

Public interest litigation (PIL) is a legal innovation of fairly recent vintage which was inspired by noble objectives. It has been seen as a useful tool in widening access to justice, especially in societies scarred by poverty, illiteracy, human exploitation, corruption and maladministration.

The concept took deep roots in India some thirty years ago and has now become an ubiquitous feature of the legal landscape. Over the years, however, Indian PIL has, in Dr Venkat Iyer’s view, produced a plethora of serious negative consequences, most of them unintended (but not unforeseeable), which have the potential not only to discredit the concept itself, but to irreversibly destroy the trust that the Indian masses have placed in the judiciary – an institution which has, over the past five decades, been come to be seen, rightly or wrongly, as the last bastion of freedom and the rule of law.

The lecture is aimed at shining a critical spotlight on the state of PIL in contemporary India and to suggest that the time has come for a serious reappraisal of attitudes in this important area of law and public policy.

The talk by Dr Iyer will be followed by a conversation with C N Kumar and Q&A with the audience.

Speakers

Venkat Iyer
Barrister-at-Law, UK
Dr Venkat Iyer is a barrister and academic based in Northern Ireland. He is attached to the School of Law at Ulster University where, in addition to being Director of Educational Partnerships and International Affairs, he teaches media law, constitutional law, and business law. Dr Iyer has been in legal practice since 1981 and is, among other things, a trained mediator. Between 2008-15 Dr Iyer served as Law Commissioner for Northern Ireland.

A former Nuffield Press Fellow at Cambridge University, Dr Iyer has lectured in a number of foreign universities, including Meiji University (Japan), University of Melbourne (Australia), Tsinghua University (China), Fordham University (USA), University of Malaya, International Islamic University of Malaysia (Malaysia), University of Bombay (India), and Soochow University (Taiwan), and continues to be a visiting professor in several institutions.

In 2003-2004 – and again in 2012 – he was invited by the Royal Government of Bhutan to advise on, and draft, media laws for that kingdom. In 2007, he was appointed a consultant by the World Bank to design a programme on Continuing Legal Education for the Kenyan Bar. In 2011, he was asked to review the Broadcasting Act in Vanuatu and to recommend changes to the media law regime in that country. Since 2012 he was consulted by the Burmese government on a wide range of media law related matters. Dr Iyer runs training courses on media law and media ethics for newspapers and media organisations around the world. He has also been engaged in designing and delivering capacity building programmes for judges and magistrates in various jurisdictions, and frequently runs judicial training programmes.

Dr Iyer is the author of a number of books and articles, and the editor of two journals, The Commonwealth Lawyer and The Round Table: Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, both published from London.

C N Kumar
Consultant & Public Interest Litigant
C. N. Kumar is a Bengaluru-based consultant known for helping multinational companies establish operations in India. With a master’s in personnel management from TISS Mumbai, Kumar is valued for his expertise in infrastructure and regulatory setup.

As an active citizen he has filed and is associated with many PILs.