Manupatra and Justice Adda in partnership with the Awaaz Initiative supported by Youth Ki Awaaz, are pleased to announce the publication of an illustrated E book of Cases of the Supreme Court of India first published in English in 2018, and now translated into five regional languages, including Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Malayalam and Bengali. Lawctopus has been the Outreach Partner for this initiative.
The original purpose of this project was to create engaging legal content that supported and promoted discussion and debate on public interest jurisprudence advanced by the Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court of India has pioneered some landmark judgments in the area of environmental law, labour reform, gender and sexuality, issues of public duty, child rights and many others. These infographics provide clear and concise explanations of 50 prominent constitutional case summaries of the Supreme Court of India. The judgments covered have influenced public discourse, inspired generations of lawyers, reformers and activists and have contributed to access to justice for the last person.
The project sought to translate the language of the Court into a language that is accessible to an ordinary citizen. In developing this content a multi-disciplinary approach was adopted, The process of visualising these cases and creating the narrative happened in conversation between lawyers and designers. Through translation we want to ensure that the understanding of the landmark decisions is accessible to a broader audience, breaking down language barriers.
To create this compendium Manupatra and Justice Adda partnered with Awaaz in April 2023. The Awaaz Initiative aims to democratise socio-legal discourse in the country. This e-book project came together naturally as all the partner organizations aim to make legal information accessible to laypersons.
Through Lawctopus‘ support, Awaaz identified 5 Language Leads in Marathi, Hindi, Malayalam, Urdu, and Bengali. These leads then handpicked interns within their respective languages. This ensured accountability and ownership of the project. We are grateful to all 10 interns and 5 language leads for their invaluable contributions to this endeavour.
We decided to launch this on Constitution Day (or Samvidhan Divas), also known as National Law Day to commemorate the living document which imagines the rights and duties of citizens and lays down the framework for the functioning of a democratic republic. By providing resources in regional languages, individuals who are not proficient in English, the primary language of legal discourse, can comprehend the key rulings by the apex court. This compendium aims to enable citizens to be informed participants in the justice system.
We hope that this initiative will inspire more law students, lawyers, judges, academics and researchers to make an additional effort to make laws and legislative discussion accessible to all marginalised groups and to the 1.4 billion citizens of this country regardless of their background.
The eBook in your language of choice can be downloaded by clicking here.
A huge thank you to the team of interns and language leads who worked on the project.
- Rohit Sharma (Language Lead), Daisy Chetri and Virendra Ashiya for Hindi
- Toolika Suresh (Language Lead), Alen Thomas and Fida Navaz for Malayalam
- Saee Bhate (Language Lead), Ronnie and Garima for Marathi
- Riya Gupta (Language Lead), Saptaparni Raha and Suprana for Bengali
- Zeerak Jabeen (Language Lead), Md Hasnain Raza, Risha Fatema, MOBASHIR ANWAR and Alam for Urdu.