Specialist in Constitutional Law and top ranker in Legal Pedagogy, Mr. Aum Kotwal is an established lawyer and an empanelled advocate for various Municipal Corporations. Here are a few excerpts from our conversation with him-
Q. During your law course at Nirma University, what were the things you found completely unique from other universities?
A. I did my first year of graduation from Ferguson Law College (D.E.S Society), Pune and then I got my admission in Institute of Law, Nirma University. So I think I’ll be in a better position to draw out a binary between the two. Ferguson taught me creative freedom and Nirma taught me how to apply it in any given circumstances. The uniqueness of the institute – apart from the long range of facilities made available to the students – is its ability and ingenuity to train its students for the real world challenges. I am confident that because of this result oriented approach you’ll hardly find a graduate from Nirma who is not sure of his or her life goals. Not that one must always have such clarity when it comes to ones life goals, but this is something that the institute inspired in you. The institute genuinely puts in all efforts to help students interact with people from varied walks of life, by calling experts from various fields of law; which makes the journey all the more interesting.
Q. How many hours do you believe students should put in, outside of class for each hour in your class?
A. As Einstein said “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand yourself”. I think the student should just have some basic understanding of facts and rest can be taken care of. And of course if the student is ready to show some curiosity and will to keep learning – that might help.
Q. In your law firm Kotwal Associates, what has been the most infamous and memorable case that you took up?
A. There are are many. But the two that stand out are pro bono matters which, I think, are the most thrilling ones. One was a student matter of about 300 BBA students struggling to get their degrees recognised by the Hon’ble Division Bench headed by the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court. The Hon’ble Court was pleased to pass some direction to the UGC to consider the case of the students which enabled the students to pursue higher studies and it saved them from the aftermath. Second one is a land matter which is too close to my heart where about 298 small scale businessmen from my hometown (Bhuj-Kutch) that had suffered during the earthquake of 26.01.2001 were issued notice by the authority for breach of condition of grant of land. The Hon’ble Court was pleased to quash and set aside all 298 notices issued by the authority.
Q. What do you feel is a must for a student pursuing his LL.M in Legal Pedagogy?
A. I did my LL.M in legal research and pedagogy from Institute of Law, Nirma University and am currently pursuing my Ph.D on Article 370. The LL.M program was like a stepping stone, as it focused on teaching the technicalities of research which in this post-truth era is an essential thing, I believe. It also focused on pedagogy, or the art and science of teaching itself. Thus, to pursue this LL.M program in Legal Research and Pedagogy I think the student must have some dedication towards both the aspects aforesaid that is research and teaching.This apart, I have also done a short term course on Poetry and Politics from Oxford University; which has nothing to do with law per se but I think all my former academic pursuits helped me gain some confidence to go into this unknown field, especially the masters program I just referred to, because it had more to do with research in particular, of course legal research but I think it helped me develop some sort of knack towards academics. If I could say it bought the researcher out in the broad day light and this researcher was me, persistently looking for something new.
Q. As an empanelled advocate for Ahmedabad Urban Development Agency, Gandhinagar Urban Development Agency and Rajkot Municipal Corporation, how do you handle cases of negligence?
A. I think both the corporation and the urban development authorities in Gujarat are extremely careful when it comes to their construction and development projects so there are hardly any cases of negligence against them and to the best of my knowledge none before the High Court. So, usually I deal with town planning matters which is a rather interesting state law and is absolutely pressing on the agenda of development and sustainability.
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