My last interaction with Dr. Ghanshyam was at a dinner hosted by the Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation at the Radisson Hotel in New Delhi on 6th March, 2010. Never did I imagine that this would be my last interaction with him and that my scheduled meeting with him in May would never take place. Dr. Singh as I knew him was a kind-hearted person who was always willing to render advice to those who approached him. Dr. Singh started of his illustrious teaching career after practicing for several years as an Advocate and taught at several leading universities such as City University of Hong Kong, Delhi University, NALSAR University of Law where he served as Registrar and National Law University Delhi where he was serving as Registrar till his sudden demise on 1st April, 2010. Dr. Ghanshyam was considered as an expert in the field of alternate dispute resolution and environment law and was also a member of the National Drafting Committee on the 'DNA Profiling Bill' constituted by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. In addition, he was also involved in drafting several other legislations.
My first interaction with him was during the 2nd International Infrastructure and Construction Law Moot (IICLAM) at the Radisson hotel in New Delhi in September 2008 where I was a member of the organizing council and he was representing NLU Delhi along with the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. (Dr.) Ranbir Singh and a handful of students to sign an MoU with the IICLAM partners to become the India organizer for the event from the following year onwards. Following that meeting, our interactions increased as I became a frequent visitor to the National Law University campus be it for giving a lecture on article writing at the kind invitation of Dr. Ranbir Singh or during the IICLAM the following year, Leiden-Sarin Air Law Moot or for any conference where both Dr. Ghanshyam and Dr. Ranbir Singh would very kindly invite me to attend the same and interact with the students. Moreover, Dr. Ghanshyam had also very kindly consented to become one of the panelists for the India Law Journal legal writing competition “Licito Concurso’ and hence I would frequently communicate with him over email regarding the same.
On 1st April, at 2:45 PM, when I received a call from one of ILJ’s Deputy Editor’s who was also a student of Dr. Ghanshyam at NALSAR, Hyderabad where Dr. Ghanshyam served as Registrar prior to being appointed as the Registrar of NLU Delhi and informed me about his sudden demise due to a massive cardiac arrest that afternoon, I was extremely shocked and saddened by the news. I still find it hard to believe that he is no more with us though his memories will always be there. My condolences go out to his family, Dr. Ranbir Singh, faculties and students of both NLU and NALSAR. May his soul rest in peace.
_________________________________________________________________
VIKRANT PACHNANDA is the Director of India Law Journal. He is also pursuing is B.A. LL.B (Hons) from Gujarat National Law University, India and can be contacted at vikrant@indialawjournal.com.
|
