Institutional Best Practices
BEST PRACTICE- I: Promoting Legal Education through Court Room Drama (Drama De La Corte)
• To develop a passion for art
• To build up communication skills
• To enhance oratory, argumentative and mooting skill
• To fabricate Law and Literature
• To formulate drafting and research techniques
• To ward off stage fear
• To adopt a new pedagogy within the classroom atmosphere
Law is a practical subject belonging to social sciences stream, cannot be taught and confined within a classroom set up. Hence, this practice ensures wider coverage and scope for experiential learning through an outdoor activity involving interdisciplinary aspects of Law, Language and Life.
English language proficiency and skills are the most significant requirement for a Law student. Being the first of its kind, JSSLC has taken this innovative initiative of blending Art, Law and Language to disseminate the legal practice and procedure through theatre.
The event was arranged in view of World Theatre Day This unique activity develops the spirit of team work, plethora of ideas and enhances photographic memory amongst the students. The art of script writing is learnt which improves the drafting skills of the future lawyers. One of the main advantages of this activity is that, through dialogue delivery the communication, oratory and mooting skills are inculcated. The Court etiquettes, procedures and practices are imbibed by the students through narrating, acting and simulation.
Hence, this activity sets in motion the cosmopolitan culture, coordination and paves way for a holistic learning atmosphere at the institution.
The success of this practice is quite evident from the fact that the level of enthusiasm and zeal amongst the students was at the brim. The performance and participation of the students was exemplary and commendable on stage. The stakeholders have immensely appreciated this innovative activity and have recommended the same to the other colleges.
Problems encountered and resources required:
• To cope with students who were not good at acting.
• The stage etiquettes were not known to all students.
• Time constraints.
• To coordinate the students after the class hours.
- To cope with students who were not interested and good in acting
- The stage etiquettes were not known to all students
- Time constraints
- Sharing of limited resources
- To coordinate with the students after the class hours
- Diverse opinions and interests
- The costumes that were required for the play had to be rented
- More cordless mikes were required to synchronize acting and dialogue delivery.
BEST PRACTICE-II : Community Service through Legal Aid (Nyay Samhitha)
- To create legal awareness among the general public.
- To cater to the legal problems of the society.
- To provide legal aid to the needy.
- To grant free legal counselling.
- To work in consonance with the District Legal Services Authority.
- To give practical exposure through experiential learning.
- To sensitize the learners and public about law.
In order to ensure social accountability, the institution has been organizing Legal Aid programme through legal Aid Clinic. The location of the college is an added advantage to assist a larger mass in this venture reaching out to the maximum deprived classes which is our top priority. Like CSR for corporate sectors, Social Accountability for Law institutions is the hallmark.
This practice enhances the proficiency and ethics of students in order to serve the community. The limitation of this practice is that, the beneficiaries are confined only to the villages in and around Mysuru. The active involvement of faculty and students in the functioning of the Cell is an added valour to this practice. This practice reaches out to larger masses at Suttur Jathra where legal aid and assistance is given by our students to public through demonstrations like street plays, village visits, creating awareness to the children and women on legal issues. The NSS and NCC wings of the college assists Legal Aid Clinic in functioning in an effective manner.
The citizens come forward with their problems and legal disputes to the Cell and this forum has resolved their disputes successfully. The Cell coordinates with the District Legal Services Authority, Mysuru, to make its functioning more progressive. The students have done internship in the DLSA to get a first hand exposure. The students after passing out of the institution can deal with any kind of disputes and challenges in their profession.
As the services provided is free of cost, the public have a notion that their problems may not get resolved and be addressed methodically. The time constraints due to semester scheme is one of the major obstacles of this practice, because of which, the expected outcome is not fulfilled. Another constraint is that, the local language of kannada is not known to the student community at our college because the students belong to different States across the country.
Planning to start legal aid branches of the Cell at JSS Hospital, Mysuru and in other nearby rural areas to cater to a larger community.
The workshop on mediation for the final years by International trained mediators from Bengaluru Mediation Centre, Bengaluru, assists the Legal Aid Clinic in bringing about awareness and enhance the mediation skills.
The different ADR mechanisms (Arbitration, Mediation, Conciliation and Negotiation) hones the different skills pertaining to advocacy and profession.
BEST PRACTICE-III : CONTRIBUTE TO COMBAT COVID 19
To imbibe social accountability, human values, life skills and a sense of involvement amongst the student fraternity towards the nation.
To join hands with the District administration in combating the pandemic.
To obtain parents consent.
To select of cadets, training, and availability of cadets during lockdown were some of the challenges.
The cadets and ANO assisted District Administration in manning the Helplines in Covid War Room by answering distress calls; besides giving assurance and counseling for recovery. They also provided information on availability of ICU’s, ventilators, isolation SOPs. Though Transportation and refreshments were provided, the students were apprehensive due to Covid.
The District Administration could combat the issue easily despite surging cases as the citizens and people from remote areas could get timely help and treatment. The effective decentralised administration with the help of NCC Cadets was visible through this practice.
Due to continuous calls by the public, the cadets had to cut down their break time. Maintaining SOP amongst the cadets was a challenging task.
Availability of service-minded volunteers was exigent.
The District Administration should create more avenues to include the youth in handholding the Government in such difficult times.
BEST PRACTICE -IV: ACQUAINT WITH YOUR LIBRARY
To familiarise the students regarding the library resources, services offered, facilities available and to craft them as better library users.
Digitalization, revolutionized use of database but, has snubbed the reading practice of students, hence, there is a need to infuse the library culture in them which was initially challenging.
The unique concept was initiated from 22nd October 2008. The idea behind this was to orient the students towards library culture. The first competition was to write an article on ‘I love my library because….’ and the winners are appreciated and awarded. Many such distinct competitions are continually organised.
This practice is successful and it motivates the student fraternity to participate in the competitions. The outcome of this is a drastic increase in the library users consistently and has enhanced the awareness of the students about the library resources.
To convince the students to visit the library, participate in the competitions and to orient them on the significance of enhancing their personal and professional skills was a great challenge.
This practice develops the knowledge of the library users and equips them with the library resources. It can be concluded that, ‘Nothing can replace the book.’
BEST PRACTICE -V: LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES
Examination Workshop for freshers’ aims at familiarizing the pattern of question paper, common mistakes committed, mentioning question numbers, answering etc
In order to assist for preparation of exams, as students err on the same lines, the workshop projects common mistakes of previous answer scripts to help them realize their faults.
This practice is a part of academic calendar since autonomy. The best scripts are displayed for reference. The PPT s’ guide as to how; long, short and hypothetical questions have to be analysed. The workshop ensures to minimise the mistakes and also builds their self esteem in facing the exams.
The practice assures in reducing the number of mistakes to a maximum extent. The workshop instils self- confidence and boosts the morale of the students to face the exams. The overall performance in different academic programmes is relatively better.
Despite several reminders many students fail to attend the workshop, some of them don’t pay heed to the presentation and land up making the same mistakes.
Such programs in the college widen the horizons of the students regarding their approach towards examinations. It also makes them well prepared to face any kind of assessment without hesitation.
Institutional Best Practices-VI
• To adhere to the concept that lawyers are social engineers.
• To create a better society.
• To ensure better use of human resources.
• To empower the youth of the nation.
• To contribute our part in the personality development.
• To bring about a humanistic approach towards life.
• To instill service motive amongst the students.
India being a developing country needs the awakening of its youth to make it a developed nation. In this scenario, the college students play a vital role in making a nation stand unique in its projection with other countries and that can be done only when one sacrifices his personal good for the betterment of the nation. The above said practice brings about a culture amongst the students which makes them strong to cope up with risks in their lives.
We at JSSLC believe in the concept of ‘Salus Populi Suprema Lex’ meaning the welfare of the people be supreme Law. In pursuit of this concept, the management and college have seen that the societal issues are addressed on a warfooting basis. Being a philanthropic institution, we have a holistic approach and hence we have empathized with the victims of flood hit areas in Karnataka and Kerala (201819).
Inspired by the institutional motto, the faculty and students generously donated and contributed towards this cause. The students from Kerala contributed the fund which was earmarked for Onam celebrations. In addition, the student leaders also took initiative to collect donation and materials (warm clothes, packed ready to eat food, groceries, medicines, fruits, sanitary napkins etc.) In total around Four Lakh rupees was collected and was handed over to the Coorg District Administration and the CMDRF (Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund) Kerala. An alumnus of our college Mr. Ashwas who resides in Wayanad and holds a good position in BCI, Kerala, assisted our students in transporting and distributing the materials to the needy.
This is one of the incidents to prove that, the college has social accountability and responsibility towards the nation in times of emergency and necessity.
The shadow of success is evident by the facts and figures of the amount and materials collected. People supported and contributed positively to this great cause thereby encouraging and motivating the faculty and student fraternity. The success of this activity will help the students to uphold universal values and contribute to the society in future.
Any beginning will have its own short comings likewise even this practice had its own obstacles:
• It was difficult to convince the people regarding the authenticity of this initiative.
• Time Constraints were faced by the team because of a busy semester schedule.
• Transporting the materials was another problem that was faced by the group.
• Communication lapse due to network issues.