Fellows Category: Current Fellows

Geetha SP is a lawyer by profession and a writer by passion. She completed her law degree in 1994 from Sarada Vilasa Law College and started her legal practice in her hometown- K R Nagar that same year. She practiced till 2011 and during that time, she mostly dealt with cases involving issues of recovery of money, easementary rights, maintenance, etc. She also conducted criminal cases.

In addition to this, she has worked in several organizations and also served as a conciliator in multi-purpose cooperative societies, as the Vice-President of the Bar Association, President of the Sanchalana Mahila Club, Vice President of Chutuku Sahitya Parishad, President of Kavi Balaga, etc. She came to Bangalore in 2011 and thereafter worked as a Mediator at Bangalore Mediation Center, worked as a front office legal advisor at Karnataka State Legal Services Authority, as a toll-free advocate, as DLSA legal advisor, as a Panel Advocate at High Court Legal Services Authority, as Special Public Prosecutor in the District Court and now as a commercial mediator in the District and State Consumer Forums.

Her motivation to join the Samvidhaan Fellowship is to provide service to society to the best of her abilities.

 

Jairam Siddi completed his BALL B.(Hons) in 2011 from KSLU, Dharwad. He is from Yallapur in Uttara Kannada district and not only belongs to the Siddi tribe but is also the first law graduate from the Siddi community.

He started his career in the Karnataka High Court and subordinate courts. He has also organized several legal awareness activities for grassroots communities in Yallapur of Uttara Kannada district. He specializes in civil and criminal cases and has special expertise in NDPS and the Foreigners Act. When asked about his career, he says: “Overall, I have 11 years of experience as a lawyer and because I belong to one of the most backward communities, I want to use the Samvidhaan Fellowship to provide legal justice to not just my community but also other marginalised communities.”

 

Geeta Sajjanashetty is a BA LLB graduate from Gulbarga University. Born and brought up in Kalaburagi, she completed her entire education there. Immediately after graduation, she moved to Bombay and worked with unorganized workers and trade unions and represented them in labor and industrial courts.

Later, she joined the HIV/AIDS unit of Lawyers Collective, Bangalore, where she provided legal assistance, and advice and represented people affected/living with HIV/AIDS in the Family Court, Labor Court, and High Court. She has also conducted training sessions to sensitize police, doctors, lawyers, and social workers on the issue of the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS.S

he has extensively worked on matters related to Child Rights Commission, POCSO Act, and Juvenile Justice Act. As part of her advocacy on child rights, she has trained members of the Child Rights Commission, Police Officers, CWC and JJB members, and Judges of Kalaburgi and Yadgiri District Courts of Karnataka, Kerala, Bihar, and West Bengal. For the last 4 years, she has started practicing in High Court, Kalaburagi Bench, and is also a member of the Juvenile Justice Board.

 

 

D.S.Gangadhar is an advocate with 16 years of litigation experience.

He has been working as a district coordinator in SICHREM since 2009 and strongly believes that even though many laws in our country are pro-people, common people are unaware and therefore helpless to enforce them. Even though there are many government agencies that provide legal services to the people, it is not possible to deliver these services to everyone on time.

D.S.Gangadhar is extremely concerned about the underprivileged, especially women and children and has observed that when their rights are violated, instead of seeking justice, there are some who simply call it a curse of God or the result of one’s previous birth- without necessarily understanding how to actually access justice. This is where he comes in and he is eager to create legal awareness among such people.

 

Manoranjini Thomas completed her law graduation in Raichur and has also been practicing as an advocate from 2005 to 2009. She worked with the Alternative Law Forum in 2015 and later completed her Masters in Businesses Law.

Her professional life is dedicated to serving the needs of marginalised communities, especially focusing on cases relating to Dalit atrocities, women’s and child rights, family laws, and labor rights. She has also conducted several legal gender sensitization workshops, seminars, and awareness programmes .

Manoranjini is keen to work with Nyaaya to make the justice system more accessible to rural communities and also fill the gaps in making the implementation mechanism more user-friendly and time-bound.

 

Shirisha B Reddy completed her law degree in 2020 from the School of Law, Christ University (Christ Deemed to be University).

During her law studies, she served as the student convener of her college’s ‘Legal Awareness and Assistance Committee, and as part of that, she organized legal aid awareness programs and camps in several villages of Kolar, Ramanagara, Chikkaballapur, and Tumkur districts of Karnataka. Through these campaigns, she made children and village people aware of their constitutional and human rights through lessons, speeches, dramas, and surveys. All these experiences made her aware of the low level of legal awareness among the people she was serving.

Amrita completed her bachelor’s in law from NLU, Jodhpur, and her masters’ in international law from Leiden University, Netherlands.

She has worked as a legislative assistant to a member of parliament. She is now a litigating lawyer in Mysore, handling cases concerning corruption, property, and other financial issues. She is hoping to work at the subordinate courts and grassroots levels to identify issues pertinent to them and address them through litigation and awareness.

She is keen on using the benefits of technology that can provide a platform for access to legal knowledge beyond geographical and time limits in breaking social stigmas, overcoming logistical barriers, and empowering people in addressing their everyday problems.