ASHOK AGARWAL, ADVOCATE, DELHI HIGH COURT, NEW DELHI
Ashok Agarwal is often referred as PIL man. He is instrumental in getting the ” National Policy for Treatment of Rare Disease” through a PIL filed on behalf of a Poor Rickshaw Puller.. This is one of the fastest policy announced in any country. He has brought Rare Disease to the national headlines and helped millions who were clueless and Hopeless.
Ashok Agarwal is known for his untiring efforts to make good schooling and health facilities accessible to the poor. His PILs filed through ‘Social Jurist’ – an NGO run by him – have played a significant role in bringing changes in admission irregularities and lack of basic amenities in state-run schools.
Ashok started practicing law in 1976 in the Delhi High Court. Coming from a trade union background, Ashok says he had closely observed the inhuman work conditions of poor workers and it motivated him to fight for their fundamental rights. He started fighting cases for labourers. Slowly, he took up the fight for free medical treatment and education for poor, in private hospitals and schools built on the land given by the government at subsidized rate.
In 1997, he filed his first PIL on education in the High Court, which raised the issue of arbitrary fee hike by unaided recognised private schools in the national capital. The same year, he filed another PIL raising the of lack of basic amenities in schools run by Delhi government and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
Ashok, 65, says that while the response from Courts have always been encouraging, unending legal battles are tiring and demoralising at times. “The purpose of these PILs is to wake up the authorities and bring a change in the unjust and discriminatory system, but when the authorities are totally insensitive to the needs of children and particularly children of the poor, how long one can go on fighting? However, I am determined to continue to fight till my last breath,” he says.
Jr Legal Advisor
Shambhavi Ravishankar, BBA.LL.B(hons.),LL.M Human Rights – Felix Scholar 2015
Having grown up in India with Rare Disease known as “Alagille Syndrome, Shambhavi’s commitment to fighting for the rights of persons living with rare diseases led her to study law. Shambhavi is a Felix Scholar and lawyer, qualified with a Masters in Human Rights Law from the University of Reading. Her areas of practice include, human rights, health laws, general civil laws, dispute resolution and intellectual property law.
Currently she also serves as Junior Director on the Board of the Alagille Syndrome Alliance, which is an International Not-for-Profit Organisation that is pushing for a cure for Alagille Syndrome as well as rendering patient support services.
