It is evident from the past studies that legal research and studies play a pivotal role in ensuring social justice to the people of a developing economy, particularly in a region such as the North-Eastern region of India having wide diversities amidst unity. With this objective in mind, the University of Gauhati set up the Department of Law on 23rd March 1976 to delve further into the study of Law and conduct of legal research beyond the course curriculum of the existing LL.B. program. Accordingly, the University started a postgraduate program of two years for conferring the Degree of LL.M. to the desirable students. it has also decided that initially the course program of LL.M. Degree would offer specialisations only in two areas of Constitutional Law & Administrative Law, and Criminal Law. During the initial years, the LL.M. program was conducted on the basis of LL.M. Part I and Part II annually. Later on, the semester system was introduced from 2010 onwards. Hence, the LL.M. program is now offered with four semesters. The intake capacity of each semester is 40 which is now enhanced to 50 and duration of the program is 2 years. In addition, to the above mentioned specialisation area, the Department also offers specialisation in the Human Rights Law. In addition to this, the Department focusses on the Ph.D. programs in the field of law and its allied areas for more than several decades.
One of the noblest initiative that the Gauhati University sought to achieve through the program of Masters in Law was that the customary laws of the myriad tribes inhabiting the plains and hills of the North-Eastern region would be brought into limelight, thereby paving the path for integrating this laws into the mainstream legal framework under the Constitution of India.
Our Vision
Developing human capital and establishing the Department as centre of excellence for conducting cutting-edge legal research that will assist the Nation in safeguarding its integrity, ensuring justice and freedom to its citizens and assisting in its progress and prosperity by laying the foundation for a strong legal framework as per the ideal and aspirations enshrined in the Constitution.
Our Mission
WE impart
Quality legal education at the LL.M. level.
Full-fledged research experience at the PhD level.
Critical Legal Thought, intersectional approach and socially relevant dissemination of knowledge of law(s).
Overall growth of the pupils with special emphasis on core societal values through extension/outreach programmes in upholding the rule of law.
In the light of NEP 2020, joining hands with other academic disciplines for collaborative research and legal studies for building a nation based on four vital components- Freedom, Justice, Peace and Common Brotherhood.
A Brief History
Prior to 1976, there was no institution in the North East India imparting higher legal education in Law at the LL.M. level. The need of an institution for higher education in Law was felt by the people of this part of the country for a long time. The Faculty of Law took resolutions to open LL.M. as early as in 1969, but it did not materialize for want of teachers capable of teaching at the Post Graduate level. During the National Emergency, a decision was taken by the University to hand over the then existing Law College to the Government of Assam and to introduce a course at the Post Graduate level in its campus itself leading to the Degree of LL.M.
The journey of the Department of Law began with several hiccups during its initial years. The challenges arose from a number of constraints that confronted this grand initiative of the Gauhati University. The foremost among these difficulties were the shoratge of skilled teachers to conduct studies and research at the postgraduate level and the lack of adequate funds for setting up the necessary infrastructure.
The classes commenced for the first batch in 1976-77. Initially, there were only four teachers- Late Professor(Dr.) N. Sanajaoba, Late Dr. H.N. Kalita, Dr. A Hussain and Sri A.C. Deka- who were all LL.M. Degree holders from other Universities and they took classes in the afternoon. Late Khitish Chandra Medhi, the then Principal of the University Law College headed the Department as the Administrative Head and was given the task of preparing the syllabus in collaboration with the Teaching staffs. He completed the task to a T before the admission of the first batch of the students. Justice K.N. Saikia joined the first four legal luminaries and taught LL.M. students for a couple of years.
Late K.C. Medhi was the Dean of Law and he made valuable contributions in establishing the Department. the noted academicians who have adored the august position of the Dean, Faculty of Law, Gauhati University at different phases of time are as follows: Late K.C. Medhi, Late Prof. K.N. Sarma, Late Prof. N. Sanajaoba, Prof. B.K. Chakravarty, Prof. S. Rajkhowa, Prof. R.C. Borpatra Gohain, Prof. S. Deka.
Likewise, the Head of the Department of Law are as follows: Late K.C. Medhi, Late Prof. K.N. Sarma, Late Prof. N. Sanajaoba, Prof. B. K. Chakravarty, Prof. S. Rajkhowa, Prof. R.C. Borpatra Gohain, Prof. S. Deka and Dr. A. Baruah.
VIDHIJYOTI
It is a annual research based publication and the signature mouth piece of the scholarly articles written by research scholars on various legal issues focussing on core societal values. Its inception can be traced back to the late 1980's.
Publication Policy
Papers submitted shall be original contributions and must be checked by Plagiarism Checker (anti-plagiarism) prescribed by the UGC, New Delhi. It should not be under consideration for any other publication at the same time. Papers will be received in electronic form as well as hard copy. Papers shall be published only after scrutiny (Double Blind Peer Review) after initial vetting from the Editorial Board for fulfilling the criteria of publication.
Ethics Policy
Authors and contributors are required to follow extent ethical policy as determined by UGC including that on plagiarism check mandate. Submission of below 10% similarity index certificate is mandatory.
The Editorial Board strictly adheres to a double blind peer review process following identical parameters like relevancy of topic, comprehensiveness, original contribution, novelty etc.
No fee or any form of payment is charged from contributors towards publication.
No payment of any honorarium is provided by the Editorial Board to contributors.
Focus & scope: The journal primarily focusses on socio-legal issues of contemporary significance grounded on philosophical concepts and sound empirical research with the objective of facilitating inputs for academics, policy makers and legisprudence. It endeavours to create a culture of promoting scholarly works and address legal issues of contemporary relevance.
Privacy Statement: Information of personal nature provided by members of advisory board, editorial board and contributors will be sincerely respected following extent privacy, policy parameters.
Disclaimer: The editors, publishers and printer donot own any responsibility for the views expressed by the contributors and for the errors, if any, in the information contained in the journal and the author shall be solely responsible for the same. If legal action arises on any published work then the respective author(s) of such article shall be made individually liable and the publisher shall not be held liable in any case, provided such articles shall be immediately removed from the University Journal web page on receiving intimation of such action from appropriate legal authorities in this behalf.
Open Access: The online edition of the journal will be available at Gauhati University webpage: https://journals.gauhati.ac.in is made freely available to all interested persons globally without any restriction and can be used for academic and research facilitating dissemination and promotion of academic ideas, subject to proper acknowledgement.
Feedback: The Editorial Board appreciates feedback and positive criticism from the readers and contributors for improving the quality of the journal.
Financial Support: The Journal is published with the financial support of the University of Gauhati, Assam.
Copyright: The Gauhati University shall be the sole copyright owner of all the published materials. Apart from fair dealing with for purposes of research, private study or criticism, no part of the journal can be copied, abridged, translated or stored in any retrieval system, photography or other system or reproduced in any form whether mechanical, digital, electronic, optical photographic or otherwise without prior written permission from the University.
Guidelines to the Author(s): The Journal, Vidhijyoti follows a double blind peer reviewing procedure after initial vetting by the Editorial Board. All submissions shall include an abstract highlighting the novelty of the research as the conclusion derived in brief.
Authors are requested to submit:
A blinded manuscript without any author, name (s) and affiliation(s) in the text. Self identifying citations and references in the article text should be avoided.
A separate covering page containing title, all author names, affiliations and the contact information of the corresponding author. Any acknowledgements, disclosures, or funding information should also be included on this page.
Title page: Please make sure your title page contains the following information.
Title: The title should be concise and informative. The format shall be Times New Roman, Font size 14, Bold, centre-aligned and in capital letters with Line spacing 1.5 and space between paragraphs should be kept automatic.
Author Information (in a separate covering page)
The name(s) of the author(s)
The affiliation(s) of the author(s) i.e., department, institution, city, state, country, pin.
An active email address of the corresponding author.
PLEASE NOTE:Neither name nor any identity should be mentioned in the original manuscript as the journal follows Double Blinded Peer Review.
Abstract:
An abstract is mandatory for all contribution. While framing the abstract, the following instructions are to be followed:
The length of the abstract shall not exceed 250 words;
It shall briefly introduce the subject matter under study and shall give brief insight about the conclusion derived from the study;
The abstract shall be written in clear and simple language with minimum utilization of technical terminologies as far as possible;
The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.
The format for writing the abstract:
It shall be Times New Roman
Font Size 11, Bold, Italics, justified aligned, line spacing 1.0, and remove space between paragraphs.
The Heading 'abstract' at the top shall be written as 'Abstract'
Keywords: The Abstract shall contain 3-5 keywords;
Every abstract shall be followed by a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 keywords. The keywords shall follow the same format as that of the abstract, i.e., Times New Roman, Font Size 11, Bold, Italics, Justified Aligned, Line Spacing 1.0, Remove space between paragraphs.
Declarations
All manuscripts must contain a declaration that is original in nature and not submitted elsewhere and the manuscript passed through anti-plagiarism check software.
Contents
The contents of the main text shall be divided under different levels of headings.
Level 1 heading- Main headings (all bold caps) numbered in Roman numerical (upper case ) in the centre
Level 2 heading- Sub-headings shall be in roman numericals (lowercase) left aligned in bold letters
Level 3 heading- Parts of sub-headings shall be in small (alphabet letters) left aligned in bold letters, italics.
It must include INTRODUCTION & CONCLUSION.
Text Formatting
Manuscripts should be submitted in microsoft word, doc, docx format.
Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 12 point Times New Roman) for text
Use Italics for emphasis
Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages
Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar
Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables
Save your file in docx format (word 2007 or higher) or doc format (older word versions)
Word Limit
Words between 8,000 - 10,000 for Articles
2500 -4000 for Notes and Case Comments, Reports
1000- 1500 for Legislative Review
1000-2500 for Book Review
Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.
Footnotes
Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include adequate references for the works cited in the text. Use footnotes instead of endnotes.
The footnote style should be the Footnote Rules followed by the Indian Law Institute, New Delhi.
Normal plain font (e.g., 11 point Times New Roman) with single line spacing.
Journal names and Book Titles, Case Law should be italicized.
Permissions
In case of any inclusion of figures that have already been published elsewhere, there must be permission from the copyright owner(s) where necessary and with due acknowledgement otherwise.
VIDHIJYOTI Vol VII (2022-23)