Kumar Shanu

Kumar Shanu
Personal details
Born	(1993-12-25) 25 December 1993 Mokama, India
Alma mater	St. Paul's High School, Patna Loyola High School, Patna Amity Law School
Profession	Lawyer
Known for	Public Interest Litigation
Website	Official website

Kumar Shanu (Hindi: कुमार शानू) is a Delhi-based lawyer and social activist.

Career

Kumar is Founding Partner ^[1] of Greviance Solution,^[2] an organisation setup with the prime objective of resolving the consumer disputes between the Consumer and the Company amicably without litigation.^[3] He along with his friend and partner at Grievance Solution, Paras Jain formed Whistle for Public Interest- WHIP, a group representing public spirited law students who work for solution to problems prevailing in the society through Judiciary.^[4]

Initiatives as a law student

Kumar had taken the Central Board of Secondary Education(CBSE) to Supreme Court of India for non compliance of its Judgement in the matter of CBSE vs. Aditya Bandopadhyay wherein the apex court of the country had held that answer scripts be made available to students via the RTI Act if a request is made within the period of three months for which the answer-books are maintained by the CBSE. The matter involved rights of more than 5 Million examinees every year. CBSE conducts Board Exams, JEE, NEET and NET in India. The students were denied access to their evaluated answer-sheets through RTI. The Supreme Court of India directed the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to “scrupulously observe” the directions made by the court in a previous judgment. Kumar was represented by Public Interest Crusader Advocate Prashant Bhushan in this matter.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]}

Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission had reduced the gap between the Bench of presiding members and the place earmarked for parties to argue their cases on his Representation to the President of the Commission in public interest^[13] Kumar and his friends had pointed out that the big gap between the Bench and consumer applicants was creating hurdle for the latter, especially senior citizens, in putting their oral arguments while seeking relief.^[14]

The Delhi High Court in 2016 oversaw the amendment of its own Right to Information(RTI) Rules after a writ petition was filed by WHIP. Kumar argued this matter before the division bench of the Delhi High Court headed by the Chief Justice. The RTI fees in the Courts of Delhi have been harmonised with the RTI Act and a provision to make information free for BPL applicants has been inserted.^{[15][16][17][18]}

In second year of law school, he is said to have established a Legal Aid Cell in his law school through which he organized several legal aid and awareness camps in juvenile homes, factories, government schools, aaganwardis and different village panchayats of Noida and provided legal assistance to several Under-Trial Prisoners and Juveniles.^[19] He has served as the Founder President of Legal Aid Cell.

Family

Kumar is the great grandson of Late Babu Ramvilas Singh,a philanthropist and social worker. Babu Ramvilas Singh is known for not accepting salary and pension for his services as a government school teacher.^[19]

Further details

Kumar Shanu has also worked with Justice VP Vaish, Delhi High Court, Senior Advocate and Former Minister for Law and Justice, Mr. Salman Khurshid, Hemant Sahai & Associates and trial court Advocates in the capacity of an intern .^[20]

References