‘Waqf Law on the Anvil’ | 5th Sri. Hunasikote Abdul Ghaffar Annual Memorial Lecture

The National Law School of India University, Bengaluru is organising the 5th Sri. Hunasikote Abdul Ghaffar Annual Memorial Lecture on April 29, 2025 at 4.30 pm. The lecture will be delivered by Zakia Soman, Founder member of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, India,  on the topic ‘Waqf Law on the Anvil’.

About the Lecture Series

This memorial lecture was initiated by the Institute of Public Policy with the support of Prof. Adbul Aziz, Chair on Religious Minorities, NLSIU in memory of his father Sri. Hunasikote Abdul Ghaffar. Mr. Ghaffar passed away in 1982 in Hunasikote at the age of 74.

The first lecture in this series was delivered by Prof. Karkala Seetharam on April 3, 2019 on the topic “Human Rights as Public Policy.”

About the Speaker

Zakia Soman is a founder member of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, a mass organization of muslim women in India. She heads the Peace and Human Security theme in Action Aid. She is a member of Saape, South Asian Alliance for Poverty Eradication which engages with the issues of excluded communities regionally. She works and writes on issues of peace and justice, secularism, human rights, minority rights and rights of muslim women. Her articles advocating rights of Muslim women and tolerance and harmony with other communities are published in various Indian publications. She has edited a book on dalit Muslims and a volume on peace and justice in South Asia. She has been a university lecturer and a newspaper editor in Ahmedabad.

About the Discussant 

Prof. Ravivarma Kumar is a former Advocate General of Karnataka and Chairperson of the Karnataka Backward Classes Commission. Kumar has appeared in many prominent cases in his career, especially involving Constitutional Law, where he has drawn parallels with symbolism in other faiths, and relied on Article 15 of the Constitution which prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.