Mukul Sinha
Advocate Mukul Sinha is one of the founding members of the Jan Sangharsh Manch, a civil rights body that has several successful Public Interest Litigations to its credit in the Gujarat High Court. He unearthed crucial facts about the Godhra carnage and post-Godhra riots in the course of his cross examinations of witnesses.
Mukul Sinha is a scientist turned lawyer, holding degrees in MSc (Physics) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur; and a PhD (Physics) from Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad. Realizing the struggles of industrial workers in Gujarat, he was instrumental in the formation of the Gujarat Federation of Trade Unions. While fighting for the rights of the working class, he ventured to study law and obtained the degree of LLB in 1988.
Combining his science and law expertise he presented a research report in the Gujarat High Court which garnered international recognition, titled “Kutch Quake Profile”, seeking orders from the court for incorporating quake resistant design code in the building regulations after the 2001 Gujarat earthquake.
Mukul Sinha has also participated in the Nanavati Commission inquiring into the Gujarat violence of 2002. Most recently he has been conducting the “fake encounter” cases of Sohrabuddin, Ishrat Jahan, Javed and Sadik Jamal. Mumbai-based legal bimonthly, “Combat Law,” nominated him as its “Human Rights Lawyer of the Year” in 2005.
The experiences of the past eight years of “Jan Sangharsh Manch” a civil liberties organization consisting of social and trade union activists and lawyers , have given rise to some hope. In the struggle for the justice for the victims of violence, JSM experiences shows that sustained, consistent and meticulous work in the field of law and investigation linked with grass root struggle can revive the secular democratic forces and make the judiciary functional even in the state like Gujarat where thousands of Muslims were killed in the genocide of 2002.
