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Our Work

PART III strives to engage with the overlapping themes of law, human rights and social justice. We work with survivors/victim families of systemic and identity-based violence and community organizations supporting the survivors.

PART III believes that all instances of individual violence are rooted in structural and functional realities of society. Hence, an intersectional approach in understanding the problem is critical for a pursuit towards positive transformation or justice.

Our Mission

PART III is envisioned as an organization committed to reclaiming and deepening the values enshrined in Part III of the Indian Constitution. We believe that the Constitution serves as a reference for an informed and pedagogical engagement on the subject of rights and freedom of disadvantaged groups and vulnerable communities. Part III strives to bridge the gap between formal and substantive actualisation of Fundamental Rights through collaborative, action-oriented research, coupled with strategic litigation and advocacy. Through persistent engagement with intersecting and overlapping thematics of Human Rights and Social Justice, Part III imagines the sustenance of a just and equal society.

Our Approach

PART III envisions itself to be an Action Research and Resource Centre with projects being designed and implemented within the ‘action research’ framework. We attempt to use the law and research as tools for systemic transformation. On one hand, Part III directly intervenes as lawyers, mitigators and activators of the community support system and on the other, we conduct in-depth participatory and legal research apart from advocacy work around the themes of human rights and social justice. The idea also is to intervene and conduct research on issues simultaneously to devise a mixed method where our intervention work directly feeds into the policy research and strategic litigation and similarly the research component of the work informs and sharpens the intervention tools.

Areas of Work

Research

Part III is currently involved in in-depth participatory and legal research apart from advocacy work around the themes of human rights and social justice. We work in collaboration with disadvantaged groups and oppressed communities around the themes of gender, caste and other atrocities, forest rights, criminal law and special legislations

Intervention

Part III directly intervenes as lawyers, mitigators and activators of the community support system. We are working on cases of persecution and violence faced by disadvantaged groups and provide pro bono litigation assistance to partner organizations. Our intervention team of lawyers and mitigators works extensively with the victims and survivors of violence.

Training

At Part III, we conduct participatory training workshops with survivors of identity based violence and activists from community organizations. We also conduct workshops with survivors and women from disadvantaged communities for perspective and leadership building, legal awareness and empowerment. In addition to that we are also involved in a similar activity with activists associated with community organizations on documentation and evidence building and paralegal training.

Advocacy

Research and intervention inform the advocacy carried out by Part III around thematic issues and in individual cases. It further entails legal advocacy which is based on the research findings around a thematic issue in order to devise public interest litigation seeking systemic accountability. Apart from that, Part III also recognises media and campaign strategies as important tools in the pursuit of justice. We strive to use these for strengthening and increasing the scope of impact in selected cases and around pertinent thematic areas.

Resource Centre

The Resource Centre aims to create educational and informational bridges linking the criminal justice system and the citizen. The idea is to promote public participation through debate and deliberation on systemic issues of concern.

Part III aims to create accessible theme-based archives on issues of gender, identity based violence, etc that can be used by activists, lawyers and paralegals. The documentation and data collated during our research along with secondary literature collected on the issue will be categorized, labeled and annotated and presented in the form of an online archive on our website. 

An annual publication of Part III on contemporary aspects of Fundamental and Constitutional Rights. The publication is also aimed towards simplifying complex legal concepts and debates into easy-to-understand material that can be used by diverse groups of activists, lawyers, paralegals, journalists, students etc. The publication will be accompanied by explainer videos for larger dissemination. Considering freedom of speech and expression as an essential constitutional and human right, our first volume attempts to demystify and critically evaluate the contempt law in India and study its impact on the freedom of speech and expression and judicial accountability.

Prashant Kumar

Prashant works as an Associate (Litigation) at Bihar office of PART -III, where he conducts litigation before the district courts and the High Court at Patna. Previously, he was an Assistant Legal Aid Defence Counsel at Bilaspur District Court in Chhattisgarh where he served as a public defender, extending legal aid to prisoners while in prison, as well as before the court at all stages of criminal trial. Prior to his work in Bilaspur, he worked at Human Rights Law Network, Delhi, where he was representing survivors of various human rights violations, before multiple fora in Delhi, and was also involved in conducting legal awareness camps and fact findings. He specialises in disability & mental health law.

Prashant holds a degree in Computer Science & Engineering from Uttar Pradesh Technical University. He is also a Social Work graduate from Delhi School of Social Work and holds a law degree from Law Center II, University of Delhi. Prashant strongly believes in grassroot activism and litigation to bring social change. He speaks English, Hindi, Magahi and Bhojpuri.

Pratima Kumari

Pratima Kumari is Bihar State Co-Ordinator for PART-III, where she provides para-legal assistance to survivors of identity-based violence. She also designs and conducts workshops with community members, youth and important stakeholders on rights of survivors under the criminal justice system. She has been a social activist and advocate vocalising against child marriage and gender-based violence at the grassroot level for the past 16 years. She is the founder of Gaurav Gramin Mahila Vikas Manch (special cell for women and girls based out of Darbhanga, and established through like-minded groups at TISS Mumbai). She has worked as a co-ordinator at Yuva Shakti Samastipur, an organisation which builds awareness of constitutional values among youth. 

She is a Member of Internal Complaints Committee in Patna District constituted under the POSH Act, 2013, a member of the Patna District Vigilance and Monitoring Committee constituted under the SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and a member of the Patna District Level Vigilance Committee constituted under The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.

She holds an LLB Degree from Lalit Narayan Mithila University and is currently pursuing M.A in Sociology from Nalanda Open University. She speaks Maithili, Magahi, Bhojpuri, Hindi, and understands English.

Hamza Tariq

Hamza’s work at Part-three as Associate (Litigation and Research) spans issues of jal, jangal, zameen and identity based violence with special focus  on displacement, dispossession, rights of forest dwellers and caste-based violence.  He has previously practiced law for 2 years in different judicial forums in Delhi and  worked as a Young Professionals Program for Legal Empowerment (YYPLE) fellow for Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Ahmedabad. 

He graduated from National Law School of India University, Bengaluru in 2020. Hamza speaks Hindi and English. 

Joicy Milun Zou

Joicy works as an Associate (Litigation and Research), where she provides research and litigation support on Gender based violence cases in Delhi. As a lawyer Joicy has worked in the realm of human rights for two years’ at Human Rights Law Network (HRLN). Her work is largely associated with instances of gender-based violence and infringement of rights of persons with disabilities. She also has teaching experience of over 5 years as a primary school teacher.

Joicy holds a Masters Degree in English Literature and is a Law graduate from Campus Law Center (Delhi University).  Joicy speaks Zou (her mother tongue), Meitei, Hindi and English, she also understands Mizo and 9 other dialects of Manipur.

Vanshika Mohta

Vanshika works as an Associate (Litigation and Research), where she works with survivors of identity based violence, specifically caste atrocities, including engaging with lawyers and advising on litigation in Bihar. She also works as a researcher on issues plaguing systems designed to address identity-based violence. She has previously worked at NITI Aayog as a Young Professional and at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.

Vanshika holds a B.A. LL.B. (Hons) from National Law University, Jodhpur.  Vanshika speaks English, Hindi and Tamil.

Sanjana Srikumar

Sanjana works as the Lead (Litigation and Research), where she engages with legal processes to uphold fundamental rights. Sanjana has over six years of experience as a litigator and researcher. During this time, she has remained particularly interested in community-led strategic litigation to advance civil liberties and socio-economic rights. Sanjana has also been involved in landmark constitutional challenges, under the mentorship of Sanjay Parikh, Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court. She has also been affiliated with leading human rights organisations in India and abroad, such as Internet Freedom Foundation, Media Defence, Access Now and Columbia Global Freedom of Expression. 

Sanjana holds a B.A. LL.B. (Hons) from the National Law University, Jodhpur in India and an LL.M. from Columbia University, where she was a scholar at the Center for Public Research & Leadership. Sanjana speaks English, Hindi and Tamil.

Vipul Kumar

Vipul is the Founder and the Program Director at Part III.  A passionate researcher and human rights professional, Vipul has worked for over 9  years on the intersections of law, justice and criminalisation of the oppressed communities. Working with national and local networks, Vipul has engaged extensively with community based leaders to create tools of documentation apart from popularising human rights discourse among community based organisations. 

Vipul holds a MA Social Work degree with specialisation in Criminology and Justice from Tata institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Vipul speaks Hindi and English. 

Mangla Verma

Mangla is the Founder and Executive Director at Part III. She specialises in strategic litigation and advocacy. For more than 10 years Mangla has worked within the criminal justice system advocating and litigating contemporary human rights issues. During this journey she worked closely and collaboratively with leading experts in criminal law, constitutional law and human rights including Ms. Indira Jaising, Mr. Prashant Bhushan, Mr. Harsh Mander, Mr. Colin Gonsalves and Ms. Vrinda Grover. Apart from litigation Mangla strongly advocates that thorough ground research and documentation are important components to engage in constructive dialogue and strengthen the cause for justice. 

Mangla graduated in Law in 2011 and holds a B.A.LL.B. (Hons) from Symbiosis Law School, Pune. Mangla speaks Hindi, English and understands Marathi.