PETALING JAYA: Malaysian Arjun Gananathan, a Doctor of Law candidate at Harvard Law School in the United States, has won the 2024 Ralph D. Gants Access to Justice Award.It was established in 2021 to honour the late Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief and advocate for social justice, Ralph D. Gants."Chief Justice Gant's work serves as a reminder that representation of the marginalised is the greatest honour of our profession.
He cited the example of his first court appearance where the Commonwealth was seeking to separate his client, a single mother, from her young special-needs son for 90 days.He cited another case where he was suddenly asked to defend a juvenile client just 48 hours before he was supposed to sit for a final exam.
"These victories are special to me because they preserved someone's freedom and kept families together," he said. "He has displayed unwavering commitment to examining and interrogating the criminal system through a lens of racial equity."