Lecture Series By Legal Luminaries at Law College Dehradun
By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Dehradun 07 March: Law College Dehradun, faculty of Uttaranchal Univeristy witnessed today a magnificent intellectual speech of Justice, Madan B. Lokur, a Former Judge of Supreme Court of India and currently sitting Judge in Supreme Court of Fiji, at its jam-packed seminar hall. The topic of today’s lecture series was “Constitution and Social Justice” and Justice Lokur’s speech was a splendid display of the perfect symphony of pitch, rhythm, intellectual acumen and legal epistemology. At the outset, the academic event was inaugurated with the lighting of auspicious lamps by the Chief Guest and Keynote Speaker of the event, Justice Madan B. Lokur, along with Chancellor of the University, Jitendra Joshi. The Chancellor welcomed the Chief Guest with a bouquet of flowers and a memento.
Introducing the Chief Guest and keynote speaker of the event, Principal & Dean of the College, Dr. Rajesh Bahuguna, observed that it was an honour for the university to have His Lordship at the podium of the seminar hall of Law College Dehradun. He further stated that organizing the “Lecture Series by Legal Luminaries” has been a regular feature of the academic calendar of Law College Dehradun and the college is privileged to have witnessed the lectures of reputed legal luminaries of the country.
In his fine-tuned speech, Justice Madan, B. Lokur, first of all, thanked the organizers for conducting this lecture series as lectures, dialogues and discussions enable the students to learn. In his speech, Justice Lokur focused his lecture on two aspects. First, where the law is present but executive is not implementing the same and the second is absence of law. Beginning with the topic, Justice Lokur explained the rationale of judicial intervention in the method of governance for the sake of social justice which is part of the preamble and a basic feature of the constitution. He observed, “A citizen can’t be left without remedy, in case, the legislature and executive fail to deliver their constitutional responsibilities.” “Social justice is part of the preamble and primary responsibility of the judiciary is to ensure its proper implementation”, he further remarked. Dealing with various aspects of social justice, he cited many cases related to the plight of widows at Vrindavan, treatment of prisoners, forced sterilization, child rights, human trafficking, rights of transgenders etc. He maintained that not only right to life but right to live with dignity is embodied in Article 21 of the Constitution. “People are not born criminals, however, their behavior is conditioned by socio-economic circumstances. This is not possible that every where law is present but the judiciary doesn’t have the permission to declare that there is absence of law. Notwithstanding, judicial decisions given on those issues automatically formulate laws”, he further observed. At length addressing the budding lawyers, he exhorted, “you have a responsibility to be the part of the society and contribute to it with the best of your capability.”
In the open session, his lordship took up questions from the students, teachers and journalists. Asked about his comments on criticism of judicial decisions he stated that everybody has the right to criticize but the judgment conforming to the logical sequence would always be correct. Speaking about pending cases, he officered a solution in the form of well organized case management. Asked about judicial approach in Constitution Amendment Act, he solicited that the judiciary can act only when the matter is brought before it and here the matter is sub-judice. At length, giving the reference of first case related to environment, he declared Dehradun as the father of environmental jurisprudence.
Those present on the occasion were Chancellor of Uttaranchal University Jitendra Joshi, Vice Chancellor Prof. N.K. Joshi, Dr. Rajesh Bahuguna, Principal & Dean, Kumar Ashutosh, Dr. Poonam Rawat, Dr. Jitendra Singh and a large number of students from ICFAI University, Graphic Era University, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies as well as Uttaranchal University.
