Of much lately, the Constitutional laws have faced much scrutiny. Many laws are on the way to be amended and replaced. To well-equip the scholars of AIL about the issue, a guest lecture was organized on August 23rd, 2018. The lecture was effectively delivered by Prof. Dr. Ratan Singh, Director, UILS, Puniab University, who has specialized in the field of Constitutional law, Administrative law, and Research Methodology.
He is also a published author. He addressed the students on ‘Emerging Dimensions of Constitutional Values’.
The eloquent speaker initiated with the Constitution Amendments of the past millennium and narrated the reasons for the addition of words “Socialist”, and “Secular”. Thence, sketching a legal definition for “State”, he proceeded to explain the consequences of the landmark judgements of Kesavananda Bharti and Golaknath case. Moving further, he very wonderfully explained the collegium system and the repercussions of removing it. Drawing instances from the history of Bar & Bench, which included elevation of Sir Kania and Sir Chagla to eminent posts, he also discussed the independence of Judiciary and its fundamental characters.
He next expressed the importance of valid references that advocates use to entrust a Judge’s faith in the arguments. He proudly also stated how the Bar of India has sprouted landmark judgements which are also stated in other countries.
Sir also touched upon the pillars of an ideal form of Judiciary and challenged the petitions declaring some provisions of the Constitution as unconstitutional. He asserted that the Constitution is a structure not constructed “like a castle in the air”. It never aims to hurt sentiments of any community or curb the independence of Judiciary. He also added that there has been no particular Article which pronounces the “basic structure” in black and white. Not every provision can be challenged on the same grounds. This is a thoughtful output of sweat and blood of hundreds of activists where language, religion, caste, class weren’t deciding factors. He also asked the students to deliberate on the issues that the Court is dealing with, including the burning issues of Sec. 377 and related cases, which somehow or the other, expand the arena of Legislature.
He concluded his lecture with the assertion that the independence of judiciary is a very wide issue and no particular clause can define what exactly decides its liberty. He also affirmed how the fraternity from courts strive to achieve the long term goals which would then serve humankind at large.
All in all, the captive lecture was purely engrossing and has widened the scope of Constitutional Law for the budding lawyers.
This write up has been prepared by Nishant Tiwari (II Year).
