Inaugural Address at the International Legal Conference

JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS for NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

I am indeed delighted to participate in the International Legal Conference organised by the Punjab & Haryana High Court Bar Association. My greetings to all the judicial experts of India and different countries participating in this Conference and other distinguished guests. It is a matter of privilege for me to address this important gathering of legal luminaries. As you are aware, India has a vision of transforming into a developed nation by the year 2020. This transformation process requires contribution from various sections of the society, including the judiciary and the legal system. The administration of law and justice should take into account the overall impact of the judgements on the process of societal transformation and welfare of the citizens at large. The rate of change of national development is directly proportional to the speed and quality of justice delivered with nobility. Keeping this aspect in mind I would like to share my thoughts on the topic "Justice and Human rights for National Development".

Networking the nations and human rights

Globalisation is a phenomenon which we have to recognize. We should be sensitive to the fact that with the dawn of this millennium, the pace of transformation of change governs economic progress and business needs. With this background, international law will also need some degree of redefinition. Particularly for India, there are twenty million Indians providing value added services to different countries in the globe. In addition, a number of Indian companies are providing knowledge based support and services to many international companies and governments in different parts of the world that have become essential and interdependent. A number of judicial issues arises out of family relationship, cultural relationship and business relationship due to such international employment and business. It is essential to have a legal framework, so that people can get justice in time. Jurists and opinion-makers in the realm of law have the responsibility of creating and enabling legal environment for people in the world to live together peacefully and work towards common good across the nations.

India is equally interested in bringing about global peace and development of the whole mankind - the present six billion people is likely to rise to about eight billion by 2020. Every human being in this planet has a right to live with dignity and has a right to aspire for distinction while retaining one's unique identity. The test of any legal framework depends on its capacity and efficacy to ensure social, economic and political justice for an individual not only in his individual capacity but also as a member of a nation or as a member of the global community. In other words, our individual and localized interests have to be harmonized within the larger pluralistic order so as to give primacy to human rights. It is necessary to work towards Unity of Minds. It is citizen's responsibility to do everything possible to make our behaviour civilized to protect the rights of every individual, without stamping out their individual characteristics and basic identity. For a peaceful human life, law and justice have to assist. If justice fails to protect human rights, the nation fails. It is the responsibility of legal community to ensure that these elements of rights, justice, liberty, equality and fraternity become available to all. Would you like to discuss and contribute through this forum?

Laws driven by national priorities

Opportunities for rapid industrial and economic growth today co-exist with new problems arising out of trade competition and corporate mergers and take-overs. Many tiny and small sectors of industries and even artisanal goods will be facing the forces of modernization in the form of market forces, technologies and other forms of public information system including advertisements. There are major issues of protecting the local and global environment. Let us look at science and technology which has emerged as a strong force during the current period of human history. Basically science and technology is driven by human curiosity and reasoning and in its best sense aimed at spreading benefits to all people. They are basically universal in outlook. Similarly, laws are meant to protect people, their rights and make them feel secure in the society. I think this is the common meeting ground of Law, Science and Technology, People and Society. Legal instruments to maximize the benefits for our people and nation are necessary. Laws must protect the indigenous technologies and trade to the extent they impact peoples living and their welfare as well as ensure national interest.

Restrictive laws by developed countries

Many developed countries have made laws to restrict or deny export of certain class of state-of-the-art goods and technologies, in selective manner, to developing countries even while making international laws which make it mandatory for the developing countries to open their markets to be accessed by foreign entities with very little restrictions. India has successfully faced such technology denial measures adopted by certain countries. When our laboratories needed certain type of alloy steel or super computers to develop indigenous systems, certain countries imposed ban on export of such alloy steel or computers to India. As soon as we succeeded in the development of that particular alloy steel or high performance computers, the ban on export of that steel or supercomputers was lifted. But such an unbalanced world order is something on which our legal luminaries may have to think, while framing our commitments to international treaties.

Law and judiciary must play the balancing role so that our technological growth can continue to be beneficial to our people and nation, free from undue interferences or unfair practices by any party with vested interests, domestic or foreign. Industrially developed countries are trying to make laws and treaties to protect and promote their own national interests and priorities, instead of working for win-win partnerships. India should work for win-win situation even in business and trade with ethics.

Rule of law, is it universal?

Law and judiciary have a very crucial role to play in the development and evolution of a society. Law essentially plays the balancing role by resolving conflicts and ensuring justice and fair play when new opportunities and challenges are opening up in the developing society. In the earlier phase of Indian history, the laws formulated were basically catering to maintain the then prevailing social order, good morality and upliftment of all segments of the society. The spirit and tradition of democracy which was present at the grassroots of Indian society paved the way for establishing the supremacy and paramount importance of the rule of law. It is on this foundation that our democracy has flourished. Law has been viewed by us as an instrumentality for the good of the people and the well-being of the society. With time, the social system has gradually become more and more complex. In the present period, such complexities have further grown rapidly with modern industrialization, surge in population and resultant increase in scarcity of natural resources.

Today we have well-conceived laws in areas which were earlier unheard of. Some of them were unimaginable in the previous centuries. We already have Laws of the Sea, Laws of Air and Laws on Environment. The Intellectual Property Laws and Cyber Laws are getting refined. As new scientific and technological knowledge like bio-technology, brain research, sensors and high performance computing systems come into operation, new laws to balance the interest of the people of today and the future generations as well as present and future interests of the nation have to be brought about. We must remember that in the case of human institutions, the roots of the present submerged in the past. This holds equally true for law and legal institutions. Law is not a static body of rules but is an organic body of principles capable of growth and evolution. But for any law to be universally acceptable it must rest on the premise of common welfare. Let us resolve to march in that direction.

Cyber Law

India has a mission to transform into a developed nation by the year 2020. Economic prosperity by 2020 will also mean that many of the Indians will be doing business in the digital world on the web. In this new era, crime, law and justice will be completely different from the present. In the present law, for example, the jurisdiction will correspond to the location where the crime is committed and where the damage occurs - very often both being the same location. Whereas in the digital world, the crime may originate from a strange place even outside our own shores and may damage organizational wealth which will be in the digital form in multiple locations. In the 20th century, a nation's business transactions and wealth creation were based on transfer of materials (atoms) from one place to the other. In the 21st century wealth is created whenever information in the form of electrons is transferred across the networks in a borderless world. Indian judicial system has to build its capacity to define jurisdictions in a way that any crime committed against India or her assets by anyone from anywhere shall be punishable by Indian law. It may be true for other countries also. Learned judicial authorities and the government must evolve progressive and innovative laws for the digital economy that will be one of the vital components of a developed nation.

Information based legal advisory

We have to start use of Information and communication Technology (ICT) in legal dispute resolution at the grass root level. I understand that there are a very large number of civil and criminal cases under the consideration are accumulating particularly, High Courts and in district Courts. Pending cases in various courts leads to enormous mental stress, agony, hatred, loss of transparency and huge loss of earning & wastage of manpower and delay in the progress of national development. ICT tools can be used to create an electronic advisory system to assist the public / local agencies as reportedly made available in healthcare through Internet. Legal Mentoring and revitalizing village panchayat system through electronic connectivity to the Courts by using ICT will create human rights awareness among the common public.

Mobile justice

A few months back, I inaugurated a Mobile Legal Clinic in Ahmedabad. This has got two important benefits. Firstly, it creates awareness among the rural population about their rights and responsibilities and also creates a feeling of law and judiciary being very close to the people.

As an extension of this phenomenon I would recommend, creation of Mobile Courts that reaches Taluk and Village level. The mobile court can visit different villages and towns periodically and deliver on the spot justice to the people, based on the facts and evidence. The legal community can also simplify the procedure of filing the cases and nomination of witnesses and unlimited postponements. Such useful issues need to be discussed in the international legal conference and results should be deployed.

Nobility in Justice

Judiciary is a prime pillar in our democratic set up and should be able to administer natural justice with speed and nobility. I am reminded of a Tamil epic which provides the code of conduct for the people in high and responsible positions:

It means, people who are in high and responsible positions, if they go against righteousness, the righteousness itself will get transformed into a destroyer. Whoever deviates from righteousness, whether they are individual or states they are responsible for their own actions.

If a country is to have transparent governance and it has to become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel that the judiciary and its human components have to play a key role in bringing nobility in justice and provide transparency in all the actions taken by responsible members of the society.

Conclusion

The greatest need of the hour is peaceful co-existence of the nations with powerful United Nations. For this purpose some basic code, law, ethics has to be followed which can build a general consensus on all major issues faced by the developed as well as developing nations. The International Legal Conference is one of the forums where the international community of jurists can work together and make valuable contributions for facilitating healthy cooperation among the nations and make human life livable. .

I am sure the Conference will address including the nobility in justice, mobile justice, cyber law, information based legal advisory and all the important issues relating to this cause and provide valuable recommendations for consideration and implementation by respective authorities.

My best wishes for the success of this Conference.