Meet a Lawman Series - Inaugural Session
Welcome Address
Hon'ble Chief
Justice of India, Shri F.S.Nariman, Senior Advocate, Shri
Kapil Sibal, President of the Supreme Court Bar
Association, Shri M.N.Krishnamani, Vice President of
the Supreme Court Bar Association, Hon'ble
Judges of the Hon'ble Supreme Court other
dignitaries, senior members of the Bar, colleagues and friends.
While invoking the blessings of the One Cosmic Reality that envelops this universe and is the common thread amongst us all, I feel it my great privilege to welcome you all on this inaugural session of "Meet a Lawman Series".
Harold J.Laski once said :-"...every time an intellectual has a chance to speak out against injustice, and yet remains silent, he contributes to moral paralysis and intellectual barrenness that grips the affluent world".
It is only in our profession that we can not only speak out fearlessly against injustice but we are paid for not remaining silent. Yet we find that our country is passing through an era of social & cultural decay and intellectual bankruptcy. If lawman are unable to give direction and lay the path of development, believe me nobody can and, therefore, it is the call of the time that the young generation of future lawman here must learn from the rich experiences of the present. It is with this concept that the Supreme Court Bar Association has started this series.
The elders must create a sense of confidence in the emerging young generation of lawyers to rise by toil and toil alone and get well equipped to match the best by the best, for in the ultimate fight, they must know, that it is the product which wins and not personal projections alone. Though, a good book may be run down and a bad one cried up, for a time, yet sooner or later, the reward will be in proportion to the merit of the work and one must always be reminded of what Rabindranath Tagore wrote to Gandhi on April 12,1919 after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre on that day -
"...great gift of freedom can never come to a people through charity. India's opportunity for winning it will come to her when she can prove that she is morally superior to the people who rule by their strength of conquest."
Mahatma Gandhi wrote in 'Young India' on June 16, 1920 on the law of suffering:-
"No country has ever arisen without being purified through the fire of suffering. The mother suffers so that her child may live. The condition of wheat growing is that the seed grain should perish. Life comes out of death. Will India rise out of her slavery without fulfilling this eternal law of purification through suffering?
A raw law graduate with a license to wear a white band, a black coat and a black gown, with ideals of noblest profession with greatest potentialities of greatest good to the society is perplexed when he enters the same. He gets opportunity to interact, in flesh and blood, with the countries intellectual giants and he sees their great art of advocacy. He sees those, of whom he had only heard or read. What he sees today is the flashes of this great lawman in the court either as Honble Judges or Senior Advocates, of whom he is only able to understand to the extent of the limitation of his knowledge and thinks that, that is all. What he fails to see is that, this is an insignificant resultant of 40 years of hardest struggle, toil and sacrifice. He is unable to comprehend the input after 10.30 am to 4.30 pm. He is unable to see that the height reached by any person, institution or nation is directly proportionate to the extent of sacrifices made.
The basic purpose underling this series is to make them aware that this profession is neither the dumping ground or luxury of an idle mind nor the breeding ground for politicians, but is an involvement so strong that one often finds oneself plunged in a thick fog of threadbare details, in the black and silent nights or early hours, it is a profession in which there are no easy joys. It is a profession in which the opportunities are not blown away with the smokes that rise at tea tables in the canteens, but one has to constantly develop one's entire human personality and continuously move ahead in time for in profession crying achievement leads you no high but only reflects the deep sense of insecurity, desperation and frustration.
A young film actor once told a veteran "Sir I, have
achieved in 5 years what you were able to achieve
in last 40 years". The veteran smilingly said "Well, young man
what you propose to do in next 35 years?" The young man
left films and joined politics.
Believe me Law is not a profession of lost opportunities as one overhears in the canteens "Oh! What is the difference between me and Mr. N.A.Palkiwala except that I did not get opportunities in life"? The opportunities will always be there, it is the time spent in preparing one self for rising to the occasion which is important and that cannot be achieved by any other process but by reading, analysing, understanding and expressing.
Sir Walter Scott, a great notary of lawyers readings and literature and humanities said 'Guy Mannering:-
"A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason, if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect".
For lawyers mere knowledge of law or facts in not enough, he must have the power of applying the law to the facts and to place them properly before the Court and during the process always be aware and conscious of the dignity of himself and of the institution, ethical and moral values.
Dr. S.D.Sharma, President of India, on September 25, 1993, on the occasion of the First Convocation of National Law College at Bangalore said :-
"Indeed a reputation for truthfulness will help the practitioner of law in his legal profession as well as in other dimensions of his entire life. The word of such a person always carries more weight with judges. Sharpness of mind and width and strength of intellect have then own utility, but right behavior and a reputation for fidelity with truth have perhaps an even greater value. A sense of service must rule and regulate the total approach of the advocate. Only then would he properly perform his rightful and appropriate duties under the aegis of Dharma."
Ours is a peculiar profession where as one appears before an Hon'ble Judge, there is an interaction of raw and developing mind with a developed, mature and experienced mind analysing the same facts on the anvil of justice. One can see the existence of the basic raw material, but it is its proper molding which is necessary, without shaking away the confidence of the young in his own self, in the profession and in justice. The young man has also to be told that he has not to worry even in the decaying system when the institution of 'Vanaprasth' and 'Sanyas' which duty bounded the elders to devote time in helping the younger generation in profession, has ceased to exist. Today we find the young generation in direct professional conflict with the retired, the resigned and the terminated which are heavy road blocks to the their development in the profession. It is different that some become great judges and lawyers and get due recognition, but that is their singular achievement. We wish to extend a helping hand and provide necessary support to the development of our institution which I am certain that this and other activities of the Bar Association will provide.
With these words may I welcome you all on this inaugural session...
Aruneshwar Gupta
16.11.1995
This
function was organized at the Indian Law Institute at 4.30 pm in a hall
with the occupancy of about 100 sitting capacity. Till 4.25 there were
not even 15 persons in the hall. Kapil Sibal, Senior Advocate and the
then President of SCBA on being provoked by Vikrant Yadav, a young
member of the executive made terse remarks in the porch waiting for the
Chief Justice A.M. Ahmadi to arrive "I told you earlier, these sorts of
functions should not be held at all, they do not provoke any response
from the bar." I informed him to keep some patiance and that i had lot
of confindence in the true nature of the bar. By 4.30 pm all the chairs
were occupied and by 4.35 pm the hall was packed, with more then 70
advocates were standing on the sides and behind the chairs. The
complaint of several advocates in the bar, next day was that they were
not able to enter the hall and attend the seminar.
He has his own ways of keeping heads low and high.
