“India Has Gone Through Many Ups And Downs And Persevered, Indians Are Lucky To Be A Part Of India” Justice BR Gavai

Justice BR Gavai delivered the Second Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi Memorial Lecture on 4th November at Patna and spoke on “Our Constitution and the Idea of India therein”.Justice Gavai began by considering the history of making of the Indian Constitution. He detailed how the constitution was prepared at a time when we had a history of a fight for upliftment of the down trodden. Importantly the Constituent Assembly consisted of many stalwarts and people from divergent fields. It consisted of members belonging to different caste, region, religion, etc., as well as representatives of the provinces. It also consisted of people belonging to different philosophies, like, capitalism, socialism, communism, etc. Justice Gavai threw light on the importance of the objective resolution to the constituent assembly. He quoted multiple facets of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s speeches thus highlighting the latter’s zest for patriotism and nationalism as he believed India would be a federation, having uniformity in all important matters to maintain the unity of the country such as defense, foreign affairs, etc. Justice Gavai also celebrated that “ The first draft of the Constitution was introduced to the Constituent Assembly by Dr. Ambedkar when it met on Thursday, the 4th of November 1948, i.e., exactly 75 years ago from today”. Justice Gavai quoted Ambedkar to underline that working of a Constitution did not depend wholly upon the nature of the Constitution, as he said “…however good a Constitution may be, it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it, happen to be a bad lot.” Dr. Ambedkar was of the considered view that we must make our political democracy a social democracy as well. Justice Gavai then explained what a social democracy meant in the words of Ambedkar i.e., principles of liberty, equality and fraternity not to be treated as separate items in a trinity.“To traverse the journey taken by the Indian Constitution, it is most appropriate to rely on our constitutional jurisprudence,” Justice Gavai emphasized. Justice Gavai then traced the journey of federalism in the Indian Constitution through landmark decisions such as State of Rajasthan v. Union of India (1977, SC); S. R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994, SC); and Government of NCT of Delhi v. Union of India (2018, SC) and read important excepts from these momentous judgments. He recalled Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer where he spoke of an independent judiciary and an accountable Parliament as the tenets of checks and balances.Justice Gavai concluded by saying “that in the journey of last 75 years of the working of our Constitution, we have seen that though there have been ups and downs, the framers of our Constitution have enabled our country India that is Bharat, in times of external wars or internal disturbances, to remain always united.”He emphasized “When we compare with the situation in our country with those of neighbouring countries, we realize how lucky we are to live in India.”He further spoke of the responsibility that rests with Indian citizens by saying, “to make India that is Bharat, as a country as aspired by our Constitution framers, we must make every attempt possible to eradicate the social and economic inequalities so that India that is Bharat as envisioned by the framers of the Constitution comes into reality.”He urged every citizen to pledge themselves to make every possible effort in that regard.This was the second event of the Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi Foundation, a non-profit organization established in the memory of Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi in 2022. Justice Tripathi was a prominent figure in India’s legal fraternity and started his career at the Patna High Court in Bihar.Justice Gavai referred to Justice Tripathi saying that “he was gifted with a multi-faceted personality”. He said that “Justice Tripathi has also immensely contributed to the development of law. He believed in the constitutional mandate of social and economic justice. He delivered many judgments giving solace to the needy people form the marginalized sections.” Justice Gavai then highlighted the important judgments pronounced by Justice Tripathi on various subjects like service law, land rights, reproductive rights etc. Read the full speech here.

“India Has Gone Through Many Ups And Downs And Persevered, Indians Are Lucky To Be A Part Of India” Justice BR Gavai

Urvashi Chauhan

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