Memorial Lecture Held In Remembrance Of Advocate Lily Thomas

The Supreme Court Woman Lawyers Association, along with the office of Lily Thomas & Saju Jakob, organised the Lily Thomas memorial lecture 3.0, in the memory of late Advocate Lily Thomas on December 12, 2022. The event was attended by Justice M.R. Shah and Justice C.T. Ravikumar. The Attorney General for India Sr. Adv. Mr. R. Venkataramani was a key note speaker for the event and delivered a speech on "The Constitution of India".

Late Advocate Lily Thomas belonged to the first generation of women lawyers in India and was the first woman to hold a Master's degree in law from Madras University in the year 1960.  Thomas was hailed most notably for petitioning to amend the Representation of the People Act.

It was on her petition that the Supreme Court had struck down Section 8 (4) of the Representation of the People Act that allowed convicted lawmakers to continue without disqualification during pendency of appeals challenging the conviction. It was a landmark ruling, which resulted in automatic disqualification of legislators upon conviction for a period of two years or more. When the government had prepared an ordinance to nullify the judgment, Thomas made a review petition against the ordinance. The government was later forced to withdraw the ordinance after severe criticism. She had also taken up several other public causes.

She passed away at the age of 91 years on December 10, 2019.

The memorial lectures were delivered by Sr. Adv. Vikas Singh (President, SCBA), Sr. Adv. Pravin H. Parekh (President, ISIL & Confederation of Indian Bar), Sr. Adv. V. Mohana (Supreme Court), and Sr. Adv. Pradeep Rai (Vice-President, SCBA). 

AG Venkataramani, who was delivering the key note address started his address by commending women advocates and stating–

"When persons like Lily Thomas walked in to the Supreme Court bar, she was virtually walking into an alien territory, a territory fully occupied by men."

He also highlighted that while talking about freedom struggles, most often talk about the role played by men. However, there had been many great women who played historic roles in the freedom struggle. While speaking about the Constitution of India, AG Venkatramani said–

"The idea of the Constitution is as powerful as what in India because of the concept of dharma. The idea of the Constitution in my understanding is that all power in society, public and private, has to be regulated. So the codification of private and public power is what the Constitution has done. When we talk about public power, you look at institutions of governance – Parliament, judiciary. Human relations is private power. Men and women are private power. Families are also private power."