"We Must Allow Different Ideologies To coexist And Contribute To The Development of Constitutional Law": Orissa HC Chief Justice S. Muralidhar

"You can imagine the contribution which leftist lawyers, lawyers with leftist leanings, made towards the development of constitutional law. This is a matter for research, I earnestly plead with the law researchers who are listening in. The contribution of leftist lawyers, lawyers who shared leftist ideologies, to the development of constitutional law has not been written about enough", expressed Orissa High Court Chief Justice S. Muralidhar on Sunday."We must look forward to different ideologies coming in. We should not keep out any ideology just because it may be one that we don't agree with. We must allow them to coexist and contribute greatly to the development of constitutional law", he urged.He was speaking at the event organised to commemorate the 109th Birth Anniversary of Late Viswanath Pasayat. "This occasion has got me thinking of the intersection of politics and law. Mr. Viswanath Pasayat- here was a truly political person who engaged deeply with the Constitution of India through his expertise in interpreting laws and fighting for the people's freedom. I think today should also therefore be a day when we celebrate the memory of those who have contributed to the development of the Indian constitutional law as a part of the socialist and communist movement in India", he said.Justice Muralidhar spoke of A. K. Gopalan, one of the foremost Communist leaders in Kerala- "On the eve of freedom, Mr. Gopalan was in jail. It was ironic. Senior leftist lawyer K. G. Kannabiran, in his book 'Wages of Impunity', writes that A. K. Gopalan tried to march with the Indian flag in the jail and was again detained. The Defence of India Act was applied. This was in free India""Imagine the contribution which leftist lawyers, lawyers with leftist leanings, made towards the development of constitutional law. Look at Ramesh Thapar. And who can dispute the Immense contribution of Justice V. Krishna Iyer. He was a card-holding Communist. One of the earliest successful legal aid movements came about when Justice Krishna Iyer drafted the legal aid rules for the state of Kerala when he was a minister in the cabinet of E. M. S. Namboodiripad, the first Chief Minister of Kerala. And he brought that when he became part of the Law Commission, and as part of the expert committee on legal aid. Justice Krishna Iyer would never have become a Supreme Court judge but for the fact that Mr. Mohan Kumaramangalam, another leftist, was part of the central government then. These are all happy coincidences for the development of constitutional law", continued the judge.Justice Muralidhar went on to mention Supreme Court Justice P. B. Sawant who belonged to the Communist Party of India- "Who can deny his immense contribution to the development of constitutional law?""There is something to be said about people steeped in politics. Student leaders who become famous lawyers and famous politicians. I can straightaway think of the Late Mr. Arun Jaitley. He was a student leader- part of ABVP, he became a very successful senior lawyer and he distinguished himself in political life""The life of Viswanath Pasayat tells that being steeped in politics brings something very rich to the development of law, to the development of constitutional law and it is an important contribution...One could begin with Mr M. N. Roy. His contribution is immense. He was among the early authors of the draft Constitution of India. If we look at the Indian constitutional history, you have an M. N. Roy Constitution. How much of that has actually come into the final Constitution will be a matter of research for someone.""If you look at the Constituent Assembly debates, Dr B. R. Ambedkar is constantly responding to criticism whether our Constitution is not becoming a socialist Constitution, a communist Constitution. In fact, the whole chapter of DPSPs has socialism directly written into it. If you follow Dr Ambedkar's response to the debate, you will find that he admits that the DPSPs largely embody a socialist ideology, a socialist philosophy. It is this struggle of ideologies, the struggle of philosophies of economic doctorates that we see in the Constitution today, and how different judges at different points of time pick up these provisions to expostulate various fundamental rights. It is a fascinating subject to study", reflected Justice Muralidhar.

"We Must Allow Different Ideologies To coexist And Contribute To The Development of Constitutional Law": Orissa HC Chief Justice S. Muralidhar

Mehal Jain

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