AILU CONFERENCE CALL

 Save Legal & Justice System

THE eighth biennial conference of the All India Lawyers Union (AILU), held on November 5-7, 2004 at Jalandhar, identified three main threats – increasing corruption; incursions from globalisation forces; and lack of accountability of judges – to the legal and justice system of the country and resolved to fight to safeguard the system from these threats.

About 600 delegates attended the conference apart from many from the local unit AILU unit. The conference deliberated on important issues concerning legal and justice system, particularly the present state of affairs.

INAUGURAL SESSION

Justice R P Sethi, retired judge of the Supreme Court was the chief guest in the inaugural session of the conference. In his brief address, Justice Sethi said that the present rulers of the country by means of administrative orders were slowly taking away what was incorporated in the Constitution. They were leaving no stone unturned to please and oblige the foreign imperialist forces, even going to the extent of mortgaging the country’s interests to them. He charged that the interests of the poor of the country are completely ignored by the rulers. Justice Sethi said that whatever the working classes had gained through hard struggle was now being taken away by the government in the name of so-called globalisation and liberalisation. He reminded that neo-liberal economic reforms were pushed through by the minority P V Narasimha Rao government in 1991 – changing the fundamental structure of our economy – without even bothering to amend the Constitution. The root of corruption, now plaguing the higher levels of judiciary also, lies in the implementation of the so-called globalisation and liberalisation policies, said Justice Sethi. He concluded by saying that these policies have to be reversed if the Constitution of the country is to be saved and if the nation’s sovereignty has to be maintained.

Justice V R Krishna Iyer (retd) in his message to the conference described AILU as “the institutional defendant of human rights”. He said that AILU has this noble mission of making the rule of law an accessible process in order to usher in a secular, socialist, democratic republic where every Indian will be an activist participant. He also sounded a note of warning that today in the name of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation, “the lone super power is threatening the sovereignty of many nations and bullying the United Nations, itself a subsidiary instrumentality, using intimidatory military authority to control the resources everywhere on the earth.”

Another respected former judge of the Supreme Court, Justice P B Sawant, in his message to the conference, said that the essence of democracy is accountability of all institutions to which judiciary is no exception. Without this there is a possibility that judiciary itself may stand converted into judiocracy amongst others, what is true “about the defects in the present procedure of appointments to higher judiciary is also true of the removal procedure of the erring members of the judiciary.” He commended the draft bill prepared by the Committee On Judicial Accountability (COJA) to set-up an independent National Judicial Commission (NJC) entrusted with the sole authority to appoint and remove members of the higher judiciary. While appointing the judges at all levels, and assessing their work, it is not enough to assess their professional competence. Their commitment to constitutional objectives, their views and values in life and the norms and principles they observe in their day-to-day conduct must also enter the assessment of their fitness to hold the office, said Justice Sawant. He said that it must be realised that an institution like the judiciary, particularly under our Constitution, is an easy and convenient mode of sabotaging the Constitution from within and persons with design to do so may always use it for the purpose. The experience has shown that this is not a theoretical threat.

Jatinder Sharma, president of International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) greeted the conference and invited AILU to send a strong delegation to the forthcoming fifteenth conference of the IADL to be held in June 2005 at Paris.

The inaugural session of the conference was also attended by three fraternal delegates from Bangladesh. Abdul Bari, leader of the delegation conveyed his greetings for success of the conference emphasising that they too in their country are engaged in upholding the values for which AILU was struggling. The delegates from Pakistan were unable to attend the conference because of problem in securing visas.

GEN-SEC REPORT

The general secretary of AILU, Hardev Singh, presented his report which dealt with the activity since the seventh conference held at Kochi in June, 2002. He noted with satisfaction the defeat of Hindutva forces at the hustings and its replacement by a broad secular combine, in which the Left played an important role. He reminded the delegates that the Kochi conference had also given a call for the same.

Hardev Singh said that much needs to be done by the organisation to deal with the threats facing the legal and justice system. He identified the incursion from the fall-out of globalisation and the ever more spreading corruption in the legal system and the judiciary as two important issues which need to be addressed at the earliest. He emphasised that unless these challenges are met resolutely, there would be no hope to salvage the Constitution. The threat from globalisation does not imperil only the sovereignty of the country, but the very relevance of the legal profession making justice even harder to get for the majority of the people. Of particular concern is to eradicate corruption in judiciary. Hardev Singh regretted that this aspect does not find even a mention in the common minimum programme.

Referring to the growing corruption in the higher echelons of judiciary, he said apart from overhauling the entire legal justice system, immediate steps must be taken to set up an independent National Judicial Commission. He criticised the delay in doing so, which was giving a free hand to the corrupt to further undermine the very basis of the system.

The general secretary report underscored the necessity of erasing from the statute book the oppressive laws and enacting those which are in consonance with the constitutional philosophy of the nation. It also highlighted the need to curb the much-abused power of contempt and restrain judges from making unconstitutional orders, such as declaring right to strike as illegal. The judges must be brought within the ambit of accountability, the report noted.

We cannot any more shun, the report stated, adopting technological innovations which are available now. This will not only make justice available cheaply and expeditiously but also eliminate a great deal of corruption by judges, court functionaries and lawyers. The report noted that while fighting corruption, we must not exonerate sections or persons in the legal profession who work as a conduit and in connivance with the members of the judiciary.

Referring to the schemes enunciated by the MNCs and their agencies to promote constitution of firms with non-lawyers as members, permitting charging of contingent fees, entry of foreign lawyers etc, the report called upon the legal fraternity to unitedly resist this attempt to convert the legal profession into a commercial venture. These are facets of globalisation of legal profession that have to be resisted, it asserted.

A number of important aspects were also emphasised in the report such as the harmful suggestions of Malimath committee, the need to oppose the retrograde amendments in certain laws, both substantive and procedural, such as Civil Procedure Code etc.

RESOLUTIONS

The general secretary’s report led to a lively discussion by delegates for a full one day. It was pointed out that by and large the report lacked factual details about the functioning of the state units. The general secretary in his reply pointed out the functioning, as stated at the outset, had not been satisfactory. He also pointed out that a detailed resolution on organisation had been adopted in 1992 and the same is reiterated now. The delegates unanimously approved the report after the reply.

The conference adopted some important resolutions, one of which demanded the setting up of a National Judicial Commission on the lines suggested in the draft bill prepared by the COJA, entrusting it with exclusive authority for appointment and removal of members of higher judiciary.

The measures to transform the legal profession into a commercial venture, allowing non-lawyers to be made members of law firm and entry of foreign lawyers were strongly condemned and opposed by the conference in a resolution.

Another resolution took note of the exploited, oppressed state of women in the country and demanded remedy through enactment of appropriate laws, including women’s reservation bill. The need to change social attitudes and behaviour was also emphasised. Resolutions were adopted for repealing of Legal Service (Amendment) Act, progressive use of regional languages in the courts, establishment of Supreme Court benches in other parts of the country, the right of work etc.

The conference amended AILU rules to provide a national council of 171 members and an executive committee of 79 members in place of the earlier 69 and 37 members respectively.          

The new national council in its meeting elected Justice V R Krishna Iyer as the executive patron of AILU and Justices P B Sawant and R P Sethi as patrons. West Bengal assembly speaker H A Halim was elected as the president of AILU along with 12 vice presidents, while Hardev Singh was elected as the general secretary along with 10 joint secretaries, 7 secretaries and 1 treasurer.

The conference concluded its three-day proceedings in a triumphant and festive mood. The exuberant delegates departed to their respective states to proceed to work guided by decision of the Conference to attain objective set by the eighth conference of AILU to new heights.