Lawyers should be well-versed with the Constitution to understand how India was able to sustain fundamental freedom for its people while other countries have been seeing bloodshed due to absence of rule of law, Madras High Court Judge T.Raja has said.
“Articles 14 and 19 of our constitution have guaranteed freedom to all of us and there is equality before law. Every lawyer should at least read one article of the constitution every day and it is for our survival only,” he told the advocates.
He was speaking at the 66th Law Day celebrations organised by the Lawyers Association of Madurai District Court (LAMDC) and Madurai District Court Lawyers Association-Women (MDC-LAW) in the District Court Complex here on Wednesday.
Mr.Justice Raja cited the examples of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya where rule of law was missing and military holds the domination instead of constitution.
He urged the legal fraternity to know more about eminent lawyer Bashyam Iyengar who belonged to Madurai and went on to become the first advocate general of the Madras High Court during the British rule in India.
“His role in drafting laws was impeccable. Similarly you should also take Nani Palkhivala as an example because he became an eminent legal luminary of the country after hailing from an ordinary middle class family. But for his intervention in some cases, the constitution could have been amended with wrong intentions,” Mr.Justice Raja said.
S.Veeranasamy, president, LAMDC, presided over the function. K.Veluchamy, member, Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and S.Velammal, president, Women Lawyers Association of Madurai District Court offered felicitations. M.N.Sankaran, senior president, LAMDC, welcomed the gathering and M.Subramanian, association secretary, proposed a vote of thanks.