Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the contribution of women in the Constituent Assembly which drafted the Constitution was hardly discussed and efforts should be made to educate future generations about their work. He described the Constitution as open, futuristic, visionary and youth-centric.
At the Constitution Day celebrations organised by the Supreme Court, Mr. Modi said 15 members of the Constituent Assembly were women. One of them, Dakshayini Velayudhan, who belonged to a marginalised community, made important interventions to protect the rights of the oppressed classes, he said.
Durgabai Deshmukh, Hansa Mehta, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and the other women members too had contributed significantly on topics related to women, Mr. Modi said.
President Droupadi Murmu too echoed the view at the valedictory function of the event.
She said the onus to make the process of seeking justice affordable is on all of us, while urging the executive, judiciary and legislature to evolve an effective dispute resolution mechanism to mitigate people’s plight.
She said the Constitution gave a map for good governance and one of its most crucial features is the doctrine of separation of functions and powers of the three organs of the state — the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. It has been the hallmark of our Republic that the three organs have respected the boundaries set in place by the Constitution, Ms. Murmu said.
Reaching out
Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud highlighted the need for the judiciary to reach out to the people, especially the marginalised, rather than the other way around.
He highlighted the importance of technology in justice administration and the need to have more representation from the marginalised communities in the legal profession. “The marginalised were the first to bring ideas of equality and liberty into the Indian law. The first wave of resistance against colonial power came from indigenous communities,” he said.
Attorney-General R. Venkataramani stressed the need for a litigation policy for the government. He said the government should be dissuaded from taking every contest to the Supreme Court. The highest constitutional court of the country should not be treated like a small cause court.
“It is important that the government stops overloading the Supreme Court with endless statutory appeals alongside the huge flow of cases from High Courts. The conversion of the Supreme Court into a small cause court must stop,” the top law officer said.
Since 2015, November 26 is observed as Constitution Day to commemorate the adoption of the Constitution by the Constituent Assembly in 1949. Earlier, the day was observed as Law Day.
