The Indian Association of Lawyers (IAL) held its 11th conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday and passed various resolutions to protect constitutional values. The conference was held on the theme ‘Lawyers for Democracy: Protection of Democracy and an Independent Judiciary’. The first resolution passed demanded the organization of the Judicial selection process at all levels. The second resolution passed was about the cult of violence and the divide resulting from frequent attacks on minorities. The statement noted that urgent action was needed on several significant cases currently before the Supreme Court, including those involving electoral bonds, Article 370, and the CAA.
Kerala High Court Justice N Nagaresh said in his speech that invalidating the constitution of India would eventually wipe out the freedoms granted to the citizens of India. He was delivering his speech on the topic “the relevance of lawyers in today’s world” in a program held as a part of the National Conference conducted by the Indian Association of Lawyers (IAL). Some of the people in the Country do not believe in our Constitution. They think they can control the constitution according to their whims and fancies through their power of authority. We must remember that it is only because we have such a constitution that we can speak and criticize, he observed. He also said that Constitution is our Holy book.
A number of arguments have been raised about the basic structure of our Constitution. Some groups argued that Democracy, Secularism, and Federal structure are the basic structure while some others believed that freedom, democracy and unity are the basic structure. A six judges bench of the Supreme Court has said that Fundamental rights are the basis of our constitution. Even in the cases related to “privacy” there has been a similar contradiction of opinions. There are diversities in many more aspects in our country. Some people had predicted that our country, which is full of diversity would not go forward as a single country for long after Independence. They also predicted that the Constitution would not survive. But such predictions are proved wrong by the citizens of our country. The people of our country are moving forward by proudly upholding the same constitution that they have said would perish, encouraging diversity and believing in democracy. He also pointed out that we are holding our constitution up high at a time when democracy and the constitution of many countries have been failing.
