Prior to 1979, there was no celebration of “Law Day”. It first occurred to the Supreme Court Bar Association in 1979, under the leadership of Dr. L.M. Singhvi, to select November 26 to celebrate the day as “Law Day”. November 26, 1949 was the day on which the people of India gave to themselves the fundamental document of law to govern their national life i.e. the Constitution of India.
Dr. Singhvi articulated the seven main purposes of celebrating “Law Day”:
1. To review the state of law and administration of justice;
2. To suggest ways and means to improve our legal and judicial system;
3. To strengthen the Bar and the Bench relationship;
4. To strengthen the independence of the judiciary;
5. To strengthen the freedom of the legal profession;
6. To make the legal and judicial system an effective instrument to serve the people;
7. To maintain and augment public confidence in our legal and judicial system.
In the inaugural function of the Law Day, Dr. Singhvi had said: "We have gathered today at this inaugural ceremony to lay the foundation of the annual observance of the Law Day on November 26. I consider it a privilege to welcome you all on this historic and memorable occasion. We owe this occasion to the Executive Committee and the general body of the Supreme Court Bar Association and to the Chief Justice and his brother Judges who endorsed the idea so readily arid positively. I am also grateful to the Bar Associations of different High Courts for their concurrence in implementing the idea of Law Day. I am confident that in the years to come Law Day will be observed and celebrated not only in the Supreme Court and the High Courts, but also in every district and mofussil wherever there is a group of lawyers and judges. Indeed, it is my sanguine hope and ardent wish that Law Day may be observed not only by lawyers, judges and law faculties throughout the country but that it may equally be observed by legislators, governments and civil servants, by the press and the media, by traders and trade unionists, by all professions and vocations, by schools, colleges and universities and by citizen organisations and service associations. I need hardly stress that Law is not the privileged preserve of a few, and that it is the common heritage of us all. Its edifice rests in the ultimate analysis on the foundations of the allegiance and adherence of the community as a whole. That is why it would behave all sections of our society and the country as a whole to observe the Law Day. Due to certain procedural and administrative difficulties, the Government of India did not find it possible to declare or ensure the observance of Law Day on the 26th November this year. I have, however, the assurance of the Minister of Law and Justice that hopefully the proposal would be considered later by the Government of India when the present constraints do not come in the way. I hope whole-heartedly that the Government of India and the State Governments will in due course of time and within the ensuing year adopt and endorse the idea of Law Day on November 26. The ultimate aim of all governments, whatever their complexion or lack of it, is to secure public order, safeguard public interest and advance the commonweal. Law is the chosen vehicle of those aims. It is well to remember in the midst of lawlessness, confusion and disarray of the present day that without Law there can be no public order and without public order there can be no Law and that there can be no progress, prosperity and happiness without Law and public order."
He further observed: "In a sense, in a Republic committed to Rule of Law, every day is and should be a Law Day. For us, lawyers and judges every day is inevitably a Law Day. Why then do we want to designate a particular day as Law Day? The answer is simple. We wish to emphasize highlight, and underline the cause of Law and its fundamental role in our society. We wish to rededicate ourselves to its noble ideals and sublime purposes. We wish on this day to consecrate Law to Justice and to reflect and ponder inter alia on the problems and concerns of legislation, law reform, legal education and administration of justice. Day after day we are concerned with facets and fragments of Law in their case to case application; on the Law Day we would concern ourselves more purposefully with the quitessence of law, with the mission of law and with its goals and modalities and its efficacy and adequacy in the social context. It is customary to designate a day to add emphasis to a particular theme. Our purpose in designating November 26 as Law Day is to emphasize the role and importance of Law in the life of our Republic, to review the state of law and administration of justice, to suggest ways and means of improving our laws and our legal and judicial system, to establish better and more meaningful equations between the Bench and the Bar, to strengthen the principle of the independence of the judiciary and the freedom of the legal profession, to make our legal system an effective instrument of public service and to maintain, reinforce and augment public confidence in our legal and judicial system. The Law Day will enable as to set our sights on our goals and ideals; it will help to inform and create public opinion on issues of importance relating to Law and Judicial Administration and to dispel misunderstandings; it will prod us to focus our pointed attention on what ought to be priority items on the Law Agenda of our nation; it will provide an occasion to appraise our own profession and its problems. We should utilise the Law Day to give to the legal profession and the judiciary a better public image and a strong sense of identity, solidarity and purpose."
He added: "We have chosen November 26 to be the Law Day because it was on this day, thirty years ago, that we the People of India adopted, enacted and gave to ourselves the Constitution having resolved to constitute India into a sovereign, democratic Repulic. It was a day of national consensus when we resolved to speak in harmony, to march in unison and to exert together Vernacular matter omitted ...Ed. to secure justice, liberty and equality and to assure the dignity of the individual and the unity of the Nation. It was truly a red letter day in our modern history. We shall observe and celebrate the Law Day on November 26 annually with the determination that the spirit and inspiration of that red letter day in our modern history may never become a dead letter, that our Law may always be the shield as well as the sword of iustice liberty. equality and freedom and that lawyers and iudges may strive and and endeavour with steadfast devotion in fulfilling the mission and office of Law."
He noted: "The judiciary and the legal profession have an ancient lineage in India's history. In its modern, westernized orientation and regulated form, however, our legal profession dates back to Regulation VII of 1793 whose author, Lord Cornwallis, thought that a man of character and education functioning as a "vakeel" would be a great asset to the scheme of administration of justice and to its consistency and impartiality. Cornwallis hoped that by the new institution of professional lawyers, a feeling would be generated in the minds of the people that "they have an impartial and all powerful protector in the laws, and that through "he means of public pleaders, they can all times command the exercise of the udiciat powers of the Government lodged in the courts, for the redress of any injuries which they may sustain either in their person or property." The hope and the prophecy of Lord Cornwallis could be fulfilled but partially under colonial rule but it is well to remember that legal profession in India came of age quickly and Indian lawyers and judges have played an important part in guiding our struggle for freedom and in giving to-ourselves a Constitution which has been a crucially unifying and stabilising factor in our national life after the advent of Independence. Without meaning to convey a sense of complacency, I would claim that our courts and the legal profession have played an important and creditable part in working out the terms and equations of justice between citizen and citizen and between the citizen and the State. A whole new jurisprudence of constitutional rights and of judicial review of legislation and of administrative action has been fashioned by Indian lawyers and judges in a short span of three decades and that is something to be proud of. We as a nation are prone to berate and belittle our own achievements and to give in to moods of melancholy and despair, but quite frankly I know of no other nation in the world which has battled with greater valour and gallantry on the legal front or which has achieved more in legal culture under such heavy and insurmountable odds. My fear and apprehension however is that those heavy odds are beginning to get the better of us. At this critical juncture, we cannot afford to yield to apathy,inertia or complacency lest Law and the legal system should become hapless victims of unfounded assumptions and irrational prejudices."
He said: "Let me illustrate. Increasing institution of cases, mounting arrears, accumulating congestion in courts and inevitable Law's delays have given rise not to a body of scientific and rational blueprints in terms of institutional organization and procedural methods or in terms of assessments of judicial manpower requirements, but to a spate of alarm signals and dire shibboleths. If there are more and more cases in courts, that is because we have a population explosion, we have a more complex and friction-prone society, our dispute resolution and conciliation systems are bereft of efficacy, we have increasingly greater awareness of rights, and perhaps because we have more injustice and more arbitrariness in our midst. The Governments are under an obligation to provide an adequate machinery for justice, to appoint more judges and to give them better emoluments and facilities, to build more court houses, to enact better laws, to devise better dispute resolution procedures, and to administer more effectively and equitably, rather than to blame lawyers and judges for the increase and proliferation of litigation. Courts in India cannot apply a mechanical-statistical razor-blade or wave a magic wand to wipe out the enormous pendency of arrears. Nor can the courts afford to turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to the rank injustices and incongruities of administration merely because they have already too much on their hands. lithe courts begin to do that systematically, they might endanger the confidence and credibility they have come to enjoy. I might venture the view that we will have a lot more litigation in future when some of the long suffering sections of our people are made more aware of their rights by movements of legal literacy and are enabled and equipped by legal aid and advice to ask for their day in Court. Shall we then tell them that we are too preoccupied to take their briefs or to listen to them and their generation? I do not for a moment underestimate the crushing burden of arrears. The problem of arrears and Law's Delays must be solved and it should be solved urgently, sensibly and soon. It cannot be brushed under the carpet. It cannot be solved by short cuts. Lawyers and judges cannot solve the problem because they have no control Over the purse-strings nor have they any control on the system. By the same token, they cannot be blamed for the situation. Has any Government studied the problem in a comprehensive perspective? Has any Government prepared a Five-Year or Ten-Year Plan to solve the problem of arrears? Has any Government so far shown any determination to provide the necessary inputs? Clearly, tinkering, sloganeering and lip-service will not do when stark realities have to be faced."
He underlined: "Judicial emoluments at all levels are inadequate and unattractive. What is worse, judges in the mofussils have to live and work under conditions which are not conducive to their dignity or independence. The Bar must educate public opinion on the issues and pressurize Governments and Legislatures in these matters."
He observed: "We have paid little attention to the quality and training of young entrants to the judiciary at the level of the munsif and the magistrate. Power without experience can have serious social consequences. What is more, younger judges are set into grooves of their own making and appellate reversals may not 'quite provide the cure. We need a number of national training and research institutions for the judiciary of the country where not only initial entrants to the judiciary may receive a basic training in the procedures, etiquette and ethos of the system but where sub-judges and district judges may also periodically refresh, systematise and update their knowledge and where functional time and motion studies in court management may be conducted to improve our procedural framework with a view to avoid wastage of time and to obviate public inconvenience."
He averred: "The Indian Bar is tho second largest in the world with 182 000 advocates on the rolls as of 1st January, 1979. A good deal of the country's legal resources and training remains idle and underutilised and yet there is an enormous unregulated addition to our ranks every year. The legal profession exercises merely perfunctory quality control over legal education which requires greater professional direction and better educational inputs. We as a profession have done little to tend to the young and new entrants to our profession, to impart appropriate skills and experience to them, to provide them with some support, and to relieve the rigours of their initial struggles. For the aging and the disabled members of the profession, we have neither insurance nor social security. Bar libraries in many parts of our country are far from satisfactory; in some parts they do not exist. At certain levels, the whole legal-judicial system is in a ramshackle condition. It is at these levels that the common citizen frequently encounters the Law and its machinery and develops a feeling of revulsion for it because he finds himself shortchanged, harassed and disillusioned. The poor, the illiterate, the disadvantaged and the underprivileged are frequently denied access to the courts and to the Law. No wonder, they feel frustrated and alienated. A comprehensive legal aid plan was conceived more than six years ago. It was in an advanced state of pregnancy in the years 1977 and 1978. No one now knows when it is going to be delivered. We can only look expectantly at our learned friend, the Minister of Law and Justice, to tell us about the health and the growth of the embryo and about the length of the period of gestation. Besides Legal Aid, Law reform mechanisms in our country require a fresh look and considerable overhauling. Modern research methods, post-audit of legalisation and empirical feedback procedures have yet to be introduced in our law reform agencies. Law Commission must be set up in every State. The Indian Law Commission and its innumerable reports should be salvaged from the dusty dungeon of official neglect. Our own professional tools need to be improved. We need to have refreshed Seminars from time to time. We need to discuss new developments in law. We need adequate court houses, bar rooms, bar libraries and lawyers' chambers throughout the country on a priority basis. It is time that lawyers and judges and legislators and law teachers should turn their attention to these grass-root problems."
He concluded: "I shall not attempt at this Inaugural Ceremony of Law Day to place before you a long and "exhausting" catalogue of items and issues which may be eligible for the nation's Law Agenda. Suffice it to say that the accumulated arrears of such pending issues and problems of importance is very large and many of them deserve your special leave rather than a quick dismissal in limine. To meet the challenges of these manifold problems, we must formulate our ideals and goals and rededicate ourselves to them. Before the next Law Day I hope that we would have prepared a formal Law Day Charter enshrining those ideals and goals in consultation with the members of the Bar and members of the Judiciary in all parts of the country. I am glad to say that a Committee is being formed at the initiative of the Supreme Court Bar Association to frame a Law Day Charter and that at the instance of the Chief Justice of India, Mr. Justice Bhagwati and Mr. Justice lyer, whose invaluable guidance permeates today's programme, have agreed to associate themselves with what promises to be an evocative and landmark document. The Law Day Charter will no doubt be a course of inspiration, but to resolve those issues and problems on the nation's Law Agenda, we will need both inspiration and perspiration. We will need to harness the resources of the Bench and the Bar to the utmost, to enlist the responsive and understanding support of Legislatures and Governments, to build up a strong pro bono publico image for the Bar, and to provide bridges of communication between the legal-judicial system and the citizen. The Law Day beacons us to these and other epoch making but intensely practical tasks. Its clarion call is urgent and compelling. We must answer that call for what is at stake is the future of law and justice and freedom and good life, for us and all our fellow citizens and for our succeeding generations. Let me conclude by saying prayerfully: Long Live Law Day. With my apology for a somewhat long introductory speech, I would now request the Chief Justice of India, for whom we have the greatest affection and esteem, to inaugurate the Law Day function and to proclaim the Law Day."
The Chief Justice of India had inaugurated and proclaimed the Law Day on November 26, 1979 at the function held by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA). Law Day is observed throughout the country.
Since 1979, the legal fraternity had been celebrating November 26 as ‘Law Day’ every year on a call by the SCBA. In 2015, commemorating Babasaheb Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary and on 71st anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of India. the Union Government decided to celebrate November 26 as the Constitution Day.
In his concluding speech, Dr. Ambedkar, as chairman of the drafting committee:“What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life which recognizes liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life. These principles of liberty, equality and fraternity are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy.”
In Bhagvat Gita, Krishna says:“श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुण: परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात् | स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेय: परधर्मो भयावह:” Chapter 3, Verse 35.
(Better do your own duty even if you slightly err in doing so, than to do another person’s job, even if occasionally that is well done. By sincerely doing your own duty, whatever may be the ultimate result of it, you will not be endangering yourself.)
Mothers and fathers of the Constitution of India framed it to ensure that the organs of the State do their constitutional duty, instead of endangering the nation by following dictates of those who undermine constitutional dharma.
Maharshu Vyasa says:“अष्टादशपुराणेषु व्यासस्य वचनद्वयम् । परोपकारः पुण्याय पापाय परपीडनम् ॥” (The essence of eighteen puranas (scriptures) in two sentences(It is helping others which is punya; It is harming others which is sin.)
Our constitutional dharma prevents harm and safeguards natural rights.
In the Bhagvat Gita, Krishna says:“यद्यदाचरति श्रेष्ठस्तत्तदेवेतरो जनः । स यत्प्रमाणं कुरुते लोकस्तदनुवर्तते ” (Whatever the elders do, others try to do the same; whatever standard the elders set up, others try to set up the same standard.) Chapter 3, Verse 21
Most of the members of the Constituent Assembly articulated and emulated these pearls of ancient wisdom On January 24, 1950, the Constituent Assembly met for the last time. During its last sitting, Dr Rajendra Prasad’s name was announced as the first President of India. Responding to cheers and congratulations from the fellow members, the stalwart freedom fighter said:“I have always held that the time for congratulation is not when a man is appointed to an office, but when he retires, and I would like, to wait until the moment comes when I have to lay down the office which you have conferred on me to see whether I have deserved the confidence and the goodwill which have been showered on me from all sides and by all friends alike.” Rajen Babu echoed Sant Kabir who sang: "दास कबीर जतन करि ओढी, ज्यों कीं त्यों धर दीनी चदरिया॥" regarding removing the cloth of the human body in the same condition, without spoiling it.
Notably, responding to a petition by the Centre for Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Geneva, a UN Sub-Commission appointed Dr Singhvi as Special Rapporteur to study the matters relating to the Independence and impartiality of the Judiciary, Jurors, Assessors and of the independence of lawyers and to formulate his recommendations, by its decision 1980/24. In the same year, the 6th U.N. Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of offenders, in its resolution No. 16, called for priority to be given to "the elaboration of the guidelines relating to the independence, selection, payment training and relation of Judges and prosecutors". In his preliminary report, submitted in 1980, Dr. Singhvi, referred to the entire history of the movement for the independence of the judiciary and said it was necessary to formulate a viable equation between 'independence' and 'accountability. He said that "the plateau of perils to the impartiality and independence of Judges, Jurists and Assessors and the independence of the legal profession should be, mopped up carefully and elaborately to enable negotiation of the the terrain and to overcome the hazards by way of constitutional, legal; institutional, cultural, procedural and other appropriate safeguards." Dr. Singhvi submitted his progress reports in 1980, 81 and 82. On the occasion of the Constitution Day, it is relevant to recollect that the work of Dr. Singhvi which makes a compelling case for the financial autonomy of the Indian judiciary.
Constitution Day reminds the State and the citizens of their constitutional dharma and morality which is the source of all law.
Dr. Gopal Krishna
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