– an outsider’s view of the National Seminar
By P. NIROOP,
Having attended the two-day National Seminar on the title of this article, I seek indulgence, to fill the gaps in the insightful and incisive reporting of the deliberations highlighted by Mr B M Lanong, Advocate in the columns of The Shillong Times (ST May 27th 2016), as an outsider i.e., a practicing lawyer in the Supreme Court of India, Delhi and simultaneously holding the office of the Addl. Advocate General of the State of Meghalaya.
Coming to the core of the all important National Seminar, which was an interface between the lawyers of the Supreme Court and those from the rest of the country and the local Bar, which mainly constituted lawyers and law students of Shillong, the highlight of the said seminar was of course the oration of the text-book model of the criminal lawyer, Mr Ram Jethmalani. He did not mince words to drive home the point, that in a Democracy, it is the lawyers and the judiciary, who act as a shield against excesses committed by the power-drunk executive. But the challenge before this least dangerous branch of the State, which is the Bar and the Judiciary, is to rise to the challenges by fulfilling their expected role in a Constitutional Democracy.
That brings us to the fundamental question, as to where are the Jethmalanis, and Narimans etc, of the legal profession. They are today, an endangered species, if not a vanishing tribe. In other words the idealist lawyer is today lost in numbers (with 12 lakh lawyers enrolled across the country). The legal profession seems to have failed the ideals that inspired it from the beginning of time. About the profession, below is an excerpt of a twelve-line reply of the Former Chief Justice of America, Justice Felix Frankfurter, to a twelve old boy M. Paul Clausen of Alexandria, Virginia.
aspiring to be a future lawyer. The letter dated May 1954 says, “No one can be a truly competent lawyer unless he is a cultivated man. If I were you, I would forget all about any technical preparation for the law. The best way to prepare for the law is to come to the study of the law as a well-read person. Thus alone can one acquire the capacity to use the English language on paper and in speech and with the habits of clear thinking which only a truly liberal education can give. No less important for a lawyer is the cultivation of the imaginative faculties by reading poetry, seeing great paintings, in the original or in easily available reproductions, and listening to great music. Stock your mind with the deposit of much good reading. And widen and deepen your feelings by experiencing vicariously as much as possible the wonderful mysteries of the universe, and forget all about your future career.”
The above sage counsel will surely make for a good lawyer but whether it would make for a successful lawyer, is for the readers to judge. Nevertheless, it is ideals such as these that beckoned idealist lawyers to the calling and hence should be good enough to serve as goals for the younger generation of lawyers to emulate. Those belonging to the younger Bar who are inclined to probe the subject further are advised to read an inspiring book by the Harvard Professor of Criminology, Alan Dershowitz in his book entitled, “Letters to a young lawyer”, published by Basic Books, New York.
The other highlight of the Seminar was the aspect of integration of the local Bar not only of Shillong but entire Northeastern States with the Indian Bar. Although India is endowed with a pan-Indian Bar, but to weld the diverse territories of India, into a truly federal frame-work, is a herculean task though not impossible. The basic pre-requisite, for forging such an integration, is to have sympathetic understanding of the nature of the plural society that India is. In fact, one way, is to undertake extensive travels across India, to understand the nature of the complex plural diversity. In fact, such a journey of the Northeastern States was undertaken by the human rights activist-lawyer Nandita Haksar, who has accounted her impressions minutely, in her travelogue, entitled “Across the Chicken Neck”, published by Rainlight – Rupa New Delhi. This was an inspiring account of an arduous journey of 15,000 kilometers in the Northeastern rainbow land, while commenting on every issue of importance, on the areas traversed. But the overarching issue was the enforcement of the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, and its negative impact on the Northeastern States. It is only when such bridges of understanding, are built assiduously, especially in the sensitive conflict prone areas of the Northeast, that India can become a full blooded Nation by moving towards a Union of States, from what is now only a Union of Territories, kept together forcibly by the liberal flow of Central Govt. funds and the strength of the Central Armed forces.
The last session of the seminar on the customary laws, is what intrigued most listeners from Dehli, when the local lawyers H.S. Thankghiew and Khalid Khan, excelled in expounding the customary laws, with all their intricacies and warned that the State should tread cautiously, while dealing with the said customs, especially while codifying the same. In this context, India may have lessons from America, where the customary laws, of the native Americans, was integrated into the American Constitution or for that matter from Australia, where the fellow Commonwealth Nation, has dealt with the Aboriginal Laws viz. their Constitution, in case such a comparative study is undertaken.
To sum up, may many such seminars and conferences, take place in the State of Meghalaya, whereby there is meaningful interaction between the local lawyers and the lawyers of national and international repute so that the confidence of the local Bar is propped up and it comes into its own, i.e., a strong, independent and articulate Bar, true its native spirit.
(The writer is Advocate, Supreme Court of India &Addl. Advocate General, MeghalayaE-mail Id: [email protected])