Political justice must be given to all citizens of the country: Justice L. Nageswara Rao at Soli Sorabjee Memorial Lecture

New Delhi:  The Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA) presented the inaugural Soli Sorabjee Memorial Lecture on March 9 and was honoured to welcome Justice L. Nageswara Rao of the Supreme Court of India to the event as the guest speaker.

The Memorial Lecture has been established by the Australasia Hub of the CLA to celebrate the legacy of the CLA’s Honorary Life President, Soli Sorabjee, a much-esteemed jurist and revered former Attorney General of India.

On what would have been Sorabjee’s 92nd birthday, Justice L. Nageswara Rao, Judge, Supreme Court of India presented the inaugural Lecture in this annual series, on the subject: The Role of the Supreme Court of India in Augmenting the Scope of Fundamental Rights.

Delivering the Soli J. Sorabjee Inaugural Memorial Lecture, Justice L. Nageswara Rao, said, “In this country, the constitution is supreme, it is the paramount law of the land. In the words of Soli, rule of law runs like a golden thread in the Indian constitution. The vision and goals of the constitution are set out in the Preamble and these goals are to be carried out through the fundamental rights and directive principles of state policy. Article 14, Article 19 and Article 21 form the golden triangle which stand for equality and the rule of law.

“We are the largest democracy in the world. There are 121 languages, 270 mother tongues, hundreds of castes, and different religions. In spite of all these, the country is doing so well only because we believe in unity and diversity. The government has a duty to ensure that social, economic as well as political justice is given to all citizens of the country as provided in the directive principles of state policy.”

Recalling Sorabjee’s legacy, Justice Rao added, “Soli Sorabjee was a champion of fundamental rights and his contribution to the march of law is immeasurable. He was interested in enhancing the scope of fundamental rights and protection of fundamental rights to the citizen of this country not only through arguing cases in court, he used to write regularly. He was fearless, as and when the court was going wrong, he would point out that there is an error that is committed by the court. The number of cases that he argued which have a bearing on enhancing the scope of fundamental rights, are large in number.”

In a special address, Madhavi Divan, Additional Solicitor General of India, said, “One of Soli’s great qualities was to passionately pursue his interests outside the law,” said. He had the ability to combine erudition and industry with joie de vivre. His passion for poetry was as firm as his commitment to law. He had the ability to engage effortlessly with people across the world, in times when the world was not so globalised.

“The measure of a lawyer is not what he does to further his own career, not just the great judgements that he shows up in court, but it is what one leaves behind and the example that is set for generations that follow and how he or she inspires lawyers who follow, and how the path one sets for oneself impacts the decisions of others.”

Brian Speers the current President of the CLA gave the opening remarks at this inaugural event to celebrate the legacy of Soli Sorabjee and said, “Soli has been spoken of as having a global outreach but you may think of him as a son of India but I think he was a son of the Commonwealth.”

The CLA is delighted that the Jindal Global Law University announced the winner of the inaugural Soli J Sorabjee Endowment Award and Scholarship at the end of the Lecture. This Award is now going to be presented annually to a deserving student at the University who has excelled in the field of Human Rights Law and Theory, offered as part of the undergraduate programme. His Honour Justice Rao presented the Award.

Introducing the Soli J. Sorabjee Excellence Award & Scholarship, the Founding Vice Chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University Professor (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar said, “I’m delighted to announce the Soli Sorabjee Excellence Award Jindal Global Law School at O.P. Jindal Global University. There are five significant reasons for it. First is the obvious one, celebrating the legacy of Soli Sorabjee. Second, marking the occasion through the celebration of an individual scholarship to a young law student, who will hopefully become a beacon of hope and contribute to the key areas in which Sorabjee made his own contributions.

“Third, fulfilling the vision of Soli Sorabjee by creating an endowment with an excellence award for a student who has done outstandingly well in the subject of human rights and contributed to the development of scholarship. Fourth, the endowment reflects the perpetual commitment of our institution to the legacy of Soli Sorabjee. Lastly, this will also inspire many other lawyers and individuals from different walks of life to come forward to ensure that this contribution of Soli Sorabjee doesn’t remain only in the books of his fame but also it becomes a living memory and lived experience for all of us.”

The Award stands reminiscent of Soli Sorabjee’s achievements, and his contributions to Human Rights advocacy in all its forms. The Award and scholarship have been established owing to a generous endowment instituted by the Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India, Satvik Varma and will be offered for the next twenty years.

The representatives from the Sorabjee family were also in attendance and joined the legal luminaries and other guests at this memorial event. Reflecting on Soli J. Sorabjee’s life and contributions, his son Dr. Jehangir Sorabjee, said, “He loved law and he loved every aspect of it. He loved the rough and tumble of arguments. The rush of going to court late so there was always that last minute tension. He loved the academic discussion, the writing, the conferences, and meeting with lawyers.”

Jaideep Gupta, Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of India, oversaw the ceremony.

–IANS