Speaking on the occasion of Constitution Day organised by the High Court of Karnataka and Karnataka State Legal Services Authority in association with Karnataka State Bar Council and Advocates’ Association, Bengaluru, Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, Chief Justice of Karnataka and Patron-in-Chief, Karnataka State Legal Services Authority highlighted the duty of all those who are concerned with the judiciary to ensure that rights conferred on the citizens, under the Constitution of India are upheld.
Full Text of the speech of the Chief Justice: “Today is the day when we must acknowledge the contribution, immense contribution of the framers of our Constitution. The team led by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar are architects of modern India. Today, we are celebrating Constitution Day 2020 in the background of pandemic of Covid-19.
The pandemic has adversely affected all the systems, all institutions across the world.
When we have assembled here to commemorate the adoption of the Constitution of India, we must remember that judiciary has to play a pivotal role in evolving the constitution and implementing the constitutional protection guaranteed to the citizens. The Constitution of India confers on all citizens, a fundamental right to access to justice. It is the fundamental duty of the courts to uphold the rights of the citizens. It is the duty of every court and in particular Constitutional Court like High Court to zealously guard the fundamental rights conferred on our citizens by the Constitution of India.
The functioning of the courts got considerably affected due to lockdown and spade of Pandemic Covid-19 that forced us to use the modern technology to keep the course running. How best technology can be used is a subject, which will be addressed by our keynote speaker today.
But, today’s the day when we all the judges must remember that we owe a duty to the litigants to ensure that the courts are conducted in the best possible manner, even during the pandemic. As our doctors and health workers are fighting a battle with Covid-19, those who are part of the institution of judiciary must endeavor to become in a sense Covid-19 warriors by ensuring that the functioning of the courts is affected only to the minimum extent.
In Karnataka, we made best possible effort to ensure that partial functioning of the course continues, and it improves with passage of time. While it is our duty to ensure that the courts are conducted in the pandemic in best possible manner, it is also our duty to ensure that functioning of the courts do not lead to spade of pandemic.
All our institutions in Karnataka, namely the Karnataka Judicial Academy, the Karnataka Legal Service Authority, Computer Committee, all other committees of the High Court, the Arbitration Center, the Mediation Center; they continue to function during the pandemic with of course some limitations.
In fact, we have held E-Lok Adalats and now we are going to hold one more E-Lok Adalat on 19th of December. We were really worried when the pandemic began about the impact of partial functioning of the courts on the litigants whose Liberty was at stake. Therefore we concentrated on disposal of criminal matters. In the High Court we experimented with the idea of final hearing of Criminal Appeals through video conferencing. My esteemed brother judges Justice Arvind Kumar and Justice Veerappa took the lead and they showed that even Criminal Appeals arising out of conviction under Section 302 can be heard through videoconferencing.
As we are talking about upholding the liberty of individuals. It is necessary to refer to some statistics. (statistics given).
As I said, it is the constitutional duty of all those who are concerned with the institution of judiciary, to continue the functioning of the courts in best possible manner because we owe a duty to ensure that nobody is denied access to justice. The Constitution Day acts as a strong reminder to all those who are concerned with the judiciary to ensure that, we make all possible efforts to uphold the rights conferred on the citizens, under the Constitution of India. In fact, every citizen has a role to play in protecting the Constitution.
Thomas Edison once said, “the strength of the constitutional lights in the will of the people to defend it“. I strongly feel that only if we, the members of the judicial fraternity, protect and uphold the fundamental rights of the citizens; will be able to give sufficient strength to our citizens to defend our Constitution.
Today is the day when we should take pledge to abide by the constitutional values. Today is the day when we should take a pledge that whether there is a second wave of pandemic or a third way of pandemic we will continue functioning of our court and will ensure that liberty of each individual is protected.”
Video Link: e-CELEBRATION OF CONSTITUTION DAY AT HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA, BENGALURU – YouTube
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