STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir State Judicial Academy under the patronage of Chief Justice M.M Kumar, High Court of Jammu and Kashmir organised an extension lecture on ‘Revisiting Basic Structure of Constitution’ by Prof. (Dr.) Virender Kumar, fellow Emeritus Punjab University Chandigarh.
Pawan Dev Kotwal, Director, State Judicial Academy while conducting the proceedings introduced the objectives of the lecture and gave broader outlines of programme.
The function was presided over by M.M Kumar, who in his presidential address lauded the contribution of both the Academicians as well as the Bar in propounding the concepts which were concretised and crystallised in the wisdom of the enlightening judgments of Apex Court. He elucidated, that the concept of basic structure was in fact proposed by Palkivala who argued that the creature cannot change the creator. The said argument found its way into the landmark judgment of Keshvananda Bharti’s case (1973), wherein the majority view held that the basic structure of the Constitution cannot be changed by any of the creations of the Constitution. It was neither the supremacy of legislature nor the supremacy of Supreme Court but both of them being creation of Constitution, of course, the supremacy lies in the Constitution. He also recognised the contribution of common civil law in contributing the development of the constitutional law and emphasised common law application is nothing but a common pool of wisdom passed over the generations of judicial decisions which help to find the concepts of justice. He further added that the fundamental rights as given in the part III of the Constitution are nothing but recognition of already existing intrinsic universal rights and guarantee of their in-alienability.
He emphasised upon the State Judicial Academy to organise such type of interactive lectures more often so that complex constitutional concepts are discussed threadbare between the members of the judiciary, the bar and the academicians including research scholars and students so that when the new generation approaches their professional life, they are well equipped in their concepts.
Earlier, Prof. (Dr.) Virender Kumar in his extensive and elusive lecture discussed threadbare the development of constitutional law especially the concept of ‘Basic Structure of the Constitution’.
Those present in the lecture included Justice Tashi Rabstan, Justice B.L Bhat, Suresh Kumar Sharma, Registrar General, High Court of Jammu and Kashmir, President, Bar Association and Senior Advocate, M.K Bhardwaj, Prof. Kulwant Singh, HoD, Law Department, University of Jammu, Faculty Members of Law School, Jammu University, Judicial Officers of Jammu province, Officers of the High Court Registry, Law Students of Dogra Law College, KC Law College, Parade College for Women, Women College, Gandhi Nagar and MAM College, Jammu.
Vote of thanks was delivered by Suresh Kumar Sharma, Registrar General, High Court of Jammu and Kashmir.
