I am delighted to be here and interact with the
students and faculty members of SDM Law college, Mangalore. My greetings to the
Principal, faculty members and the students of the SDM Law college on this
occasion. I congratulate the Principal and faculty members for their
contribution in shaping the young minds to achieve excellence in legal studies.
Leadership profile
Leadership for the first vision of the nation to achieve independence was given by the legal community, which was in the forefront of the movement. As you are aware, India has a vision of transforming into a developed nation by the year 2020. I would like to suggest the future lawyers and Faculty members assembled here to think in what type of leadership they can give for the second vision of the nation, which is transforming India into a developed nation. The topic I have selected for discussion today is: Legal system for national development.
Transformation of India into a developed nation requires contribution from various sections of the society, particularly from the legal community. The administration of law and justice should take into account the overall impact of the judgements on the process of societal transformation and welfare of the citizens at large. The rate of change of national development is directly proportional to the functional efficiency of the legal system and the quality of judgement.
Judicial system
Law and judiciary have a very crucial role to play in the development and evolution of a society. Law essentially plays the balancing role by resolving conflicts and ensuring justice and fair play when new opportunities and challenges are opening up in the developing society. In the earlier phase of Indian history, the laws formulated were basically catering to maintain the then prevailing social order, good morality and upliftment of all segments of the society. Later, the spirit and tradition of democracy which was present at the grassroots of Indian society, paved the way for establishing the supremacy and paramount importance of the rule of law. It is on this foundation that our democracy has flourished. Law has been viewed by us as an instrumentality for the good of the people and the well-being of the society. With time, the social system has gradually become more and more complex. In the present period, such complexities have further grown rapidly with modern industrialization, surge in population and resultant increase in scarcity of natural resources, providing new challenges for the legal system.
Today we have well-conceived laws in areas which were earlier unheard of. Some of them were unimaginable in the previous centuries. We already have Laws of the Sea, Laws of Air and Laws on Environment. The Intellectual Property Laws and Cyber Laws are getting refined. New scientific and technological knowledge like bio-technology, brain research, sensors and high performance computing systems have come into operation; laws to balance the interest of the people of today and the technological progress have to be brought about. We must remember that in the case of human life, the past meets the present and creates a future. This holds equally true for law and legal institutions. Law is not a static body of rules but is an organic body of principles capable of growth and evolution. But for any law to be universally acceptable it must rest on the premise of common welfare. I would request you, students of Law to keep this in mind while you are on the threshold of entering into the legal profession.
Majesty of Law and justice
Every citizen in the country has a right to live with dignity; every citizen has a right to aspire for distinction. Availability of a large number of opportunities to resort to just and fair means in order to attain that dignity and distinction, is what democracy is all about. That is what our Constitution is all about. And that is what makes life wholesome and worth living in a true and vibrant democracy.
At this point, I would like to remind all of us that at social levels it is necessary to work for Unity of Minds. The increasing intolerance for views of others and increasing contempt about ways of lives of others or their religions or the expressions of these differences through lawless violence against people cannot be justified in any context. All of us have to work hard and do everything to make our behaviour civilised to protect the rights of every individual. That is the very foundation of the democratic values, which I believe is our civilisational heritage and the very soul of our nation. Nobility is the foundation of the legal system and it is the responsibility of every component of the legal system to preserve it. Please think and think. In the present day environment can the judiciary and the legal community be the pioneers in evolution of nobility in justice
Laws driven by National Priorities
Opportunities for rapid industrial and economic growth today co-exist with new problems arising out of trade competition and corporate mergers and take-over. Many tiny and small sectors of industries and even artisan goods will be facing the forces of modernization in the form of market forces, technologies and other forms of public information system including advertisements. There are major issues of protecting the local and global environment. Let us look at science and technology which has emerged as a strong force during the current period of human history. Basically science and technology is driven by human curiosity and reasoning and in its best sense aimed at spreading benefits to all people. They are basically universal in outlook. Similarly, laws are meant to protect people, their rights and make them feel secure in the society. I think this is the common meeting ground of Law, Science and Technology, People and Society. Legal instruments must maximize the benefits for our people and nation. Laws must protect the indigenous technologies and trade to the extent they impact peoples living and their welfare as well as ensure national interest.
Restrictive laws by Developed Countries
Many developed countries have made laws to restrict or deny export of certain class of state-of-the-art goods and technologies, in selective manner, to developing countries even while making international laws which make it mandatory for the developing countries to open their markets to be accessed by foreign entities with very little restrictions. India has successfully faced such technology denial measures adopted by certain countries. When our laboratories needed certain type of alloy steel or super computers to develop indigenous systems, certain countries imposed ban on export of such alloy steel or computers to India. As soon as we succeeded in the development of that particular alloy steel or high performance computers, the ban on export of that steel or supercomputers was lifted. But such an unbalanced world order is something on which our legal luminaries may have to think, while framing our commitments to international treaties.
Legal community must play the balancing role so that our technological growth can continue to be beneficial to our people and nation, free from undue interferences or unfair practices by any party with vested interests, domestic or foreign. Industrially developed countries are trying to make laws and treaties to protect and promote their own national interests and priorities, instead of working for win-win partnerships. India should work for win-win situation even in business and trade with ethics and make many partners.
Information based Legal Advisory
We have to start the use of Information and communication Technology (ICT) in legal dispute resolution at the grass root level. I understand that there are a very large number of civil and criminal cases under the consideration are accumulating particularly in High Courts and District Courts. Pending cases in various courts leads to enormous mental stress, agony, hatred, loss of transparency and huge loss of earning & wastage of manpower and delay in the progress of national development. ICT tools can be used to create an electronic advisory system to assist the public / local agencies as reportedly made available in healthcare through Internet. Legal Mentoring and revitalizing village panchayat system through electronic connectivity to the Courts by using ICT will create human rights awareness among the common public.
Space, Cyber and Sea laws
I was studying the necessity of reviewing certain specific laws for protecting India’s wealth and strategic assets in space, cyber and sea and all of them combined together. I am sure when you become lawyers you have an important role to play in redefining these laws with reference to national security needs.
Space Law: As it is known all the communication satellites whether it is a civil or military have to be placed in the geo-synchronous orbit. A world body allots the slot in this orbit for all the users. In the geo-synchronous orbit there are certain strategic slot from which you can radiate to most part of the planet all the time. That provides additional wealth generation capability to certain users. Most of these slots have been occupied by the developed world. Of course India has got some slot for INSAT series.
Similarly the remote sensing satellites are put for recce as well as resource mapping in the Polar orbit. In addition there are large number of small satellites in the near earth orbit. In another two decades huge solar powered satellites (few kms in radius) will occupy the geo-synchronous orbit.
Particularly in times of conflict blocks of countries waging the war may create economic damage by switching off the transponders radiating to the enemy country. Their recce satellite could also be made ineffective electronically. An in-depth analysis is required to simulate and understand the probable situation and work out adequate legal safeguards to protect our interest.
Sea Law: India has a Sea Law. But the Sea has now become multi-dimensional. India’s marine wealth, transportation to and fro in the national international waters and territorial regions need an integrated look.
Sea has a wealth of marine life and inert products. It is necessary to protect deep sea oil, gas and mineral reserves apart from connecting sea bed resources. A thorough review is required to understand whether our national interests above the sea, on the sea and under the sea are fully protected. In addition we have noticed that our fisherman have a constant problem with our neighbours in the western and southern sector. This also requires a simplified and sound legal frame work between the countries.
Cyber Law: We have a cyber law in place which has been approved by the Parliament. When I was studying this law, I realized that this law needs change due to the following:
When India is electronically connected with all its economic assets, defense and national security establishments will be the target for cyber attacks during a conflict. In such a situation, the country can become the loser even without a missile or aircraft attack just through intelligent cyber war.
Hence it is essential to generate a simulation model of the connected economic and defense security system as a cyber / electronic network. This will reveal the need for the evolution of a new policy with redundancy and restriction of external connectivity of certain vital establishments.
Since our financial system is connected to world economic institutions such as World Bank we have to implement a robust encryption system for all our transactions through a national encryption policy. In addition cyber law has also to be integrated with the Information Security Policy such as BS17799 standards which specifies the protection mechanism of all information assets of the nation.
Economic prosperity by 2020 will also mean that many of the Indians will be doing business in the digital world on the web. In this new era, crime, law and justice will be completely different from the present. In the present law, for example, the jurisdiction will correspond to the location where the crime is committed and where the damage occurs - very often both being the same location. Whereas in the digital world, the crime may originate from a strange place even outside our own shores and may damage organizational wealth which will be in the digital form in multiple locations. In the 20th century, a nation's business transactions and wealth creation were based on transfer of materials (atoms) from one place to the other. In the 21st century wealth is created whenever information in the form of electrons is transferred across the networks in a borderless world. Indian judicial system has to build its capacity to define jurisdictions in a way that any crime committed against India or her assets by anyone from anywhere shall be punishable by Indian law. It may be true for other countries also. The legal community must enable formulation of progressive and innovative laws for the digital economy that will be one of the vital components of a developed nation.
Laws for new technologies
As you are aware new technologies are arising due to nano-technology, bio-technology and information technology and their convergence is taking place. Also in the medical area we are increasingly finding application of stem-cells as a curative process. In this area ethics are involved in the use of embryonic cells which have been found to be extremely efficient in curing certain diseases.
I am of the view that human cloning must be prohibited. However, cloning of human organs for repair is a noble human cause. In this direction stem cell research must be progressed. Recently, I came across an article in which the stem-cells recovered from the umbilical cord of a recently delivered mother has found to be a rich source of stem cells. This area is a fertile research ground for stem cell research community. Similarly in the nano-technology area there are many drug delivery systems which are being produced whose ethics are to be established. These problems have to be addressed by the legal community in collaboration with the medical community and other healthcare professionals to suggest laws for preventing its misuse.
Also there is a need to have a re-look at the Indian Human Organ Transplant Act of 1994 to make it donor friendly and more importantly patient friendly to help those who are in dire need.
Judiciary and Purity
A. I have studied the judiciary and legal process in the
country. Every citizen wants purity in the system. My study indicates that
there are several interfaces in the total system. They are
1. Political Leaders
2. Law makers – MPs and MLAs
3. Judges – Supreme Court, High court, Sub-ordinate courts
4. Police
5. Administration
6. Lawyers and Law School
7. Media
8. Citizens
B. What are the general expectations out of these interfaces seems to be?
1. Political leaders
Respect the law and do not use the processes of power to circumvent the law of
the land. Political leaders should set an example for the civil society.
2. Law makers
Simplify the Law, discard irrelevant law. Make the system in such a way the
dispensation of justice takes place and fast and fair.
3. Judges – Supreme Court, High court, Sub-ordinate
courts
Make truth prevail irrespective of the level of the stature of the affected
parties. Speed of delivery of justice is crucial for the citizens. Create a
mechanism for handling of societal crimes.
4. Police
Police system should function in a way that good citizens will have faith and
nothing to be afraid of. They should not succumb to any external pressures in
delivery of justice. They should protect honest officials in discharging the
duties. Citizen should feel that they should come to seek help of the police.
At the same time police working hour is more and the earning capacity have to
be properly reviewed and fixed.
5. Administration
Administration should be responsive, proactive and also innovative to keep pace
with contemporary changes and expectations. Administrator should not become
protector of powerful people.
6. Lawyers
Legal profession is not a mere business and is a noble profession to unfold
truth. Therefore they should abide by the principles of professional ethics.
Law school should engender such vales at the beginning.
7. Media
Media should remain vigilant but be careful and not prejudge issues or become
sensational.
8. Citizens
Respect for others rights and also attempt to use the legal system for good
purposes and not for petty, selfish ends or for power politics.
Conclusion
The present six billion people in our planet is likely to rise to about eight billion by 2020. Every human being in this planet has the right to live with dignity and has a right to aspire for distinction while retaining one's unique identity. The test of any legal framework depends on its capacity and efficacy to ensure social, economic and political justice for an individual not only in his individual capacity but also as a member of a nation or as a member of the global community. In other words, our individual and localized interests have to be harmonized within the larger pluralistic order so as to give primacy to human rights. It is necessary to work towards Unity of Minds. It is citizen's responsibility to do everything possible to make our behaviour civilized to protect the rights of every individual, without stamping out their individual characteristics and basic identity. For a peaceful human life, law and justice have to assist. If justice fails to protect human rights, the nation fails. It is the responsibility of each component of legal system to ensure that these elements of rights, justice, liberty, equality and fraternity become available to all.
When you graduate from this SDM Law college, you are
carrying with you expertise in the field of law and also certain value system
imparted by the teachers and the environment of the academy. The success in
your profession will be dependent on your professional integrity and nobility
in all your endeavours.
My best wishes to all of you in your mission of safeguarding the rights of our
citizens.
May God bless you.
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
10-Dec-2007