Guest Lecture : Relevance of Jurisprudence at Bar and Bench

The session was conducted with a transdisciplinary approach which provoked students into thinking about the applicability of what they were learning in theory. It is well known that Theoretical concepts are important. Still, it is not unknown that to find relevance, an individual must know of the practical applicability of the concepts they are learning. This session introduced the principles focused on jurisprudence from an applicability perspective.

CHINMOY .A. KALADKAR “Learning comes with inquisitiveness” That was the first thing students could understand from the lecture delivered by Mr. Kaladkar, he showed the students how learning never stops. One can always keep learning new concepts about the same thing if one is curious enough to learn He divided his lecture into three concepts for better understanding, the concepts he introduced are as follows;

Preamble: We became citizens of our country in 1950 upon getting our constitution, Preamble is an introduction to our constitution but the very last part to be drafted. This is said to be a very important part of the constitution as it showcases the core values of our nation being upheld by our constitution.

These core elements are

❖ Sovereign- Article 361 of the Indian Constitution was brought forward against Monarchy

❖ Justice- Promises social, economic, and political justice to every citizen of India

❖ Liberty ❖ Equality

❖ Fraternity- Often an ignored concept but the highlight of the Indian constitution puts forth dignity for every individual.

3 Indian Constitution is made in a manner that it has specific parts borrowed from the constitutions of countries around the world. the Indian constitution came into effect over 7o years ago and it still stavnds strong, This is because the constitution framers had a future perspective when they drafted the constitution. The constitution of India is said to be a golden document as upon close inspection we can see certain policies that took other countries years of struggle to gain which we received without any struggle. Certain elements borrowed from foreign constitutions are as follows:

1. ARTICLE 25 & 26- borrowed from the Irish constitution which is a roman catholic constitution.

2. ARTICLE 27- borrowed from the Swiss Constitution.

3. ARTICLE 32 ( read along with article 36+145)- Flaming sword of the Indian constitution as said by Dr. Ambedkar, Borrowed from The Chinese document.

4. ARTICLE 21- borrowed from the Japanese constitution.

5. Directive Principles of State Policies - borrowed from the Irish Constitution Which was in turn borrowed from the Spanish constitution pre-1913, which was in turn borrowed from the pope’s orders from the Vatican. Cases: Sir presented three cases that focused on the topic of Retroactivity, the Revisitment of Judgements passed by the supreme court as the doctrine of precedent does not bind them.

JUSTICE M.S.KARNIK: “Jurisprudence is a very abstract concept just like morality” a short reflection of the lecture delivered by Justice M.S. Karnik can be seen in this one line spoken by him. Applicability comes not from theory alone but also from the moral factors of an individual. What may be right for one may be wrong for another. The work of a judge is to balance these conflicts morally based on Rights given in theory. 4 Sir formulated a very different idea about jurisprudence for the students; a huge takeaway was when he spoke about cases that have impacted him personally. Those cases ignited a personal debate about whether jurisprudence was a theoretical application of subject matter or changes based on the concept of the situation and morals of an individual.