Thread by @barandbench

CJI UU Lalit to deliver the 2nd M.K. Nambyar memorial lecture

Former #SupremeCourt judge Justice BN Srikrishna to preside. Former SC judge Justice Santosh Hegde and Senior Adv & Former AG KK Venugopal are the guests of honour

Track thread for updates 👇

Program begins. The event is being hosted by SASTRA University @SastraUniv #CJIUULalit #MKNambyarMemorialLecture

Introduction to the MK Nambyar Memorial lecture underway

Sr Adv KK Venugopal: CJI Lalit is a trailblazer and his thoughtful balanced and decisive steps have brought significant reform in functioning of the #SupremeCourt. All his reforms have been met with positive response from the bar

CJI UU Lalit will speak on "Development of jurisprudence post AK Gopalan" #CJIUULalit #MKNambyarMemorialLecture

CJI UU Lalit: I consider it a great honour to be part of today's proceedings. It is a galaxy of persons here in front of whom i started working as a junior lawyer
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CJI UU Lalit: any young law student who begins journey in law would remember the name MK Nambyar. I was in the chambers of Mr Sorabjee and he was proud of his work "from Golaknath to Gopalan"

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CJI UU Lalit: an author came out with a piece and he said soon after SC was established, 2 Nambyars entered SC, One Gopalan Nambyar through registry and one was MK Nambyar through the courthall. Gopalan Nambyar was under preventive detention

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CJI UU Lalit: OP 13 of 1950 has become immortal in jurisprudential history. Mr MK Nambyar argued so excellently that the 6 judges quoted extensively from the submissions of MK Nambyar. Out of the submissions I will highlight 3 principles

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CJI UU Lalit: CJI H. J. Kania quoted Mr Nambyar's submission that Article 19 and 21 should be read together and not disjunctively.

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CJI UU Lalit: Justice Shastri recorded another submission "alternatively petitioner had a fundamental right under 21 not to be deprived of personal liberty apart from procedure established by law and that procedure must be a proper procedure. #MKNambyarMemorialLecture

CJI UU Lalit: Justice Patanjali Shastri then records that Mr Nambyar submits that the word law under article 21 should be understood not in the sense of enactment but as a universal principle of natural justice.

CJI UU Lalit: every submission was noted with great respect. the Lone dissenting note was Justice Fazal Ali. Justice DK Mukherjee said contentions by Mr Nambyar should be classified under 4 heads: detention is a restriction on free movement

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CJI UU Lalit: then it was noted that legislation was in conflict with article 21 as law does not mean legislative enactment but the general law of land which embodies the principle of natural justice. Gopalan has to be seen from standpoint of these principles

CJI UU Lalit: Gopalan stood the ground till RC Cooper was delivered by 11 judges of Supreme Court. theory was every article is a class in itself and a theory of disjunctive interpretation was given a complete go-by

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CJI UU Lalit: Justice Fazal Ali noted that expression of natural justice was not unknown to our law.

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CJI UU Lalit: Justice PN Bhagwati speaking for the court in a later case agrees with Justice Fazal Ali.

Then Justice DY Chandrachud in KS Puttuswamy case says: (quotes from the judgment: right to move freely is an attribute of personal liberty)

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CJI UU Lalit: Now the seed planted by Mr Nambyar has become a part of our constitutional ethos. Similarly, the level at which we give pre-eminence to the principles of natural justice as those principles embodying basic principle of human existence is also accepted

CJI UU Lalit: the aspect of no compartmentalisation of rights is also accepted in Maneka Gandhi case. journey from Gopalan to Puttuswamy, there were hurdles, but the celebrated dissent by Justice Ali have now been accepted all through

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CJI UU Lalit: I had a recent visit to Germany and I met the Chief Justice of Constitutional Court and the basic idea of Golaknath have come from a German author.

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CJI UU Lalit: Those German judges are interested to know that what was propounded there was accepted in our constitional court and that we even set aside NJAC on the touchstone of basic structure doctrine and other constitutional amendments,

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CJI UU Lalit: In Bachchan Singh it came to be decided whether award of death penalty would be constitutionally valid or not and it shows to what extent we saw procedure established by law

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CJI UU Lalit: The seeds planted by Shri Nambyar have now resulted in such a huge banyan tree that under the shadow of that tree every citizen can have solace that it is your efforts due to which our constitutional history has brought us here

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Senior Adv CS Vaidyanathan: One very important point I want to highlight about independence of judiciary, there are whispers and I hope they are not true, that the collegium thinking of sending recommendations only if they are going to be accepted by the govt

Sr Adv Vaidyanathan: this I think is a very dangerous proposition. I hope this does not ever come to be true! Because if it is so it means prior informal consultation and that itself will mean negation of independence of judiciary !

Sr Adv Vaidyanathan: this will also result in negating the principles of NJAC judgment and fundamental principles therein and if that is to be done then it is much better to review NJAC itself by a larger bench

Sr Adv Vaidyanathan:... and then have a formal process of consultation rather than being introduced in this manner. It is very very topical and I thought I must mention since the CJI is here. #SupremeCourt #collegium