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Session 1: The Constitution, the Judiciary, and Democracy
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Vaishnavi Shukla
11:30
Hello and welcome to Session 1 of 'The Constitution, the Judiciary and Democracy' chaired by N. Ram, (Director, The Hindu Publishing Group)
11:33
The host Gesu Bharadwaj welcomes guest speakers, Justice K. Chandru and Justice K. Kannan.
11:36
N.Ram begins the session by introducing Justice K Chandru's contribution and the cases he has covered that made meaningful impacts on society.
11:42
N. Ram further shares his eloquent thoughts on the book - Constitutional Concerns by Adv. Kaleeswaram Raj, and how the author goes into detailed cases under the section 'Courts'.
11:46
"How independent our judiciary has been historically?", he drops this question before moving ahead with the session.
11:49
N. Ram hands over the stage to the first guest speaker, Justice Chandru. He starts his speech by sharing the commonality with the panel as they are all alumni of Loyola College, run by the Jesuits.
11:50
"When the constitution was drafted, thought was given to minorities along with nominations," says Justice Chandru.
11:52
Justice Chandru reminds the audience about the first time the Union Jack was lowered and the tricolour was hoisted, Pt. Nehru stated "when the world is asleep, India awakes to life and freedom".
11:54
He adds that when India became independent, the communist leaders were in jail.
11:57
Justice Chandru moves ahead to talk about how Ambedkar, after two and a half years of debate, made a historic speech when the constitution was introduced in 1949.
11:58
"This country is better with democracy", he quotes this statement made by Ambedkar in his speech.
12:00
Justice Chandru goes on to mention the case filed by Communist leader AK Gopalan.
12:01
Under this he says before the first elections were held in 1952, the communist leaders were still in jail, but this time they took up the Constitution and not the red book.
12:02
"If I have a right to expression, I'll have to express myself everywhere, not just in Madras Central Jail," he shares this statement made by AK Gopalan.
12:03
He adds, "The Constitution is a charter of rights" but this was rejected by the Supreme Court.
12:05
Chandru shares that 20 years after this judgment, a time came, and in a case of bank nationalisation challenged by bank owners, the SC felt that the right to property couldn't be seen in isolation, and it should be seen along with article 14 as a charter of rights. Subsequently, judgement in AK Gopalan case was overruled
12:08
Moving ahead, he states that finally the Supreme Court, in the case of Tatas and Birlas after banks were nationalised, decided that the right to property cannot be isolated.
"I shall confine to the right to liberty," says Justice Chandru.
12:09
He further speaks about the tragic incident where Stan Swamy was denied a sipper to drink water as he had Parkinson's.
12:10
Justice Chandru throws light on the tragic end of this incident where ultimately Stan Swamy died without getting proper medical attention.
12:13
After this, he shares with the audience how when the communist ban was removed, they decided to contest elections and in Madras Presidency the Congress came second.
12:14
He adds how despite the results, the governor invited Congress to form the government though they didn't have strength on the floor of the house.
12:16
Justice Chandru dwells further into this incident to share that Rajgopalachari, who was the governor-general, became the Chief Minister.
12:17
He adds how Rajgopalachari did not stand for the elections but was nominated.
12:18
Every issue of the Constitution is a political issue.
Yes (75% | 3 votes)
 
No (25% | 1 vote)
 
Total Votes: 4
12:20
"The judiciary can never rise above the level of economic structure,'" Justice Chandru quotes the Marxist theory.
12:22
He further adds on how Justice Hidayatullah stated that Marx never said anything of this sort and dismissed it.
12:24
Justice Chandru now goes ahead to talk about the importance of bail in the legal system and makes a strong statement: "It's not just a question of having provision, but about the principle".
12:25
"Today we see a person can be detained without an FIR by the Enforcement Directorate and questions where the judiciary has gone wrong in such matters," he adds
12:27
Justice Chandru concludes with a strong statement: "When a fundamental question of Constitutional interpretation arises, the judiciary either goes silent or fails to take a stand on the issue."
12:30
We now have Justice K. Kannan who takes the podium and begins his address by quoting the book - 'How Democracies Die' by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. He also adds a quote from the book - "Many countries hold regular elections, democracies still die."
12:31
Justice K. Kannan talks about how the authors were concerned about the kind of subversion taking place in democracies.
12:32
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