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Speech
of Hon'ble Mr. Justice Vijender Jain, Chief Justice, Punjab & Haryana
High Court, Chandigarh at the centenary celebrations of the Bar
Association, Yamuna Nagar at Jagadhari held at Judicial Complex, Yamuna
Nagar on March, 4, 2008.
Hon'ble
Chief Minister Sh. Bhupinder Singh Hooda,
Justice Saron, the Administrative Judge, Yamuna Nagar Sessions
Division, my esteemed colleagues, Hon'ble
Judges of the Punjab & Haryana High Court, Sh. Pardeep Rathaur,
President of the Bar Association, District & Sessions Judge, judicial officers, administrative officers, police officers,
member of the Bar, ladies and gentlemen.
It is indeed a great honour and privilege for me to be here with
you to celebrate the centenary year of the establishment of the Bar
Association at Jagadhari-Yamuna Nagar. There are few bar associations in
the country which can boast to be as old as is yours and I am really
impressed with it. I have spent almost four decades in the legal
profession but the kind of reverence and respect which you have shown to
the founder of the bar, the great luminary, Pt. Jyoti Prasad Ji whose
photograph has been placed here to adorn the dias as well as to his son, a
practising lawyer here and who is 96 years of age, is unprecedented. It
goes to show quality of the head and the heart of the members of the legal
fraternity of Yamuna Nagar and Jagadhari. It shows the essence of good
insight and sagacity of all of you who have assembled here that how much
respect you all give to the elders. An institution, a society or a nation
cannot flourish and attain high achievements if they forget their
forefathers who struggled to establish them. Just remember that merely
four or five persons joined hands in a small court and formed a bar
association and today you are a very large and well-knit body, you have a
magnificent building of the district courts complex.
I must
also convey my deep sense of gratitude to the Haryana Govt., the Chief
Minister of Haryana for providing timely assistance for building up the
basic infrastructure in the court complex not only at the district level
judiciary but even at the sub-divisional headquarters because it is our
firm belief that in this country the lawyers have always been in the
forefront of all the struggles, whether political or social, and it is in
this regard that the social cause of female foeticide, drug de-addiction
or to check the menace of fast spreading disease called AIDS lead has to
be provided by the legal community. Until and unless the mindset of the
society changes, it is difficult to bring about a social change and I was
really happy to hear from the District & Sessions Judge
that every institution here at Yamuna Nagar has alteast one skit or
programme dedicated to the social cause of female foeticide.
The other day I was at Karnal where one of my brother Judges said
while addressing the audience that he will ask the Chief Minister to
provide a cash prize of rupees one crore to any person who provided the
answer to his query. The question he posed to the
audience was that he would get the cash prize of rupees one crore
who would tell that he was not born from a mother. He had very clearly
conveyed his message to the audience. We have to change the mindset of the
people. Our mind is still a slave to the feudal past which hesitated to
give its due place to the women in the society. Another brother Judge said
on another occasion that if a son is relevant and important because he is
the inheritor of the legacy then please tell the name of your great
grandfather. There will be hardly anyone who could tell the name of the
great grandfather of his own grandfather.
These are the issues which the lawyers are required to take up and
once your community takes up these issues, I am absolutely certain that
the movement of the people which we have started will turn into a
revolution. It receives great support from such like programmes. You all
are indeed unique but why do I call you unique?
I have been attending functions of the bar associations; golden
jubilee celebrations; diamond jubilee celebrations and even centenary
celebrations but the function which you have organised today is the
function which gives a great message to the people. I do not desire to say
many things on this occasion because you have been sitting here for a long
time and I was told by your President that you have also arranged a dinner
after the cultural programme. After watching such truly great cultural
programme, the factum of calling us to deliver speeches is something like
telling a person to eat the pudding first and then have the main course of
the meal. I certainly do not propose to do such a thing. I am moved by the
solidarity shown by you. I am really very happy with the knowledge, the
discipline and the way you have conducted yourselves in this function.
Thank you very much.
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