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SPEECH OF
HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE VIJENDER JAIN, CHIEF JUSTICE, PUNJAB AND HARYANA HIGH
COURT ON THE INAUGURATION OF ASIA PACIFIC JURIST ASSOCIATION, LUDHIANA
CHAPTER ON 22ND AUGUST, 2007.
Mr.B.K.Goel, President of the Asia Pacific
Jurist Association, Hon'ble Judges of Punjab and
Haryana High Court, General Secretary of Asia Pacific Jurist Association,
other members on the dais off the
dais.
I have come here to inaugurate the Asia
Pacific Jurist Association, Ludhiana Chapter and the inaugural function
has generated tremendous interest in the activities of APJA. I am
confident that APJA Ludhiana Chapter will have permanent impact with its
activities in Ludhiana. The participants have done hard work on the papers
read before you, I was going through the same. You require a full day
deliberations and discussions on these papers. I am sure that under the
stewardship of Mr.Goel, APJA Ludhiana Chapter will be in the fore front
not only in India but in whole of the Asia Pacific Region. Recently there
was a conference in Manila, it was Asian Justice Forum, which was attended
from India by Hon'ble the Chief Justice of India, myself, the Chief
Justice of Australia, Chief Justice of Philippines, Judges of the Supreme
Court of Sri Lanka, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Thailand and a Judge
from Indonesia, they were at a Forum and you will be glad to know that
APJA was one of the Co-sponser of this conference alongwith the Supreme
Court of Phillippines.
Much had been said earlier and some of the
speakers have given blame for environmental degradation on Government.
Similarly Industry has blamed government agencies but I must say that
blame game must stop. Government has not done enough, Industry is not
responsible, some other agencies are responsible. Because if blame game
continues and environmental degradation is not addressed, victims are
people of this Country, the people of the State. There has to be a common
endeavour by all the stake holders whether they are lawyers, whether they
are NGO's whether they are students, whether they are Universities,
whether they are manufacturing association, how to preserve our
environments. If we go on blaming that what we have been doing for the
last 60 years, degradation of our environment will not stop. It is very
auspicious day for me, when you are having a new era in Ludhiana by
establishing the APJA chapter but my appeal to all of you is to have a
alliance of like minded stake-holders to preserve and conserve
environment. Everybody knows water is polluted, everybody knows air is
polluted. Who is responsible. We ourselves are responsible. There has to
be introspection and that is the main idea of launching APJA in Ludhiana.
We have to create awareness about environmental degradation, to create a
mechanism for enforcement against environmental hazards. We have to
sensitize the people. It is common in this Country, we clean our house
from inside and put everything on the road, "Mera Ghar to Saaf Ho Gaya".
This mind set must change. So, we ourselves are responsible. It is not a
question whether you are polluting the environment 1% or 60%. Pollution is
pollution.
The quality of water which is required for
potable purpose or for agriculture purposes quality has to be maintained.
We are not going into the law. I am not here today as Chief Justice of
Punjab and Haryana High Court. My brother Judges, who are sitting here,
they are 12 in number, they are not here as Judges of Punjab and Haryana
High Court. They are here because there is a feeling among our Judges as
Citizens of this Country that they also have a role to play. They will
return today back to Chandigarh, read the files for tomorrow, have to
prepare themselves to listen to arguments of lawyers and decide the
matters but there is a urge in them as a Citizen to do something for
environment.
I was very happy when I was taken to a
School prior to this function, there was plantation of trees and I was
equally happy when the Municipal Councilor of
the area met me and said Chief Justice Sahib, I will take care of all
these 14 herbal trees and I will ensure that every house-hold in her
constituency must implant a tree and must preserve it. There has to be a
movement. There has to be awakening. There has to be
sensitization regarding your ecology, your environment, your
surroundings, your own behaviour.
In our ancient scriptures i.e. Rigveda,
Ahooti is to Vanaspati, for preservation of Vanaspati. The oldest
scripture, which we have thousands of years back. We have also to
understand that it is the developed world, which has polluted human
mankind and the pollution is not limited to one City or one region. What
happens to the Ozone layers or mother planet earth. 25% of the air
pollution is caused by United States. These are certain issues, when you
have a APJA Chapter in Ludhiana, I am sure you will consider threadbare
these issues relating to environmental degradation.
I would like to emphasize that APJA has
three principle activities and these activities are apart from
environmental degradation which are also very important for all of us, who
are in the legal fields as well as those who belong to financial and
industrial sectors; Alternative Disputes Resolution Mechanism i.e.
Arbitration, Meditation and Conciliation, because time has come when
people can not wait, particularly people in trade and Industry, they want
their matters to be decided expeditiously, if there has to be economic
growth in India. Arbitration in India has been prevalent for centuries, in
older days we used to have a Salish (Arbitration), on whom the parties
relied on account of their integrity and non bias attitude and the matter
used to be adjudicated. Another important aspect of the activities which
APJA has undertaken is Alternative Disputes Redressal because I am of the
firm opinion and belief that neither the Anglo Saxon Jurisprudence nor
Civil Law Jurisprudence or any other jurisprudence in this world is
ancient than the legal jurisprudence, which we inherited in our Country.
As a matter of fact, the Ancient Legal Jurisprudence has been buried under
the debris because we thought that relying on Anglo Saxon Jurisprudence is
fashionable and acceptable, otherwise 5000 years back we had Nyaya Shastra
and Dharam Shastra. Nyaya Shastra is Statutory Law and Dharam Shastra is
Constitutional Law but we don't feel proud of what we are possessed of as
our legacy.
I was addressing meeting organized by
chapter of industries and commerce in Cochin last year where they asked me
Sir why we have to have a clause where forum of Arbitration is decided in
the international arbitration agreement having place of arbitration in
Paris, London or Hongkong. I said the fault is yours. No investor comes to
India simply for friendship. Everybody comes to make money but there is a
tendency on the part of our manufacturers, our people, who are running
industries, at that time they think that they are at the mercy of others
as they are giving them orders. They do not insist on arbitration clause
and the arbitration shifts from India to abroad and when the cost of
arbitration becomes high, they are not in a position to spend that cost
and ultimately loose the battle. Through APJA, the legal fraternity should
make use of these new concepts with regard to International Law.
Another field is Intellectual Property
Right. There was a conference, which was held last year in Vigyan Bhawan
on new patent regime. The outcome and deliberation of that conference is
something which people from Ludhiana may learn. What kind of new patent
regime it is. On account of paucity of time I will not delve on in. I
would love to do so, may be some time else.
It is a great privilege for me to be with
you to inaugurate the APJA chapter at Ludhiana. Please don't concentrate
only on one aspect, which is important aspect of course as Ludhiana is
largest industrial city of Punjab, Lawyers have to equip themselves with
the new trends, which are emerging on Intellectual Property Right and
Patent Regime.
With these words, I thank you all and wish
APJA Chapter, Ludhiana a great success.
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