After more than two years of COVID19 disruption, functioning of courts and the legal profession is returning back to normal, albeit with some 'new normal'.
Hybrid Court and arbitration hearings, meetings, and events, it seems, are there to stay. At the same time physical meetings and events are picking up, as international travel is becoming less restrictive and pent-up urge to travel and meet people is looking for an outlet. Memory of those lost to Covid still lingers.
One foundational question to which we all have to look for answers, remains. Whether the Rule of Law sustains itself in the same way today as before?
Covid 19 had led to excessive powers devolving to the state and more particularly to the police and the bureaucracy, due to the demand of emergency circumstances and also the reduced access to courts and the deference which courts accorded to the state while handling the crisis. It also led to some level of tolerance of state authoritarianism, as people generally become resigned to their fate.
What is most essential though, is to see whether the institutions like the judiciary are able to regain their robustness and vitality, especially when faced with unprecedented attacks on its functioning while deciding contentious matters having resonance in the cacophony of the social media, where the loudest screeching voices belong to those aligned to the power centres. Voices that do not care for, do not understand, and even are opposed to the very concept of independence of judiciary and how vital it is to sustain even the basic level of the Rule of Law. Judges, who decide cases where one party wins and other loses, hand down convictions and punishments, give rulings against the state and its agencies, have no other protection and safeguard than the public faith and trust and support of an independent Bar. It requires courage and robustness to decide contentious cases while leaning towards the protection of rights of the weak and individual citizens. Authoritarianism has always hundreds of justifications, but these are to be weighed against the sacrosanct rights enshrined in the constitution which also makes the judiciary the guardian of fundamental rights to enforce limits on state powers by protecting the citizens. How do we keep our judges robust and motivated to carry out their constitutional oath to perform the duties of the judges office without fear or favour, affection or ill-will and to uphold the constitution and the laws, is the seminal question which faces the Bar and every right thinking citizen.
The Bar Association of India is launching the Rule of Law Events Series, with the opening event on 'Free Speech and the Judiciary: Striking a Balance for Fair and Independent Administration of Justice', with many more to follow nearly every month.
The Association is also working to complete its building project and to establish an institution for dispute avoidance and resolution which caters to the need of the emerging markets and economies as it continues to support and carry out initiates that serve to promote and sustain the rule of law in the country and globally.
Today is the time when the Bar and the legal profession has the most important role to play to nurture the drying roots of the Rule of Law and to support and help sustain and independent and robust judiciary. There is no way we can afford to fail or even fall short in this endeavour, and this is the only way we can celebrate Aazadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.