NEW DELHI: In a spirited ‘back to the roots’ call, Supreme Court Justice S Abdul Nazeer on Sunday said the surer yet arduous way to free administration of justice in India from the colonial psyche is to teach law students about ancient yet advanced legal jurisprudence. He said the legal norms developed by great personalities like Manu, Kautilya, Brihaspati and others were worth studying and emulation.
Quoting liberally from the jurisprudential works of great sages and thinkers as narrated in scriptures, Justice Nazeer said, “Even though it may be an enormous and time-consuming effort, I firmly believe that it would be a worthy endeavour which could revitalise the Indian legal system and align it with the cultural, social and heritage aspects of our great nation and ensure more robust delivery of justice.”
Pitching for the introduction of ancient Indian jurisprudence as a subject in law colleges, Justice Nazeer said, “There can be no doubt that this colonial legal system is not suitable for the Indian population. The need of the hour is the Indianisation of the legal system. The eradication of such a colonial mindset may take time but I hope that my words will evoke some of you to think deeply about this issue and steps that need to be taken to decolonialise the Indian legal system.”
He said, the future of the rule of law and parliamentary democracy in India depends to a great extent on the ability, wisdom and patriotism of our future lawyers and judges. “Such lawyers and judges will only grow from the social soil of India and will be nurtured by its social atmosphere. Great lawyers and judges are not born but are made by proper education and great legal traditions, as were Manu, Kautilya, Katyayana, Brishaspati, Narada, Parashara, Yajnavalkya and other legal giants of ancient India. The continued neglect of their great knowledge and adherence to the alien colonial legal system is detrimental to the goals of our Constitution and against our national interests,” he added.
Speaking on ‘Decolonisation of Indian Legal System’ at the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad’s National Council meeting at Hyderabad, Justice Nazeer said the concept of demanding justice was inbuilt in the ancient Indian legal system. In contrast, under the British colonial system, which persists even today, justice has to be requested in the most polite manner while addressing the judges as ‘Lordships’ and ‘Ladyships’.
The judge said under Indian jurisprudence marriage was a duty, a job to be performed as one of the many social obligations, which everyone had to perform. “But, the pre-occupation of western jurisprudence with rights has resulted in marriage being looked upon as an alliance from which each partner tries to get as much as he or she can. The high rate of divorce is the result of neglecting the ‘duty’ aspect of marriage,” he said, adding “the word right (adhikar) does not occur even once in the whole of Anushasan Parva or the Arthasastra. Indian jurisprudence is founded on theories that rights are corollaries of duties.”