Bhubaneswar. Feb. 22: The Constitution of India entreats the countrymen to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activities so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement, Justice Sashikanta Mishra, Judge of the High Court of Orissa said on Saturday.
“To abide by the constitution is a fundamental duty and justice is the engine that runs the nation,” Justice Mishra said while addressing faculty members and students of the SOA Deemed to be University here as part of the SOA Lecture Series.
“The constitution starts with justice, goes through justice and ends with justice,” he said adding the country should be proud of its civilization which influenced the drafting of the constitution by the great men who were members of the Constituent Assembly.
Justice Mishra said there existed a wealth of wisdom, knowledge and civilizational ethos before the experts sat down to draft the constitution adding “it will be wrong to say that the British taught us law.”
Referring to the impact of the constitution on the Indian people, he narrated his experience with an auto driver in New Delhi on a winter night long ago when he refused to jump the traffic lights in the middle of the night when there were few vehicles on the road. “Though I prodded him to go ahead as I was eager to catch a train, he did not budge,” he said.
“Khud ko achha nahi lagega” (It will not feel good if I jump the traffic lights), the auto driver responded.
Justice Mishra said he had studied the constitution as a lawyer while the auto driver had never gone through the charter but nonetheless he was living the provisions of the same. It reflected the impact of the Indian constitution on its citizens, he said.
He also cited several everyday examples to highlight that one may or may not be aware of the constitutional provisions vetbatim but if the underlying principles such as, justice, equality etc are reflected in his daily conduct he would be truly living the constitution.
“I have seen in England as also in Dubai and Abu Dhabi that though there are no cops at traffic interjections, everybody follows the rules. When you follow the law, you are upholding the constitution,” he said.
Describing Article 21 as the most important provision of the constitution as it guaranteed personal liberty, he said this liberty could only be taken away by procedures established by law. The Articles 14 and 21 also applied to under trial prisoners in jail as also convicts, Justice Mishra added.
Though the Indian legal system had borrowed from other nations, the essence essentially remained Indian, he said.
SOA's Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof. Prasanta Kumar Patra presided over the program while Prof. S.A.K. Azad, Dean of SOA National Institute of Law, welcomed the guest speaker. Prof. Jyoti Ranjan Das, Dean (Students' Welfare), proposed the vote of thanks.
