Hyderabad, February 7: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday stated that a legal system must adapt itself to the changes which naturally follow social changes. He said so while inaugurating the 17th Commonwealth Law Conference at Hyderabad International Convention Centre on Sunday.
Beginning his address by describing Hyderabad as a ‘historic and beautiful city’, told the gathering of eminent Jurists from across 54 Commonwealth nations that the theme of the conference, “Emerging Economies – Rule of Law: Challenges and Opportunities” is specially relevant today, especially when a new global architecture is taking place and there is restlessness in the air in many developing countries.
The Prime Minister said that the ability of emerging economies to be a partner in shaping the new international order in the 21st century will be determined to a large extent by the choices they make with respect to their systems of governance as well as the legal and institutional structures they devise for enforcing the rule of law.
He said that while the policy preferences that countries make are invariably rooted in the realities of their history, politics and culture, the fact of globalization and the challenges that the world community faces as a whole demand a purposive alignment of domestic policies and laws with the evolving international laws and norms.
“This is necessary to address common challenges facing the humanity as a whole. There include international terrorism, poverty, malnutrition, amidst rapid growth, protection of human rights, climate change, energy security and so on.”
Mr Manmohan Singh pointed out that the rule of law can no longer be divorced from “global policy languages”.
Calling on the gathering to take note of the twin challenges of fostering law bound states and law based international environment, the Prime Minister said that it was his firm belief that meaningful solutions to the problem of mass poverty that prevails in many developing counties can be found only in the framework of a rapidly expanding economy.
Rapid economic growth therefore is a prime necessity, he said.
“He said that it is necessary to create a macro-economic environment which is conducive to the promotion of savings, investment, entrepreneurship, innovation and the management of rapid technological changes. A sound legal system based on the rule of law and effective and speedy contract enforcement are the major determinant of a favourable macroeconomic environment that I have been talking about.”
At the same time, it is also necessary to ensure and this with point Chief Justice of India made that the fruits of development are distributed equitably. Thus developing countries need a legal system which is conducive both to rapid economic development and which also has a built in mechanism to promote an equitable distribution of gains from development.
The Prime Minister said that India stands committed to the pursuit of inclusive economic growth. The welfare of the poor and the common man is the centrepiece of India’s policies, he said.
He said that the Constitution enumerates the Fundamental Rights of citizens and the Directive Principles of State Policy, which, through judicial interpretation are now read together to reinforce each other, as inspired by the vision of the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi and India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
He said that it is a ‘matter of pride for us that India is one of the very few nations, in the developing world and certainly the only one of its size and diversity to have remained a vibrantly democratic republic in real and in operational terms.’
This, he said is a shining example of constitutionalism and the rule of law.
To ensure the cohesiveness of our pluralistic society, we have embedded secularism as a part of the basic structure of our Constitution.
The Prime Minister added that any political system in my view must ensure equality of opportunity and access to fair and neutral processes. It must empower citizens to respect, protect and fulfil their human rights. Legal empowerment of citizens must include universal franchise, free and fair elections, right to free expression, right to due process and equality of treatment – these being the basic essential characteristics of a genuinely democratic society.
Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia, AP High Court Chief Justice Nisar Ahmed Kakru and others also spoke on the occasion.
The Prime Minister later left for New Delhi.
INN