Of late there has been a problem in our country over delivery of justice. Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari, the Chairman of Human Rights Commission, Punjab and a former judge of Patna High Court, said this while delivering speech as the Guest of Honour in the open session of the three-day event of the yearlong centenary celebration of the Mangaldai Bar Association at Mangaldai Court campus on Monday.
“What is justice? Justice delivered or not? Almost every day there is a TV debate. A classical example is the acquittal of the famous actor Salman Khan. A section of people said that it is a great injustice. Saman Khan’s family and his followers observed that this is the justice. On the other hand the family of the victims said that we are not concerned whether Salman Khan is convicted or not we just want the compensation as announced by the government. Then which one is the justice – whether Salman Khan’s acquittal, his conviction or the payment to the deceased family!” said Justice Ansari.
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Speaking on the proper justice delivery mechanism and the role of lawyers, Justice Ansari said, “The function of a lawyer is not to break black into white or white into black. His role is to lay the truth before the court so that the court may deliver the proper judgment.”
The open session, presided over by Madhab Ch Rajbongshi, President of the Mangaldai Bar Association and also the president of the centenary celebration committee, was inaugurated by Apurba Sarma, the President of the Executive Committee of the Bar Council of India and senior advocate of the Gauhati High Court.
In his speech, Sarma outlined the steps taken by the Bar Council of India for the welfare of the lawyers including demand made before the government for the insurance facility and stipends for the young lawyers among others. He also recalled the contributions of the members of the Mangaldai Bar Association in the judiciary history of India and Assam over the last one hundred years and also paid deep tribute to the six founder members of the Bar Association namely late Rai Bahadur Sukla Ghosh, Kumud Rai Bora, Tapeswar Sarma , Hiralal Basu , Gunen Rajkhowa and Ratneswar Das Gupta.
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The session also witnessed release of a souvenir published on the occasion by Asom Sahitya Sabha President Dr Paramananda Rajbongshi. In his speech he stressed introducing preliminary knowledge of law in the academic curriculum of High School level to stop incidents of students taking the law in their hands like that of the recent incident of Assam Engineering College (AEC) students due lack of their necessary knowledge of law.
The session was also addressed by Ramen Deka, MP, Mangaldai, two BJP MLAs of Darrang Gurujyoti Das and Binanda Kr Saikia, senior lawyer of Gauhati High Court Nekibur Zaman, prominent physician and singer Dr Anjan Jyoti Choudhury, retired IAS officer Mahtabuddin Ahmed among others while Sailendra Sarma Barua, Secretary of the organizing committee explained the objectives of the meeting.
Earlier, the three-day closing ceremony of the yearlong centenary celebration began on Saturday with the hoisting of the organizational flag, followed by a variety of cultural, social and academic programmes including a seminar on ‘The Constitution of India has played the key role as pioneer to keep up the unity in diversity’ and tribute to over 40 members of the Bar Association by felicitating their family members.