Justice Kumar disapproves tendency to destroy Constitution

Showering praises on the efforts put in to frame the Constitution of India, Justice N Kumar of Karnataka High Court on Tuesday disapproved the present tendency to destroy the Constitution, without trying to understand it in its full form.

He was delivering the inaugural address during a discussion on ‘the constituent assembly debates in contemporary times’, which was organised by The Centre for Law and Policy Research in the city.

“We see today a tendency to destroy the Constitution. There is a lack of respect for the Constitution and love for democracy,” he said but hastened to add that the threat was not something new, but existed at the time of drafting the Constitution too.

Lauding the efforts of the Indian constituent assembly members, Kumar elaborately spoke on the amount of work put in to frame the Constitution.

“It was not done overnight. About 141 days were taken to draft the Constitution, which consists of 395 articles and eight schedules.

Every portion is of utmost importance. This is not like Ramayana and Mahabharata,” he said in his hour-long speech.

Quoting the speech by Dr B R Ambedkar, he said, “It’s the people who are elected who should make the best of it. If not, even the Constitution cannot help the country. The interest of the country should be more important than self-interest. What is required is a handful of honest men who can give life to the principles of the Constitution,” he said, adding that there was a shortage then and even now of such people.

In his speech, Justice Raghavendra Chauhan of the Karnataka High Court questioned the relevance of the word socialism that is used in the Constitution and favoured the word secularism.

Prof Sudhir Krishnaswamy, trustee of the Centre for Law and Policy Research said that the Constitution was silent on many issues like lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT). Prof Arun Thiruvengadam from Azim Premji University moderated the discussion.

Earlier, Justice Kumar launched the website: cadindia.clpr.org.in, which consists of Constituent Assembly Debates on Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles and their relevance to contemporary constitutional, political and social conflicts and judicial practice.