ByPervez
Bari
Advocate
K.M. Ashraf welcomed the gathering. Rtd. Justice Ravindra Singh, Allahabad High
Court, inaugurated the session. In the inaugural address he said, “The country
as a whole is in turmoil. Lead role has to be played by the intellectuals.
Among the intellectuals, the lawyers are on the top. We have to take the lead,
because in every field and every sphere of life, there is a political
interference. Peaceful agitation is our democratic right. The lawyers have to
lead the society. Judiciary as a whole, I have no hesitation to say that, it is
under attack. We should be very careful. In case, the judiciary is under
attack, the democracy will not survive. For saving the judiciary, the lawyers,
not the judges, have to come forward. They can protect the judiciary. Judges
may come for particular time. They come and go, but, you are there. This is a
very tough period for the judiciary also. The lawyers are feeling not happy in
the working as well as the decisions taken by the government.”
In his key
note address Adv. Sharfuddin Ahmad, National Vice-President of Social
Democratic Party of India, (SDPI), said, “The State has been turned into an
instrument at the hands of capitalistic forces, and the media is reduced as
propaganda machine promoting the anti-people programmes of the government and
hostility among various sections particularly between Hindus and Muslims. The
dissent and disagreement to the government policies and programmes are being
branded as anti-national”.
Sanjay
Hegde, senior advocate of Supreme Court, in his address pointed out that the
lawyers are the soldiers of the Constitution. For 70 years, the Constitution
kept the nation united. If the Constitution fails, the nation would fail.
P.K.
Ibrahim, Advocate of Kerala High Court, said, “All our constitutional systems
including the judiciary are facing the unprecedented threat. It is the need of
the hour to protect the constitutional values at any cost.”
Mehmood
Pracha, Advocate of Supreme Court, said that the press conference conducted by
the sitting judges of Supreme Court few years back, itself indicated the alarming
situation prevailing in the judicial system. Women and children are in the
forefront of the peaceful protests across the country to protect the
Constitution. The lawyers are duty bound to protect them legally.
Advocate
Ehiya from Madras High Court also addressed the audience. There was an
interactive session of the participants on different legal issues.
Meanwhile,
the election of the office bearers and committee members was held in the
afternoon session.
Rtd.
Justice Ravindra Singh, Allahabad High Court, was elected as the President.
Advocates K.M. Ashraf (Kerala), Ashok Arora (Delhi ),
Raghunath (Telangana), Khaja Javed Yusuf (West Bengal )
and R. Sevvilamparithi (Tamilnadu) are the vice presidents.
Adv.
Sharfuddin Ahmad, Delhi, was elected as General Secretary while Advocates H.
Mohan Kumar (Karnataka), Mir Masud Khan (Hyderabad) and Mrs. Dilshad Sheikh
(Mumbai) as the Secretaries. Adv. P.K. Ibrahim (Kerala) was elected as the
Treasurer.
Advocates
K.P. Mohamad Shareef (Kerala), J.D. Kashinath (Bangalore), A. Mohammed Yusuff
(Tamil Nadu), Shashank Singh (Delhi), Zamrud Sultana (Andhra Pradesh), Farooq
M. Mansuri (Rajasthan), Azhar Kareem (Bihar), Sikandar Vohra (Gujarat), Ajmal
Khan (Uttar Pradesh), Abdul Hasib Quazi (Madhya Pradesh), S.A. Chauhan (Haryana),
Haider Ali (Jharkhand), Mohammad Sorab Hossain (West Bengal), Mohammed Ehiya
(Chennai), K.C. Naseer (Kerala), Rizwan Ahmad (Delhi), Abdul Majid Khan
(Mangalore), Jahangir Badhusha (Madurai), Adil Sharfuddin (Delhi) and A. Raja
Mohammed (Chennai) were elected as the committee members.
After the
election, Adv. P.K. Ibrahim, Treasurer, read the Preamble of the Constitution
and the same was recited by the newly elected office-bearers, committee members
and audience.
Adv. Mohan
Kumar of Karnataka proposed the vote of thanks. Lawyers from 15 states viz. Delhi , Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,
Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Maharashtra ,
Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu participated in the
programme.
Seven
resolutions were passed in the meeting of advocates which are as follows:
1. The
inaugural programme of All India Lawyers Council, (AILC), held at India
International Centre, New Delhi India
2. The AILC
condemns the brutal suppression of democratic rights by the Central Government
targeting the people who fight to save the Constitution legally and
democratically. The central government has to come forward to consider the
dissenting voice of the people.
3. The AILC
welcomes the decision of seven state governments which have decided not to
implement the CAA and also those states have to boycott the upcoming NPR and
NRC. We request other non-BJP state governments to follow the same for the sake
of the protection of the Constitutional values.
4. The AILC
condemns the state governments ruled by BJP viz., Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Assam
5. The
so-called independent and impartial investigation agencies such as NIA, CBI,
Enforcement Directorate (ED) and departments and Constitutional institutions
such as Income Tax, Election Commission of India, RBI, CAG, UGC, etc., have
been misused by the Central BJP Government as political tools against those
raise the voice against the anti-people policies of the Central Government. It
is against the basic spirit of the Indian Constitution. The AILC demands that
these agencies should have to assert their own credibility to work
independently and to regain the trust of the citizens.
6.
Recently, the lawyers who are concerned about the anti-constitutional agenda of
the ruling BJP government also targeted by the police and different agencies of
the government and have been booked in the false cases in many instances of
political vendetta. The AILC demands the Central Government for its course
correction and to enact The Advocates Protection Act to protect the rights and
privileges of the legal fraternity.
7.
Unfortunately, the common people have lost trust in the election process and
the credibility of elected members are under suspicion due to the allegations
emerged about the tampering of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), widely in
the recent elections. A number of litigations are pending before the Apex court
challenging the mismatching number of votes between total polled votes and
votes acquired by the contested parties. We cannot see this litigation as any
other usual case; but it exposes the failure of the system of highest level of
democracy. It damages and deteriorates the very basic principles of
representative democracy, which should never to be allowed to continue in
future. To retain the sanctity and the credibility of the election process, the
AILC demands to the Election Commission of India to reinstate the paper ballot
system, even if it is a time consuming exercise, for the sake of the protection
of the representative democracy with immediate effect.