21 ,October 2019
Hon’ble Mr. Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Former Chief Justice of India present his views on Comparative Constitutional Law stated that in the judicial interpretation now the social rights, individual rights, cultural rights are gathering momentum. All the different constitutions give emphasis to these basic rights and that is the reason it varies from country to country as the different problems may be faced by different countries and sometimes the problems which is faced by Sri Lanka or Nepal may not be a same situation in India. So this is very difficult in all these basic rights to have uniform approach in different countries. As per the Universal declaration of Human Rights the cruel and unusual punishments should not be imposed. But what is this cruel and unusual punishment varies and death penalty is considered to be one such punishment. Now the condition of India is different where capital punishment in form of death penalty is imposed. There has been ever increasing murder cases and we have huge pendency of criminal law cases are present. These are the problems faced by particular country and thus accommodation of legal principles according. But basic rights we have to protect in Constitution of any country.
Hon’ble Ms. J. Sapna Pradhan Malla, Judge Supreme Court of Nepal stated that we should be focusing on not designing a constitution based on other countries ideas but we should focus on the implementation procedure of basic rights in the constitution of the different countries. Agreeing to it she raised a concern that though such implementation is important but it also varies from country to country based on their requirement and one never knows what crisis take place and you may have to design new constitution.
Hon’ble Mr. Justice Priyantha Jayawardena, Judge, Supreme Court of Sri Lanka speaking on comparative constitution said that the constitution is only one document, so we need to interpret the constitution in right manner and if the people are not serving their duty at parliamentary level the parliament will be dissolved and again the elections will take place. So we do consider the foreign functions through comparative study but only after screening that does it suits to the society and its requirements. We are conscious about the need for evolution and to respect the differences. Addressing the question as above he deliberated further on the key note topic of comparative constitution and stated that my concern is towards the analysis of pros and cons of interpretation of constitution through the foreign judgments and laws. As each constitution is unique but what is good and suitable to the domestic conditions of the country that will only be adopted.
The above views were presented by Hon’ble Judges in the Fourth Prof. N. R. Madhava Menon SAARCLAW Mooting Competition, 2018-19 South Asian Colloquium on Commonwealth Comparative Constitution and Public Law organized on 16th & 17th of January, 2018 at Lloyd Law College, top private law college in india, and further, witnessed the presence of eminent judges like Mr. Justice Syed Rafat Ahmend, Judge Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Mr. Justice Priyantha Jaywardhane, Judge Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, Mr. Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal, Judge High Court of Punjab and Haryana, and Justice Avneesh Jhingan, Judge High Court of Punjab and Haryana.
Author
Law Faculty,
Lloyd Law College