All India Lawyers Union (AILU) having a membership of around 30,000 across the country on Sunday resolved to take up the cause of those who stand to lose their land if the Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2015 gets a nod from the Parliament.
Addressing the media at the concluding session of AILU west zone organizational workshop held on July 11 and 12, national president of AILU Adv Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya and President of AILU (Goa chapter) Adv Avinash Bhosle explained AILU’s stand on the issue.
Adv Bhattacharyta stated, “Even if the Bill is passed, as per the Directive Principles of State Policy, those whose land is acquired should be afforded an alternative living opportunity to maintain their livelihood.”
Adv Bhattacharya also spoke about the need for transparency in selection of two eminent personalities to the six-member National Judicial Appointment Commission and insisted that at least one of these two persons should be a jurist.
National general secretary Adv Somdatt Sharma suggested that decentralization of judiciary can be achieved by setting up zonal circuit benches of Supreme Court in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. He also said that the vacancies in High Courts and subordinate courts need to be filled immediately to address the lopsided ratio of 50 judges per million citizens in India. The international standard ratio in this regard is 107.
The role of lawyers in upholding the constitutional tenet of secularism, the necessity for decentralization of judiciary and on the nature of the recent amendments to the labour laws in the country were the other topics deliberated upon by advocates from the High Courts of Kolkata, Gujarat, Kerala, Delhi and Madras at the workshop.
Disapproves transfer of
JMFC Bosco Robert’s
PANAJI
Visiting AILU members expressed disapproval of JMFC Bosco Robert’s transfer as secretary of South Goa Legal Service Authority. Roberts had issued search warrant of Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s official residence to arrest the absconding Nuvem MLA Francisco Mickky Pacheco.
National vice president of AILU P K Narayanan stated, “It appears to be a ‘punishment transfer’ and hence sends a wrong message to the public. Legality of JMFC’s order can be decided only by the High Court.”
