Seeks scholarships, financial aid to help law students climb professional ladder; college to move to larger campus at Old Goa from next year
PANAJI
Chief Justice of India, B R Gavai, on Saturday batted for young lawyers trying to find a footing after passing out from law schools, urging established senior counsels to hand-hold their baby steps at the bar.
“The stipends some of the interns are paid is meagre. It is not enough to make ends meet,” Gavai said and egged on senior counsels to initiate a culture of financially supporting young law students with scholarships so they can climb the ladder of legal practice.
Gavai was addressing an audience of judges, lawyers and law students while delivering his keynote address at the valedictory function of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the VM Salgaocar Law College at Miramar.
Gavai commended the college for its five-decade-long contribution to legal education and nation-building.
He also lauded the college for starting an ‘incubation centre’ which will help young lawyers to address the challenges gaining confidence in early practice in the profession.
He said the model is worth emulating by law colleges and senior counsels across the country.
Gavai also lauded the founder of the college V M Salgaocar for his vision to set up a law college in Goa in the early 1970s by contributing part of his wealth and giving back to society in an era when Corporate Social Responsibility was unheard of.
He also said that the five-year integrated law course has brought about a paradigm shift, enabling lawyers to become well-rounded professionals with depth of knowledge.
The event was a judicially power-packed affair with the CJI of Bombay High Court, Alok Aradhe and sitting judges Mahesh Sonak and Bharati Dangre, adorning the dais alongside Gavai and industrialist Dattaraj Salgaocar, who heads the College’s management.
The audience too was packed with sitting judges Valmiki Menezes and Ashwin Bhobe besides retired judges including former chief justice of Allahabad High Court Ferdino Rebello, former Bombay High Court Judges RMS Khandeparkar and Filomeno Reis besides several senior counsels and top lawyers from Goa.
Earlier in his welcome address, Salgaocar announced that the college which has functioned from its current location for over four decades will be moving to a grand new campus at Old Goa from next year.
At the nearly two-hour event held in the College’s conference hall, alumni who rose to become
High Court judges were felicitated – Justices Sonak, Menezes and Bhobe besides retired judges Reis and U B Bhakre.
Executive cannot be permitted to act like a judge, says CJI
PANAJI: Referring to the judgement in the bulldozer demolition case, CJI B R Gavai said, “The rule of law is paramount in the country, and I am happy that we could lay down guidelines. We could prohibit the executive from becoming a judge because the Constitution recognises the separation of powers among the executive, judiciary, and legislature. If the executive is permitted to be a judge, then we will be undermining the very concept of separation of powers.”
