Law Profession as a Career - 1

Law profession evolves slowly and you not only grow with it, but it grows into you.

Ten Mantras to make the most of your initial years

1.   Be in the chamber, office, or court from 9 am to 9 pm, keeping Friday evenings off. Never leave the office without preparing the cases listed for the next day.

2.  Observe how seniors hold conferences with client and advocates prepare the brief, drafts or settle pleadings and make their oral submissions.

3. Observe how the judges accept or disagree with the arguments and make their observation in court. Learn to think like a judge.

4.  Carefully analyse the judgment, when delivered and understand how the judge had appreciated the arguments of both the sides and made findings on each issue.

5.   Continue to absorb as much as possible from the seniors and the court, talk to them. Hear and learn from their experiences.

6.   Never enter the court without being thoroughly prepared with the matter listed in the court.

7.   Never leave the court till your matter is over.

8.   Always be updated with the judgments of the Supreme Court daily. Maintain your notes register and remember the citation. It gives you a cutting edge and makes your contribution to a senior meaningful.

9.   While waiting for your case to come up, don’t stand in the corridors gossiping, that you can do after you have put in twenty years. Sit in the court and carefully follow the proceedings in the case being heard. Learn about judges’ perception, the way the propositions are being considered, and the nature of existing and new litigation.

10. Read biographies of judges, advocates and other books

 

Build rapport with the judges
If you tell the judges the true and correct facts and the existing judgments on the issue and how justice can be done between the parties, judges are always ready to accept your submissions and in the process, they also develop confidence in your integrity, which to my mind is the greatest treasure that one can earn in life.

Eleven steps for a promising future as a lawyer

The career starts where college ends and with the existing legal education system, a young graduate will have to develop meaningful skills to make an effective foothold in the profession. Apart from what has been stated above, all students must remember and understand:

1.    Nobody likes to visit an advocate unless it becomes imperative. Every client that comes to you knows the facts of his case and the injury that he is suffering. He needs the help of an advocate to get respite and relief.

2.  Listen carefully to the clients’ problems and issues. Never presume facts, always keep your mind and options open.

3. Always prepare your drafts after reading each document and carrying out complete research on statutes and judgments on the subject. Be ready with judgments on both sides – for and against.

4.  Learn to use your intellect and skills to the work in hand as it comes to you.

5. Every advocate around you has her/his career, aptitude, attitude, attributes, and approach. Don’t copy anybody, imitation is suicide.

6.  Never place incorrect facts or mislead the court because in the end the true and correct facts will always come before the court. Never lose the trust of the judge, don’t allow him to black you out. Once a judge stops believing in you, he will not grant you discretionary reliefs and that is very painful.

7.  Never be discourteous or show your tantrums in court. There is always an appeal to a higher court.

8.    Always dress properly, presentation is very important.

9.  There are no short cuts in the profession. Don’t try to rush through the profession, move forward step by step.

10. You must love reading, writing, thinking, and open analysis. If you don’t have those potentials don’t spend your time in this profession.

11.  Enjoy your vacation time. Get out of town and be with your family. Enjoy every bit of your personal and professional life.

Feel proud to be an advocate. From the time a child is conceived till the succession certificate of her/his properties is issued, legal issues are affecting every person. There will always be abrasions in society, advocates will always be needed, there is no shortage of work, but there is certainly a dearth of good professional advocates. The most difficult, but the most important thing is to think and that is what you are paid for. Read, think, analyse, and express clearly and correctly.

People will continue to come to you for opinion, advice, and engage you as a professional. Perform your best in every case by understanding the facts, the issue, and the social evil underlying it, understand the applicable statute, know, and find the right precedents supporting your case. 

Law is the most dignified profession and is dynamic. It evolves slowly and you not only grow with it, but it grows into you. It helps you to grow into a better human being as you continue to search for truth and help judges to do justice between the parties.

In the profession we deal with abrasions of the society, so you will always be dealing with violence, exploitation, illegalities, breaches, manipulation, and mechanization. All that should not be a deterrence, but a motivation to perform better and work to your perfection and enjoy the bliss of your existence. Only a happy advocate can perform best.

Always be a happy advocate.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Legal Institutions

       In 1972 Bobby Fisher took over title from  Boris Spassky to become the World Champion and in the same year he played three games against the Greenblatt Program and massacred the computer. In his comments on the games, Bobby said that the computer was very weak and that he could give it great odds and still beat it. In 1989 IBM took up the challenge and build up a computer chip ‘Deep Thought’, which evolved to ‘Deep Blue’, ‘Deep Blue Jr.’, ‘Big Blue’ and finally ‘Deep Thought II’ as it continued to play against grand masters over and over again.

      In 1997 Garry Kasparov was hunched over a chessboard, visibly frustrated. He was fidgeting in between turns and shaking his head in disbelief as he waited for his opponent to put the final touches on an inevitable victory. Finally, Kasparov made his move, stood up and raced away from the board.      He raised his arms, astounded that he was beaten by a machine. His opponent was the IBM supercomputer, a machine that was capable of imagining an average of 200 million positions per second. Going into the match Kasparov was confident, he was the Michael Jordan of chess. He had been beating chess-playing computers and was considered nearly unbeatable.

       When Kasparov, one of the greatest chess players of all times, lost to a computer in front of a global audience, Artificial Intelligence was out and open and the time had begun when machines were ready to surpass humans in processing data and accurately displaying results, based thereon. The computer continued to use the logic of the grand-masters in arriving at the result and using the final result as new information. By that process the computer reached at a more refined inference and was able to infer at much quicker pace, though it lacked originality or a new idea with which it could experiment, which faculty is unique to human beings.

    The real purpose of AI was and will always be to help homo sapiens to evolve further as better human beings. The direction of human evolution and all institutions evolved by him including law, is to create a harmonized, conflict free civil society without exploitation and corruption and to provide compensation where ever there is misuse of power, will has been suppressed, injury has been caused and damage has been done.

    A chess board has 64 squares, 32 black and 32 white and has 32 players on the board, 16 black and 16 white. Move of every player on the board is defined by rules of the games. The entire game is about placing of each player strategically to checkmate the opponents’ king. With every move the position of the board changes and that leads to making a new move by the opponent. Over the years, 1972 to 1997, the computer continued to absorb the moves of the grand-masters with whom it played and processed the next best move based on the logic of the location of the players on the chess board, by the grand-masters. The next best placement evolved by looking at the moved played by the opponent, the position of the entire board i.e. the placement of all the players on the board on black and white squares and the possible and likely moves that may be made in future. The next move was the result derived from the sum total of all the positions and moves played by all the grand-masters against it all these years.

      In every litigation there are a certain set of facts existing prior to the filing of Suit or FIR. There are about 1250 Central Acts and about the same number in each State and Union Territory, more are enacted and amendments are brought about to the existing enactments regularly. There are Rules, Regulations, Notifications, Memorandums and Government Orders (‘Statutes’) existing and issued almost every day. Supreme Court has in it’s about 50,500 judgments (1950 till date) considered more than 4,000 of such statues and other notifications etc. having force of law. There are about 10 lakh judgments delivered by High Court all over the country and have interpreted a large number of statues and notifications etc. as and when any issue arose before it.

     This is like the setting of a chess board. The parties and their advocates strategically apply statutes and judgments to the facts of their case and by a process of dialectics make all out efforts to get justice in their favour. Unlike chess where the winner is decided by checkmating the opponents’ king, in litigation the Judge decides the winner as he reaches to truth and justice by a process of logic and reasoning based on his perception and experience. In every case the judge has to give grounds for his judgment and hold one party as winner and other as looser on the basis of the information, understanding and appreciation of the facts stated in documents and pleadings, relevant statutes and judgments and his insight into socio economic milieu. He has to compensate the person who has been wronged in civil cases and punish the guilt in criminal cases.

     The documents and pleadings in every case are unique to itself. No two faces are same and no two cases are same, they may be similar or even twins. That makes law different from chess. The society is dynamic and evolving and so are statutes and abrasions. Statues are enacted to deal with abrasions or to regulate the social relationship to restrain abuse, exploitation and corruption. When Kasparov was beaten the computers’ were capable of making 200 million calculation per second and had limited storage capacity. Today they can make up to 10,000 billion calculations per second and have unlimited storage capacity, everything is on the cloud.

   Application of AI to legal institutions is irreversible and unalterable process of evolution and we will have to adopt the same sooner or later. The sooner we accept the change, earlier we will be able to evolve further. It is the most meaningful and phenomenal change for which we have been waiting for a long time, to wipe out every tear from every eye, by bringing justice to all. Once an authentic data on uniform parameters of all the judgments of Supreme Court and High Court, relevant Statutes, pleading and documents therein is created, AI application can provide the following help to all the stake holders, which will continue to become more meaningful and significant as it will be  made more and more applicable:

1.  Benefit to litigants:

a.  It will be possible to read and cull out relevant data from any number of documents and sorting them on the basis of dates and also on relevance. Once the appropriate data is extracted out of the documents, the facts and events can be arranged in strict chronology. On the basis of the information thus extracted, further help can received in drawing out a list of dates and events. In most cases the facts and events are not disputed, in Singapore the advocates have to draw a common list of dates and events. What is in dispute is the understanding, interpretation and the reason behind the event.

b.   After analyzing the dates and events and the existing database of judgments and statutes, the application can display the breaches committed by the parties and the rights of the parties which have been violated.

c.  Once the terms and conditions of contract that have been breached are determined or the provisions of statues that have been violated becomes available, the application can provide the list of judgments that will support the case.

d.    Finally it will also be possible to determine

                i.  the possible time consumed in reaching to the end of litigation

               ii.  the cost of litigation

              iii. whether it will be meaningful to take up the litigation or not

2.  Benefits to Advocates:

a.     Drafting of Deeds, Wills, MoU, Agreements are already in vogue. But it is difficult to lay your hands on formats which are tailor made for the purpose. AI application can help in reaching to a more authenticated format to be used.

b.     Authenticated translation of documents from local languages to English, particularly at the High Court and Supreme Court level still continues to be serious issue. As the database of documents, pleadings, submissions and judgments continue to grow in both vernacular and English Language, more authenticated translations can be made available at a much quicker pace.

c.      Use of AI application will certainly improve the quality of pleadings by eliminating grammatical mistakes and using legal language, spell check is already available. Once a true and correct list of dates and events and pleadings is ready, the next step will be to help in preparing:

                     i.    Issues

                    ii.    Question of law

                   iii.    Grounds in support of the pleadings

d.       Once the pleadings are completed AI application can help in matching them with the oral evidence that come on record.

e.        After the pleading and evidence is completed, the application can help in framing of submissions.

f.        Finally the application can provide for relevant judgments in support and against the submissions.

g.       Based on the entire litigation material the application can also evaluates the pros and cons of the submissions and then assigns a score for each submission

h.      AI can radically make legal research much easier. The humongous redundant results by word search and search within search can be minimized. Advocates always need precise and only the most relevant judgments to be made applicable to the case in hand as precedents. Judgments can be recommended for the specific facts and submissions of the case, which fits their need.

i.        Once the parameters for appointment of senior advocates and judges of High Court are objectively defined, it will be possible for those who wish to make that stream, as their life objective to follow the parameters and reach his/ her avowed ambition for which s/he is willing to work with humility, determination and perseverance.

j.        At the time of elevation of an advocate as judge, it will be possible for her/ him to follow well defined path and be aware of the others in the field, whom s/he will face for appointment as Chief Justice of High Court, judge of Supreme Court of India and Chief Justice of India. A substantial amount of prejudices and preferences will be effectively eliminated.

3.  Benefits to Judges (at all level):

a.   Make the understanding of facts simpler and easier

b.   Provide options in analyzing the facts and decision making process

c.   Provide options for granting punishment to accused and compensation to victim in criminal cases

d.   Provide options for granting of relief, compensation, damages and costs in civil cases

e.    Help in usage of better language and usage of right words and terms

f.   Improve writing of judgments by providing the ground and judgments which supports the final view taken

g.   Identify tonal nuances of the judgement being written and help making them neutral and objective.

h.    Bring about content quality and  consistency

4.  Benefit in appointment of High Court Judges, Chief Justice of High Court, Judges to Supreme Court and Chief Justice of India:

a.    Once the data on the performance of each advocate in each case from the inception of her/his career, becomes available on objective parameters, it will be possible to pick up the best talent from the bar for appointment as judge of High Court. AI will be able to retrieve the following data for each advocate:

                    i.     Petitions and Counters drafted – Subject and issue wise

                   ii.     Admission matters argued – subject and issue wise, including time spent on legs

                  iii.     Final hearing matters argued – subject and issue wise, including time spent on legs

                  iv.     Written Submissions submitted in court or Propositions of law propounded

                   v.     Articles and books published

                  vi.     Presentations and Addresses delivered in national  and international conferences

             vii.    Judges can continue to enter and mark conduct and performance of each advocate in case in which they consider it noteworthy on the parameters like presentation, dignity while addressing, pitch and tone of voice, mannerism, gestures etc.

b.     Once a person is appointed as a Judge of the High Court, report on her/his performance can be objectively retrieved from the proceedings, orders and judgments delivered. Analysis of every Judge can be made by using multivariate regression method of her/his as a single puisne judge, puisne judge along with a senior judge and as presiding puisne judge. Some of the parameters can be:

                     i.    Proceedings issued

                    ii.    Orders delivered - subject and issue wise, including time taken

                   iii.    Judgments delivered - subject and issue wise

                   iv.    Appeals and Special Leave Petitions filed against orders and judgments delivered

                    v.    Orders and judgments confirmed and set aside by Supreme Court

                  vi.  Judgments of Supreme Court, High Court and other courts referred, considered, analysed, explained, applied, distinguished and held obiter etc. in the judgments delivered

                  vii.  Ratio between proceedings, orders, signatory and judgments delivered

c.      Propositions of law propounded in judgments

An algorithms can be developed to use the above data and identify the perceptions of the judge and her/his proficiency in bringing justice to the litigant. It will also be possible to identify inconsistencies in judgments in respect to a particular issue arising in a subject. This data can be used meaningfully for the purposes of her/his elevation as Chief Justice of the High Court and elevation as Judge of the Supreme Court.

5.  Benefit to Legislature and Executive:

a.      There are three basic reasons for a litigation:

                i.    The statute is invalid,

                ii.   The statute is valid but the action is invalid,

              iii.  The person has taken some advantage by violating a provision of statue or breached a term and condition and does not wish to compensate back to the state or the person from whom the benefit have been taken by him.

b.     Normally 50% of litigation is civil and 50 % is criminal and in civil cases 85% are those in which Government is a party. Out of the 3.3 Crore pending  litigation, an AI application can be run on the about 1.40 Crore Civil litigation in which Government is a party, to determine under which of the three heads the case is falling.

c.    If the Legislature understands and realizes that the litigants have approached the court because the statute is invalid in view of law laid down by Supreme Court, they can make amendments to the Statute and that will lead to disposal of all those cases. If the Legislature still persists on continuing with the litigation, the Court must burden the legislature with heavy costs

d.   If the Executive understands and realizes that the litigants have approached the court because the statute is valid, but the action taken by them is invalid, the executive can retrieve the order and get the cases disposed of. If the executive still persists on continuing with the litigation, the Court must burden the Executive with heavy costs.

e.    If the analysis is that the person has taken some advantage by violating a provision of statue or breached a term and condition of the contract and does not wish to compensate back to the state or the person from whom the benefit has been received and is using the process of court to stall such recovery. The court should give him an option to withdraw the litigation and pay back the advantage received by him. If the litigant still persists on continuing with the litigation, the Court must burden with heavy costs.

f.    A mature AI application can over the years help the legislature and executive in ascertaining the validity of a statue or action at the time of its enactment or passing of the order and the possible impact it will make on the exiting judgments and statutes.

         All this can dramatically reduce the mechanical work of the Advocates and Judges and make their contribution to justice more meaningful and purposeful. They can take time in thinking more than what is already made available by the machine. However, AI will never ever replace the ingenuity of an advocate and experience of a Judge and that will be the real test of her/ his value worth as a lawman, to think out of box which is working with her/ him shoulder to shoulder.

        The final vision of application of AI to legal Institutions is that before entering into litigation, the person should be aware of his coming karmas. Before filing the case and during the process advocates are able to put their best foot forward. Before passing an order or delivering a judgment, the same could be thoroughly examined. Finally as soon as a statute is enacted or a judgment is delivered, it must be possible to objectively say “This is Law! This is Justice!” or “Is this a Law? Is this Justice?” This will be the true application of Artificial Intelligence to the legal institutions, not just creating some meta-tags to help retrieval of judgments on subject and issue, which application has now become ancient.

Aruneshwar Gupta

Senior Advocate, Supreme Court

22.06.2020

Rig Ved - First Mandal, First Sukt, 1-9 Mantr

Max Muller and Ralph T.H.Griffith

I Laud Agni, the chosen Priest, God, minister of sacrifice, The hotar, lavishest of wealth.¹. Worthy is Agni to be praised by living as by ancient seers. He shall bring hitherward the Gods.² Through Agni man obtaineth wealth, yea, plenty waxing day by day. Most rich in heroes, glorious.³ Agni, the perfect sacrifice which thou encompassest about. Verily goeth to the Gods.⁴ May Agni, sapient-minded Priest, truthful, most gloriously great. The God, come hither with the Gods.⁵ Whatever blessing, Agni, thou wilt grant unto thy worshiper. That, Aṅgiras, is indeed thy truth.⁶ To thee, dispeller of the night, O Agni, day by day with prayer. Bringing thee reverence, we come.⁷ Ruler of sacrifices, guard of Law eternal, radiant One. Increasing in thine own abode.⁸ Be to us easy of approach, even as a father to his son. Agni, be with us for our weal.⁹

Aruneshvwar Gupta

Pray Agni the receiver, holder and distributor of energy, which leads to victory of devta and wealth to the performer of yagye.¹ The ancient seekers prayed Agni, so can the present. It holds the divine benefits in itself.² Agni helps obtaining, possessing and enjoying fame and power, which as a rule continues to increase day by day.³ That which is given in oblation to Agni for divine during yagye, certainly reaches the devta.⁴ The sound which is made (mantr) according to correct pronunciation (phonetic rules) before Agni goes to the supreme energy of the devta.⁵ That results which you Agni create and delivers on hearing, is received in truth by the doer⁶. I bow to you Agni, which day by day removes toxins (negativities) and eliminates errors.⁷ It (Agni) wears the secret, which governs the immortality and Self existence.⁸ Like a father hugs his son, so you (Agni) envelop the Self.⁹

Reincarnation of a nation in the same body

May 23, 2019 will go down the history as the day of rebirth and reincarnation of a great nation imbibed in deep culture, philosophy and values, in its own body. This is yet another manifestation of the energy which forms the basis of the paradigm shift which commenced from 2015 and set the world into Fourth Industrial Revolution, Globalization 4.0, Fourth dimension sapiens and all of them jointly creating the irreversible Fourth wave. Thumping majority by BJP led by Narendra Modi Ji for the second term seems to be an unprecedented event for it came against all possible confrontation, opposition and resistance, openly expressed by those who have in their soul the same said energy that have demeaned, exploited, plundered, looted and raped the nation for centuries. The entire assemblage of demoniacal forces ruthlessly propagated divisiveness, disruptiveness, discords, disunity and acrimony amongst people, but have finally lost their hold, forever.

He is a transforming leader with a definite goal and role as a social changer leading from front for a cultural revolution, whose time has come. He will never succumb to hero worship, for he is too detached and too ideological with a deep craving for national development. A very difficult phenomenon to be understood by those who are filled by pride and intoxicated with hordes of corrupt funds and pseudo power. He has in his armor spiritual and moral power, he arouses and evokes emotions but rarely gives vent to it. The political, government and legal institutions will be re-engineered and reorganized to express the true values and goals of the masses to lead to an egalitarian classless society with fundamental freedom, without compromising with the integrity, growth, development and progress of the nation.

Machiavelli philosophy for imitators on how to control, coerce and deceive people, train team to be marketplace manipulators by playing on low order wants and needs, create hopes and aspirations where none existed before, use paid media to propagate and promote themselves and use persons as things, object and tools and exploit them for benefit of achieving power for self-promotion and self-glorification, will be history. Those who have continued to rule the nation and worked solely with self-aggrandizement and self-flattery agenda, without caring that the activity undertaken was farce, mockery, unethical, immoral, dis-honest, unfair, exploitative, abusive, corrupt, anti-nationalist ++, will see themselves becoming extinct. All this will happen in spite of international support from some quarters, by those who have deep vested interest in keeping India poverty stricken, conflict ridden developing nation consisting of hypocrite phony dissemblers and brokers.

He as a leader is a hard task master (including for himself) and goal setter, based on actual needs and values, with fully functional thinking, feelings and action. He believes in being a joint seeker of truth and mutual actualization. He openly expresses the values and needs that holds the society together and continues to conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty pre-occupations, carry them above the conflicts that tear the society apart and unite them in the pursuit of objectives, worthy of their .best efforts leading to harmony, adjustments, stability, elevation and finally transformation. He has not and will never compromise with truth, values and moralities based on ethos of Sanaatan Dharm.

He sets up goals and objectives depending on social needs, environment and milieu and co-relate them to its values. He has been able to make people aware and conscious of the objectives and values and move people to purposeful action to enable achievement of the objectives and finally sustain the change. Believe you me friends, there is no going back now. Looking forward to contribute, to the best of my ability, with my body, mind, intellect and soul in the growth, development and progress of a great nation imbibed in deep culture, philosophy and values, which were eclipsed for last over 1000 years and has risen again finally.

Democracy, Politics and the Law - The judiciary as the last line of defense

All through the conference I have been hearing speakers, speaking about what has happened in the past. Law, Judges, Lawyers are mostly doing rear view mirror driving, my efforts today is to do a forward view driving, keeping an eye on what has gone by. The canvas of the subject in hand is very wide – Democracy, Politics and Law – The judiciary as the last line of defense, so I have put it under five heads – The Global shift, shift leading to new orientation of Democracy and Politics, the new orientation leading to conflicts, Rule of Law and the Role of Judiciary

 The Global Shift

The majority of the world has moved into Globalization 4.0. Globalization is free movement or flow of people, goods, information, ideas and services beyond national boundaries and across the globe, without restraint. Marshal races fought wars and became victorious using their muscle power or aristocracy of the sword. They looted, pillaged, plundered and raped other nations and transported people as slaves during Globalization 1.0. Expansion of religion and conversion of others in their fold also led to movement of people across the globe during Globalization 1.0.With trading and rise of currency, by human beings who created relationship on the basis of reason, merchandise and goods moved across the seas and land, during Globalization 2.0. Information, Ideas and knowledge moved across the globe during Globalization 3.0. Internet provided seamless infrastructure to this transmission.

Now, we have set foot in Globalization 4.0 marked by the movement of services globally, without movement of people or infrastructure, with high speed mobile internet, big data analysis, cloud technology and artificial intelligence. From Business Process Outsourcing to Knowledge Process Outsourcing to Legal Process Outsourcing there is explosion of e-services like Netflix, Fiverr, Up Work and Mechanical Turk etc. A 2015 World Bank study suggests gig economy is set to grow to US$ 25 billion by 2020. There are 167 listed collaboration platforms like Basecamp, Teamwork and Trello etc. Language translation services are helping below poverty line income people to enter the global economic mainstream.

Post 2015, nations are making efforts to take lead in the Fourth Industrial Revolution at national level and are making all out efforts to compete in meaningful production of information, ideas, goods and services using artificial intelligence. There is a simulated arms race amongst technology companies in machine intelligence and learning.

All this is happening because individuals are moving from the third dimension to the fourth dimension. Human beings who were living as individual nomads during their first dimension existence, as tribes and town dwellers in their second dimension existence and as city and metro dwellers in a nation with a defined territory in the third dimension, have now moved beyond the physical, man-made boundaries into a metaphysical world. Physical location is losing its significance and human beings are finding themselves in more harmony with fellow beings irrespective of their race, color, religion, national origin, citizenship status, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or disability. DNA tests have broken down exclusivity or superiority of blue blood or superiority by ancestry, which was deeply ingrained in the leaders who pushed their factions to great violence and wars.

The impact of this concurrent and simultaneous transition and its fallout is felt by all institutions, models of governance, politics, law and individuals. From United Nations to family structures, from banking to crypto currency wallets, the way wars are fought to carrying out agriculture, from terrorism to pick-pocketing, from global politics to village level affairs, from head of the state to the rag picker every structure is undergoing reorientation.

All these shifts and transitions and their impacts are directing citizens of the world to move towards a global democracy, global politics and global law, a border-less homogeneous world, where it is possible in the words of Mahatma Gandhi, and he is all over Africa,  to ‘wipe out every tear from every eye’. The pessimists say that we are living in a VUCA world, a world that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. The realists would say that we have to work together to create a SRIM world, a world that is Stable, Reliable, Inclusive and Multidisciplinary, while the optimists like me, would say that we are moving towards a HITAA world. A world that is more Harmonized, Integrated, Transparent, Accountable and Abundant.

Shift is leading to new orientation of Democracy and Politics

Effective political power in democracy can no longer be assumed, because of inclusiveness, demographic changes, immigration, polarization and unbundling of power. Power will have to be shared, bartered and won over by reason, with the new awareness dawning, using diverse forces, support and assistance at global, national, regional and local levels. Democracy has become complicated and even shambolic, as at many places there is emergence of singly party, with an authoritarian ruler. It looks as if Parliamentary democracy is under threat globally.

With adult franchise in place in all the democratic countries in the world all democratic governments are formed by the people and of the people, but they are failing to be for the people. Because people here are not the top social elite brass, but all those who were pushed back as backwards and underdeveloped have right to vote. The coalition of all the so called under privileged classes are assuming power and become elected majority and those who have continued to be in power for centuries find themselves to be out of power and reduced to an insignificant minority. Divide and rule and ruling by escalating conflicts amongst the minorities is being substituted by inclusive welfare, growth and development, by the locals who have assumed power.

Politics now, is not just a matter of sheer muscle power, the aristocracy of sword, supremacy of a race or race of war heads. Global harmony and consensus have become essential and this accord can only be reached by clearly understanding the larger picture and establishing the nexus between the goal and the path, between the object sought to be achieved and the process of achieving the object. Both the process and object has to reasonable, just and proper and their outcome should not lead to exploitation, suppression of any will or rise of unheard cries. Politics by authoritarianism is being replaced by politics by reasoning and a reasoning which is not limited to welfare of a class, race or gender, but for the welfare of one and all. All those who were pushed back over centuries are emerging back and are reaffirming their existence, women, blacks, browns, yellow, reds, LGBTQ etc. and there is no reversal of this fourth wave

The new orientation is leading to conflicts

All the phases, segments and stages of Globalization 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0; First, Second and Third Industrial Revolution; First, Second and Third dimension people; First, Second and third wave movements have not disappeared into oblivion. All of them have a quantum existence in a lateral spiral time along with the Fourth. Conflicts between those who exist at different levels are becoming sharper. Conflicts are emerging every moment between those who are still holding a tribal attitude; are fighting for expansion of territories, operating monopolies and creating cartels; those who find it impossible to accept, adapt and acclimate with the new emerging economic and social order and the evolving global dynamics forging ahead relentlessly.

Mass production of quality products by certain countries at a non-competitive price will certainly lead to wiping out of certain jobs and industries in other countries, which in turn will lead to mass unemployment and social unrest. By 2022 the average human task hours will be reduced from 71 % to 58 % and those performed by machines and algorithms will increase from 29% to 42%. 62% of organizations data processing, information search and transmission tasks will be performed by machines. All this will create more disagreements, clashes, disputes and litigation. Siphoning off of taxpayers hard earned money by those who get into power and parking them in tax havens, by camouflaging illegalities or bribing persons holding power, is bringing about serious conflict between the governing and the governed.

Rule of law

Though history of mankind is a history of glories of wars, loots, plunder, pillage and rapes, but history has also taught us that nothing has ever been achieved by violence, destruction, demolition and devastation. The rise of rule of law is the rise of the civil society to protect itself from any form of criminality, illegality and exploitation.

These inter and intra conflicts at global, national, state and family level can only be checked and resolved by continuously affirming the rule of law. Rule of law will have to act more firmly as the protector of civil society, then ever. Since the Magna Carta the rule of law has firmly established itself and has continued to deal with all forms of crises as and when they continued to occur in human intercourse in all the nations established by law as contra-distinguished from autocracies and military regimes.

In a world of multi-level governance and global legal pluralism, subjecting political actors to the rule of law represents a particular challenge. The unbundling of authority at different levels of governance and the lack of overreaching framework governing their interactions make the attribution of responsibilities more difficult and governance failures likely. However according to me, these alleged weaknesses of governance beyond the nation stage could turn out to be its greatest strengths. Because the different layers of governance can work out like checks on each other, thereby hedging the exercise of political power and strengthening accountability as well as contributing to the multi-level protection of human rights

Rule of law is not static. It will continue to evolve as technology continues to help hasten the rate of evolution further. Global politics will have to rise above dogmas, isms, group thinking, crusader mentality and anti-intellectualism which divides the world into an in-group and out-group, believers and haters, righteous and wrong-tous. Rule of law is the only way of respecting the equal moral worth of all human beings and work to build equality across the world. I sense that some people are rather gloomy about the future of the rule of law. I do not share their pessimism as I am a hard core optimist. Responsible exercise of judicial review is both a precondition and characteristic feature of a society that values the maintenance of rule of law.

Role of Judiciary

Judiciary by its inherent nature assumes jurisdiction to determine all forms of conflicts arising out of abrasions in the society. As the conflicts grow deeper and sharper, which is bound to happen amongst and between all institutions like technologists, entrepreneurs, families, global NGOs and governments.

The process of litigation is creative for the judges and advocates; decisive for the litigant; educative and informative for the people who wish to be aware of various dimensions of inter and intra-human expressions, interactions and relationships, their rights and duties and rights and duties of the institutions; entertaining for the public in general; a source of plugging holes for the legislators and realization of the errors committed by executive, deliberately or un-intentionally. This activity also acts as a process of balancing powers as the real purpose continues to reach justice by the process of dialectics. In the judicial process we see dialectics live, eliminating errors by a process of bar bench legal reasoning, a note slowly rising to crescendo, by looking into the issue in hand, precedents and the direction and constantly applying the principles of rule of law to the new facets as they are evolving with technological changes and bringing about a new socio-economic structure.

Judiciary will have to act at all levels, from local to global, with all the power of wisdom at its command, both as a shield and as a sword. Shield to protect any and every exploitation, sword to punish the exploiter and in the process resolve the conflicts, expound the truth and provide justice for all. With judicial activism protecting human rights, crusader against injustice in all forms, as the watchman of the civil society, judiciary is coming out of the Machiavellian shell of limited power or as Alexander Hamilton said the weakest arm of the Government, without sword or purse, as its assigned role was limited to merely interpreting the laws.

But that is not wholly true. While interpreting the equality clause, one of the profound pillars of rule of law, it has the power to strike down all forms of arbitrary actions, convict the head of the state for corruption, hold as null and void legislation abridging or violating equality. Believe you me friends, this is not some serious inroads into the structure of separation of power; it is the only road to judicious use of power to provide the necessary protective umbrella to a seemingly fractured civil society.

When legislature and executive fail the people, the man in the street rushes to the lawman, who in turn rushes to the court to find protection of judiciary which affirms the rule of law in every case that comes to its fold. With parliamentary democracy under threat and conflicts becoming more sharper, to protect the civil and civilized society, judiciary will have to play a firmer and larger role than it ever did. As a protector of constitutionalism and the rule of law, judiciary is the first and the last line of defense for the civil society and the mankind.

MeToo – Unburden your baggage, cleanse your soul, save your daughters…

There always is:

A time to get hurt, a time to heal and a time to strike back,

A time to remain silent, a time to contemplate and a time to speak,

A time to suffer, a time to meditate and a time to even the score,

A time to weep, a time to smile and a time to laugh,

A time to mourn, a time to console and a time to dance…

The time to get hurt, remain silent, suffer, weep or mourn is over. The time to heal, contemplate, meditate, smile and console is also over.  The time has now come to strike back, to speak, to even the score, to laugh and to dance. Post 2015 the critical mass of being has shifted from the third to the fourth dimension  - from mere physical territories and existence to the metaphysical  and the borderless ; from shut, closed, meaningless, irrational inhuman chaos and oppression to an open, transparent, well meaning, rational, humane, uncluttered and judicious social order. This can be experienced by issues in which the majority has become interested,  and seeks  support and justice for all. Inclusiveness, environment, health, wellness, spiritual growth, blockchain, artificial intelligence have all become significant and momentous. Century old enactments perpetrating divisiveness and inequity on the basis of color, caste, creed, gender and geographical area are being struck down by the Supreme Court. There is still serious resistance to it all by those who are unable to see the light at the horizon or have vested interest, are afraid of the change from the comfort of the status quo and the known. These changes are a very welcome sign for the growth of homo sapiens.

The #MeToo movement is another facet of the same said energy touching and affecting everybody and taking everyone along, towards a more civilized, humane and harmonized society. It is a process of final recollection, expression and forgiveness. MeToo movement is to bring about better awareness and understanding of the Self and to unburden the baggage, cleanse the soul and enjoy the bliss of existence forever hereafter. It is not just about an individual female, but about every female who has suffered and may suffer at the hands of a fundamentally criminal minded being, who ruthlessly, brutally and without any pity had physically and emotionally exploited her, to get pleasure and satisfy his lust, creating a permanent damage to her person.

The MeToo movement is about recollection of an event that had hurt a woman during her vulnerable days. The transgression is usually by a known elder male colleague, family member or family friend, for whom she had respect and regard, till the happening of the unconceivable, unimaginable and unbelievable. When she was coming of age on her own, becoming aware of her own self to find her identity, her trust was breached, by those with whom she had felt secured. All of a sudden she had found herself   experiencing shock, ordeal, pain and trauma at the emotional and the soul level, by a valued, esteemed and cherished elder human being, exhibiting and exposing the concealed and veiled dark side of his immoral, malicious and evil persona.

Dr. Jekyll in public had transformed to Mr. Hyde when alone with her, inflicting damage, injury and hurt leading to permanent scars. The incident may have lasted a few minutes, but had led to a lifetime of trauma. She was then vulnerable because of self-understanding of social and economic pressures and social milieu around. Seriously handicapped because of lack of communication and support within the family and friends, who may instead of finding answers and solutions would have led her to social ridicule. She had found herself being all alone to fight the unreasonable and unjust, in the process of discovering herself and understanding the true nature of the social structure. She was then injured, hurt and damaged, but had maintained her silence, she had suffered, wept and mourned time and again and always aware that her reaction will have more disastrous consequences and she will have to disappear in oblivion. It was a shock which hit her at the emotional and soul level and at times restrained her from giving her best to the world. Her potential remained eclipsed and dormant. But she continued to heal, contemplate, meditate internally and smile and laugh to the best of her efforts, however the lurking fear and insecurity remained all pervasive, sub-consciously and unconsciously.

The wheel of energy and time, insecurity and fear, vulnerability and desperation has moved full circle. Today she has settled herself, consolidated herself, found her true self, has evolved and matured emotionally and is able to express without fear, her not so happy past experience. The time has come now to express one’s Self clearly, expressly and unambiguously, offload the trauma and to forgive one’s own self for being unable to give back at that point in time and take it all lying down. Forgiveness is not just pardon and reconciliation, but it is releasing resentment and getting justice. MeToo is all about healing oneself by unburdening of the past, which had continued to meet the present and has potential to travel in the future, in times of solitude or every time one comes across that person or hears about him, shamelessly enjoying the fruits of self-glorification in the society.

MeToo movement is not just about the exploited individual females, but also about their sisters and daughters and about all other females in the world whom they have to protect from exploitation and who may suffer at the hands of the sexual predators or their soul equivalents, These deluded by ignorance, enmeshed in senses and addicted to gratification of lust take it for granted that they will not suffer the same trauma for they have no social fear and have necessary wherewithal, to deal with the due process of law and justice. These malicious, spiteful and demoniac minded people not only do not feel shameful and repentant about their ill doings, but continue to contemptuously boast about their abuses and exploits to their friends, bootlickers and sycophants. Sad but true that they find magnificence and glory in unwelcome touches, fingering, molestation and rapes. Their mind is full of greed and lust and their discretion is lost because of hoarded wealth by not so legal means and hired brutal muscle power. These lecherous, demeaned and rotten souls continue to get over their deeds by drowning their mind and drenching their senses in alcohol, drugs and other external stimuli.

The feminine energy is on the rise and it will and must, with full force and ferociousness at its command, hit all those whose hands, fingers, lips, tongue and organ had transgressed and trespassed into unwelcome territories, without respect and love and led to a chilling effect to the simple, self-seeking pious soul, moving in the world to express herself beautifully in a secure and rational world.

Pity the sexual predators, for they have no dignity, respect and love in themselves and for their fellow human beings, more so when they claim themselves to be well off, educated and civilized. These tormented souls demean themselves and the most pious relationship that exist between males and females. Relationship which is the true basis of growth, development and progress of the social order and the human being. They and their soul equivalents exist anywhere and everywhere looking for easy prey, who they think will take it lying down, for they have no choice and will not give back ever. But that never happens. Everyone has to get back what he gives, with interest loaded thereon. Karmic and moral laws are as irreversible and ruthless as physical laws. All events are duly recorded in akaash records forever, good, bad and ugly and their results will follow.

Those who had suffered and carried the burden in their younger days must now express, unburden and relieve themselves of the trauma. However, these predators will have to carry the burden till they are hounded to their grave unless they ask for forgiveness and are forgiven for their misdeeds. A blatant denial, asking for proof and threatening for action of defamation, will only lead to more exposure of their misdeeds and carries the potential of further ridicule by every female in the family and around.

‘Not to complain and not to explain’ is an easy answer, but not the correct answer. The complaint is by the exploited female and her cry has already gone unheard earlier. She has now the means and wherewithal to place the facts in the right perspective. The accused certainly will have to explain to many, particularly those close to him now and admit the deep murky demon existing inside himself, ask for forgiveness and live a better life or speak a hundred more lies and demean his existence further and suffer larger and deeper karmic consequences.

A word of caution to them or their social admonition at early stages would have certainly prevented a repeat performance from taking place, and perhaps, many others could have been saved from agony, but it is never too late, for it will certainly carry necessary impact on them for the rest of their life and one and all around him. Law will have to evolve and provide due compensation for the losses suffered, apart from the social stigma and the exposure of their true colors on the social media, which is wholly imperative and essential. Mr. Hyde will have to be punished for his acts and Dr. Jekyll will also have to penalized and castigated.

In crime all are responsible along with the murderer, those who make the weapon, those who accompany the accused or those who give him open or tacit support. Similarly in sexual exploitation also all are responsible, those who did not acknowledge the fact at the first occurrence, stood up for her or unknowingly and unwittingly gave predator opportunities or encouragement to be alone and attack the victim in dark or seclusion again and again. Therefore, it is not the hunter alone who will have to suffer the trauma, but certainly he will have to suffer it more in the silence of seclusion... forever… going through penance and purification… till they are forgiven here or hereafter…
However, this is not the reflection of the entire society, but the aberrations of the society which the society itself and its lawmakers can make efforts to control and regulate. We don’t want to have a society of exploiters and exploited, criminals and victims. This is a stage of gender justice, but there is no gender war. Every human being has to be just, reasonable and work towards harmony. Exploitation by anybody, in any form, at any time, whether social, economic or physical needs to be checked by all-out effort. Life is all about love, forgiveness, joy, happiness and ecstasy and the undercurrent is always the search of our self, our kingdom, an enlightened experience of truth and justice, where we enjoy the bliss of our existence and that is only possible if those who have suffered, fearlessly unburden themselves of the baggage carried by them.

Aruneshvwar Gupta

24.10.2018

(Acknowledgment to Pallavi Malviya Gupta, Ajita Mutha Sahu and Roli Jindal)

SCAORA - E Journal - Introduction

Strength of any nation is directly proportionate to the integrity of the institutions in the nation and inter-institutional bonding. As the world has moved into 4^th industrial revolution economy and we into 4^th dimension, in a webbed world, the dominant role of institutions in national building, will also depend on the speed at which the institutions can adopt to the evolving technologies and changes. The institution of Supreme Court Advocate on Records creates the most powerful institutional web around it. It stands in the center of the Common-man and State Governments (legislatures and bureaucrats) as litigants, Advocates from High Courts all over the country as associates, Registry of Supreme Court as processing division, Senior Advocate as advisers and leaders and Judges of Supreme Court as teachers and mentors and is, therefore, the most resourceful fulcrum of truth and justice for all.

No other institution has silently observed, diligently supported and magnificently contributed in the power and passions, creativity and glory, fumes and fury, extraordinary and path-breaking accomplishments of the greatest institution in the largest democracy in the world, than the Advocate on Record since 1954 in about 2 million petitions/ appeals filed during that period. The institution of Advocate on Records have a unique position as it has been establishment by Supreme Court under the Supreme Court Rules and has the potentialities and where-with-all to churn out the greatest judges, senior advocates and partners of law firms, for their experience as Advocate on Record, makes them amenable to concurrently and simultaneously play multiple roles in the annals of judiciary.

Bringing out of SCAORA Journal is one of the glorious and celebrated moment, in the history of this institution spreading over a period of 64 years to enable SCAORA members and other Advocates to clearly, firmly, objectively and quantitatively pen their readings, understanding, analysis and thoughts on issues with which they are associated with or have important bearing on the issues to be determined by Supreme Court. SCAORA Journal will help them to expand their own horizons and also provide meaningful material to help the challenges of transformation that is effecting us all and help in firmly establishing the rule of law.

Aruneshwar Gupta

            Editor in Chief