Kerala - Kochi   

`Social justice kernel of statute'

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: Social justice is the quintessence of the Constitution of India. Whenever labour laws are to be interpreted, judges need to remember that social justice is the kernel of the Constitution, former Supreme Court judge V.R. Krishna Iyer has said.

He was addressing a gathering that assembled in his residence on Tuesday evening to release the book Social Justice and Labour Jurisprudence — Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer's Contributions.

The book, authored by I. Sharath Babu and Rashmi Shetty of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, traces the growth of labour jurisprudence and presents judgments by Mr. Krishna Iyer in this context.

"Whether these judgments were worthwhile, only time will tell, as winds of change could wipe away everything. But the value behind all these judgments was really felt by me," Mr. Krishna Iyer said.

Introducing the book, Mr. Sharath Kumar said the effort was to make clear that labour jurisprudence was not an ordinary subject. "While researching on judgments by Mr. Krishna Iyer, we found out the art of interpreting labour laws in the right spirit of the Constitution," he said.

In his presidential address, S.P. Swamy, secretary-general of the Centre for Labour Studies, Bangalore, said the labour was now at a crossroads — caught between globalisation and the judiciary negating the labour rights — and here, the book served as a link between the labour law and the Constitution.

M.V. Pylee, former Vice-Chancellor of Cochin University of Science and Technology, said there was a general feeling that the judiciary was biased towards the managements when it came to dealing with labour issues. At the same time, the Supreme Court had some judges who always stood by the side of the labour, the underdogs — Mr. Krishna Iyer being the most distinguished among them.

Mr. Pylee released the book by handing over the first copy to E.X. Joseph, senior advocate, Supreme Court of India, and president of the Justice Krishna Iyer Human Rights Foundation.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Monopolisation of media decried
Land acquisition to be notified soon
`Social justice kernel of statute'
National fruit fete in Kochi
Corporation moves to clear encroachments
Choreography workshop for dancers
Tree-plantation drive from June 25
Ship-handling simulator launched
Muslims, Christians are not minorities: Swamy
Alluring
In Kochi Today

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu