The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : “Legal profession calls for thorough knowledge of issues”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 31, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

“Legal profession calls for thorough knowledge of issues”

Special Correspondent

P.Chidambaram

COIMBATORE: Judges and lawyers must have thorough knowledge of issues, including those concerning the nation’s economy, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said here on Sunday.

“A judgment can change the direction of the entire economy of a country,” he told a function got up by the Rotary Club of Coimbatore Metropolis to confer the Vocational Excellence Award on lawyer N.V. Nagasubramanian.

Serious mistakes could occur if cases were dealt with by using inadequate knowledge of subjects. For instance, a fair judgment could not be given on spectrum allocation for mobile phone service providers without knowing what a spectrum meant and how it was allocated. This applied to cases relating to other complex issues such as intellectual property rights.

Mr. Chidambaram observed that many lawyers did not have command over subjects when they passed out of college and that they obtained it on the job. “You cannot approach the profession with limited knowledge,” he said.

Many years ago, people consulted judges and lawyers in their neighbourhood on complex issues. This was because of the faith that they were very learned and had enough knowledge on various matters. And, there were very few judges and lawyers then.

As society grew over the years, the number of cases and people practising the profession increased. Despite this, even 15 to 20 years would not be enough to clear the pending cases.

At the same time, the development in the legal profession, as in other spheres, saw a fall in quality. “One can understand the fall in quality of argument or analysis. But, lack of discipline is unacceptable,” he said.

Himself a lawyer, Mr. Chidambaram observed: “No one can dispute there is lack of discipline in the legal profession, just as in many other fields”. In such a situation, it was heartening to note that people like Mr. Nagasubramanian upheld ethics and discipline in his 45 years in the profession, the Minister said.

“Many people complain that justice is blind. It is wrong to say so. Justice is only blindfolded. Justice cannot be blind. It has to be alive to truth and the great disparities in society that had been brought about by centuries of oppression,” he said. As for justice being blindfolded, it was only aimed at giving a judgment based only on the merits of the case.

Mr. Chidambaram also pointed out that there were amazing changes in the profession. From the time of individual lawyers practising, there were corporate law firms now with 3,000 to 4,000 lawyers. They focussed minutely on every aspect of the cases. Governor of Rotary International District 3200 L. Narayanaswamy, Rotary Metropolis president K.R. Murali Chairman of Bannari Amman Group S.V. Balasubramaniam and former president of Coimbatore Bar Association N. Sundaravadivelu appreciated Mr. Nagasubramanian’s contribution to the legal profession, for maintaining high standards of ethics in the field and for philanthropy.

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