The young legal professionals should be the harbingers of change for the betterment of the legal system, said Indian President Droupadi Murmu. 

In her address at the 21st Convocation of the Nalsar University, Hyderabad on Saturday, the President said, “Unfortunately, a poor person does not get the same access to justice as a rich person. This unfair situation must change for the better.  I expect your generation of legal professionals to be the change agents.’‘

The system for administration of justice reflects the prevailing social and cultural environment of a society. Nearly 2,300 years ago, the ambassador from Macedonia in the court of Chandragupta Maurya, Megasthenes described Indians as remarkably law-abiding people. Chandragupta Maurya’s minister Chanakya, in his celebrated work ‘Artha-Shastra’, had advised that a bench of three magistrates be set up for every ten villages, with higher courts in districts and provinces, she said. 

“Artha-Shastra enumerates the high standards set for the officers responsible for administration of justice. It also suggests that no private meetings should be allowed between judges and litigants until cases were settled. Impartial administration of justice was given utmost importance,’‘ the President added. 

The Indian Constitution contained the ideals of our freedom struggle, namely, justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. “The ideal of equality, enshrined in the Preamble and Fundamental Rights, also finds expression in one of the Directive Principles of State Policy concerning delivery of justice. The Directive seeks to provide equal justice and free legal aid,’‘ she said. 

The President, while lauding the efforts of Nalsar in focusing on Artificial Intelligence as an area of study, said in the global legal scenario, jurists and judges were seized with the matter of consulting with algorithms for evaluating parties in a dispute. “As future legal professionals, the students passing out today should be prepared to deal with rapid changes induced by technology. They should use technology as a tool for professional advancement and also as a means of social justice,’‘ she said.

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