The First Justice GP Singh Memorial lecture was organised by the National law Institute University, Bhopal, on Saturday. The chief guest on this occasion was Justice (Retd) RV Raveendran, former Judge, Supreme Court of India, and Chief Justice of High Court of MP.
The function was attended by a galaxy of High Court Judges including Justice Ajit Singh, Administrative Judge of Principal Seat of Judicature of High Court of MP and son of Justice GP Singh.
In his welcome address, Director of National law Institute University, Bhopal, Prof SS Singh introduced to the audience Justice GP Singh and his contributions to the field of law and justice. Besides welcoming all the dignitaries he gave a glowing tribute to Justice GP Singh and reminded the audience that he was the first High Court Judge of Madhya Pradesh to receive Honorary doctoral degree from the University of Jabalpur as well as the first person to receive the degree from the National law Institute University, Bhopal.
Justice Raveendran highlighted the issue of precedence and its position in the Indian judicial system. He said the contemporary judicial system is replete with the bogey of precedence that has shackled justice delivery system as well as independent growth of judges. He averred that precedent, a common law requirement, had been inducted into the Indian Judicial System in the form of a Constitutional obligation through Article 149 of the Constitution of India, which had further been bolstered with Article 227, this supervisory role of the Supreme Court of India.
The lecture suffused with anecdotes, a sense of humour and brevity of argument pointed at the monumental number of precedents punctuated with incompetence of judges, lack of judicial discretion and competition for publicity has spelled doom for relevance of precedent. Despite the immense importance of precedent it has been virtually rendered irrelevant especially in criminal law and has proved a bane.