Vice-President Mohammed Hamid Ansari on Saturday called upon the young lawyers passing out of the Hidayatullah National law University to become ‘architects’, who have deep understanding of history and literature.
He was delivering address as a chief guest at the third convocation ceremony of the University. The ceremony was presided over by the Chief Justice of India as well as Visitor of the University Hl Dattu.
The Vice-President in his address said that the name of the University had been kept after former Chief Justice and the legal luminary, who lived a life of law and justice and was a testimony of legal values.
Ansari while citing example of the thoughts of a renowned American Judge said that the responsibility of law universities is not just to make people wise but also intelligent for their profession.
He also quoted lord Denning’s advice to young lawyers- “A lawyer without background in history and literature is like a mason whose only job is to fix brick upon brick, but with strong background of history and literature is an architect who can visualize the entire edifice that will endure for decades”.
Ansari said that he is happy to visit Chhattisgarh for the first time and to attend the prestigious ceremony.
He praised Naya Raipur for its systematic and ultra modern development and congratulated Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh for the same.
The Vice-President of India further said that the Constitution of India embodies the modern concept of rule of law with the establishment of a judicial system, which should be able to work impartially and free from all influences.
He mentioned in detail about the fundamental rights bestowed on citizens by Constitution of India.
Present as special guests on the occasion were Chhattisgarh High Court Chief Justice Mr Justice Navin Sinha, Chancellor of the University Vandana Sinha, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, Chhattisgarh law Minister Mahesh Gagda and Higher Education Minister Prem Prakash Pandey.
Also present on the occasion were judges of the Chhattisgarh High Court, Chhattisgarh Minister for Woman and Child Development Ramsheela Sahu, Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand and other prominent citizens.
The Vice President on the occasion handed over degrees to 209 graduates while honouring 56 students with gold medals.
In his address Chief Minister Raman Singh announced approval of `61.50 crore for different works of the University.
Talking about the Naxal problem in Chhattisgarh, Singh said that Naxalites are violating human rights of people by destroying basic facilities such as roads, bridges and drinking-water arrangement in tribal areas.
Though with support of people of these areas and security forces, State Government has been strongly combating the Naxal threat and has succeeded to a greater extent, he said.
He appealed the young graduates to strive for protection of human rights of the poor tribal people in Naxal-affected areas.
Singh mentioned about the top-priority schemes of State Government saying that Chhattisgarh is the first State of the country to ensure Right to Food to poor people of State with Food Security Act.
Before this law was enforced, nearly 600 petitions were filed in various courts for negating this law, which were all dismissed by Judiciary in one day.
This removed all the obstacles in implementation of this law and nearly 60 lakh families were provided food security, he said.
The Chief Minister thanked the Judiciary for this valuable support.
Singh also congratulated four law graduates of HlNlU who have been selected for Harvard University and wished them success in life. At the onset, Vice-Chancellor of Hidayatullah National law University (HNlU) Prof Sukhpal Singh presented the university report.