Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia on Tuesday suggested building up knowledge resources of the country to enable it compete with the world’s emerging economies like those of China.
“India is an emerging economy and it is emerging because it is knowledge-based. Please capitalise the knowledge resources to compete with other emerging economies like China,” said Chief Justice Kapadia while releasing a report of a study, jointly conducted by the Supreme Court of India and the Indian Law Institute.
“India is a growth story. Please take advantage, otherwise you will miss the bus,” Kapadia said while releasing the report on the study ‘Restatement of Indian Law on Legislative Privilege, Contempt of Court and Public Interest Litigation.’
The CJI was of the view that “time has come when we are going to enter a new area of litigation” for which members of legal fraternity need to devote time for development of law.
He said law needs to be developed as courts have to strike a balance while dealing with cases involving public interest like those related to environment, right to food security, right to education, right to information and others.
“In the cases of mining before the Supreme Court, when we ban mining, the court is required to give weightage to the environment,” said the CJI.
He, however, said “when we give weighatge to the environment and ban mining, is it not affecting the right to livelihood of the people who are working in the mines? Similarly, you take the case of right to food security”.
“Should everyone be given equal right or should it be worked on the concept of proportionality? Should it be worked out on a priority basis?,” the CJI said.