28 March :The ongoing two day All India Law congress concluded at PU today. In the five academic sessions, around 130 papers were presented. The Congress was a success as it was a confluence of various thought processes from the side of legal luminaries and academia from other disciplines. In the morning of the concluding day, a special valedictory session was organized wherein Dr. M. Veerapa Moily, Union Cabinet minister for law and justice, delivered the Valedictory address. The session started with the welcome address by Mr. G. K Chatrath, Dean Faculty of Law. In his welcome address he extended a very warm gratitude towards the dignitaries on the dias. He also welcomed the Hon’ble Judges of Punjab & Haryana High Court to the alma mater and requested them to be more frequent in their visits to PU.
The highlight of the day was valedictory address delivered by Dr. M. Veerapa Moily, who unfolded a hitherto an undiscovered side of his personality, the influence, inspiration and motivation of his mother behind his turning out to be a poet and novelist. The union cabinet minister of law and justice expressed his pride in the contribution of PU towards judiciary in terms of number of judges that this university has produced. He talked at length about the big agenda of reforms which the UPA government has in the forthcoming three months. The first agenda is the reduction of 2/3rd under trials by June 2010. In order to implement this, a task force consisting of senior judges has been constituted. He said that many things can be done without constitutional amendment. He also talked of the setting up of E-courts. The second item on agenda of the reforms is the improvement in legal education and the third is area of electoral reforms. He said that all three will be put in place in the coming three months and the results will be visible in the coming three years. He also talked of sanitization of gender biased laws and laws relating to children as they are precious assets.
On this occasion, the Hon’ble Judges of Punjab and Haryana High court who are the alumni of PU, Department of laws were honoured. These included Hon’ble Mr. Justice J. S. Khehar, Mr. Justice Mehtab Singh Gill, Mr. Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, Mr. Justice M. M Kumar, Mr. Justice Satish Kumar Mittal, Mr. Justice Surinder Singh Saron, Mr. Justice Rajive Bhalla, Mr. Justice Ranjit Singh, Mr. Justice T. P. S Mann, Mr. Justice Mahesh Grover, Mr. Justice Ajai Lamba, Mr. Justice S.D Anand, Mr. Justice M.M.S Bedi, Mr. Justice L.N Mittal, Mr. Justice Mohinder Pal, Mr. Justice Harbans Lal, Mr. Justice Sham Sunder, Mr. Justice K.S Ahluwalia, Mr. Justice Daya Chaudhary, Mrs. Justice Sabina, Mr. Justice Jora Singh , Mr. Justice Rajan Gupta, Mr. Justice Ajay Tewari, Ms. Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, Mr. Justice Gurdev Singh and Mr. Justice Ram Chand Gupta.
In addition to this, the former chairpersons, Prof. V. Kumar, Prof. Balram Gupta, Prof. S.P. Tiwari, Prof. V.K Bansal, Prof. Bal Krishna, Prof. Kulwant Gill, Prof. R.S Grewal, Prof. D. N Jauhar, Prof. P.S Jaswal and Prof. Sangita Bhalla were also felicitated. Honours were also extended to Mr. Pawan Bansal, Union Cabinet Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources and also Mrs. Anu Chatrath, Mayor Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh. This was followed by the Presidential remarks by Hon’ble Justice Mukul Mudgal, Chief Justice Punjab & Haryana High Court who said ,” The deliberations of the congress will go a long way for the percolations of economic gains for poor citizens of India.” The session concluded with vote of thanks delivered by Prof. P.S Jaswal, Organizing Secretary All India Law Congress 2010.