29th Justice Bhandare memorial lecture held
Justice Sunanda Bhandare, who died in 1994, was an eminent judge of the Delhi high court. The lecture series was instituted by her husband and former Odisha governor Murlidhar Bhandare, and her two children.
The 29th edition of the Justice Sunanda Bhandare memorial lecture was held in the Capital on Friday, with keynote speaker senior advocate Indira Jaising highlighting various threats to constitutional values.
Justice Sunanda Bhandare, who died in 1994, was an eminent judge of the Delhi high court. The lecture series was instituted by her husband and former Odisha governor Murlidhar Bhandare, and her two children. This was the first memorial lecture after the death of Muralidhar Bhandare last year.
The theme of Friday’s lecture was “India’s Modern Constitutionalism” and Delhi high court chief justice DK Upadhyay presided over the event.
“Constitutional values in the country are under siege today. The modern constitution is under siege... The reinterpretation of laws to align with majoritarian ideologies threaten secularism in a multi-religious country,” Jaising said at the lecture.
The senior advocate referred to a recent controversy over Allahabad high court judge justice Shekhar Yadav’s remarks against the Muslim community at a public event. “You can never have a Hindu Rashtra under a secular constitution,” she said, dismissing the comments by justice Yadav.
Under the newly implemented criminal and penal laws in the country, Jaising said that same-sex marriage continues to be a crime. “What we are witnessing is an effort to place a norm above the Grundnorm or basic norm (being the Constitution) and this norm is justified in the name of decolonisation and it goes by the name of cultural nationalism although nobody tells us what that culture is and which is that culture of the past that is sought to be reclaimed,” said Jaising.
Delhi high court judge justice Vibhu Bakhru and former Supreme Court judge justice Madan B Lokur also attended the event.
