National Law University Delhi hosted 19th Annual Bodh Raj Sawhney Memorial Oration on Saturday, 8th September 2018. The oration was delivered by Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Judge Supreme Court of India on ‘Rule of Law in a Constitutional Democracy’ at 10.00 a.m. in the Auditorium, NLU Delhi.
The oration by Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud discussed how rule of law is different in a constitutional democracy than in a country where there is parliamentary supremacy. Therefore, the law would not just rule regardless of its content, it would also have to substantially synchronized with the character of constitution. In the course of his lecture, he discussed various facets of Indian Judicial system including landmark judgments and provisions of the constitution to reaffirm that the validity of law.
He also discussed the recently pronounced judgement of Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India, (2018) 1 SCC 791 which decriminalized consensual homosexual sex. He stated that Section 377 of the Penal Code, 1860 was deeply offensive to the ethos of a liberal democracy. He stated that through the judgement, the people whose rights have not been recognized are not just empowered, but more importantly it is the efforts of the constitution to transform ourselves from that recognition. He concluded by saying that it is necessary to ask very difficult questions to forms of society, we risk not only being inheritors but causes of an unjust society.
