All India Seminar on Global Legal Education concludes at KIIT

Bhubaneswar, Aug 9: India needs to have globally recognized and respected law institutions, which must attract best human resources to achieve excellence, said Hon’ble Shri Justice T.S. Thakur, Judge, Supreme Court of India at the closing ceremony of ‘All India Seminar on Global Legal Education’ at KIIT University on August 9, 2015. Highlighting the importance of continuing legal education, the seniormost judge of the apex court stated, Bar is the mother of the bench and the bench learns from Bar. The judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are made from the best of the Bar, he added.

Shri S. P. Mishra, Advocate General, Odisha, Prof. (Dr.) N. R. Madhava Menon, Hony. Professor, NLSIU, Bangalore and Mr. Ross Koffel, Principal Legal Practitioner & Director, Koffels Solicitors & Barristers, Australia graced the closing ceremony.

The two-day seminar, organized by Confederation of Indian Bar in association with KIIT University, was inaugurated yesterday by Hon’ble Shri Justice H. L. Dattu, Chief Justice of India. Shri Pranab Mukherjee, His Excellency the President of India was slated to inaugurate the seminar, but he could not make it due to unavoidable circumstances. His address, however, was delivered through and read out to the august gathering by the Chief Justice of India.

Speaking at the closing ceremony, Shri S. P. Mishra said that globalization of legal education poses multiple challenges of legal practice. Underscoring the role of communication, he said, law students should have high proficiency in English, which is the global language.

Emphasis should be given on practical knowledge of law and one year practical diploma should be introduced in law institutions, suggested Prof. (Dr.) N. R. Madhava Menon. There must be an independent regulator, having representations from all stakeholders, for maintaining quality legal education, he added. Mr. Ross Koffel spoke about legal education and law profession in Australia. Mr. Ravindra Shrivastava, Vice President, Confederation of Indian Bar delivered the welcome address at the closing ceremony, while Prof. P. P. Mathur proposed the vote of thanks.

Earlier in the day, 12 parallel working sessions were held on topics such as ‘Role of legal education in judicial and legal reforms’, ‘Role of lawyers in upholding Rule of Law’, ‘Continuing legal education for the Bar and the Bench’, ‘Aspirations of law students’, etc..

Each working session was chaired by a judge of Supreme Court of India and co-chaired by Chief Justice or a senior judge of a High Court. Judges of the Supreme Court of India, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Madan B. Lokur, Hon’ble  Mr. Justice M.Y. Eqbal, Hon’ble  Mr. Justice V. Gopalagowda, Hon’ble  Mr. Justice N.V. Ramana, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose, Hon’ble  Mr. Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri, Hon’ble  Mr. Justice Shiva Kirti Singh and Hon’ble Mr. Justice Arun Mishra chaired the working sessions.

Similarly, Hon’ble Shri Justice Shiavax Jal Vazifdar, Acting Chief Justice, High Court of Punjab & Haryana, Hon’ble Shri Justice Navin Sinha, Chief Justice, High Court of Chhattisgarh, Hon’ble Shri Justice Dilip B. Bhosale, Acting Chief Justice, High Court of Telangana & Andhra Pradesh, Hon’ble Shri Justice L. K. Mohapatra, Chief Justice, High Court of Manipur, Hon’ble Shri Justice I. Mahanty, Judge, High Court of Orissa, Hon’ble Shri Justice S. K. Sinha, Chief Justice, High Court of Sikkim, Hon’ble Shri Justice S. K. Kaul, Chief Justice, Madras High Court, Hon’ble Shri Justice Virender Singh, Chief Justice, High Court of Jharkhand, Hon’ble Shri Justice K. Sreedhar Rao, Acting Chief Justice, High Court of Gauhati and Hon’ble Shri Justice Vinod Prasad, Judge, High Court of Orissa co-chaired the working sessions.

More than 1100 advocate-delegates from all parts of the country, including 700 from Odisha, participated in this mega law meet. An important objective of the Seminar was to provide a unique opportunity to the students of law as well as new entrants to the profession of direct interaction with national and international level legal luminaries, including judges of the Supreme Court of India and High Courts.