President Kovind delivers Foundation Day Lecture of National Law Varsity

ONI Bureau:  After attended an event at the Indoor Stadium in Cuttack, President Ram Nath Kovind delivered the third Foundation Day Lecture of National Law University in Cuttack today.

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Governor SC Jamir, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and High Court Chief Justice Vineet Saran were also present at the occasion.

President Ram Nath Kovind said Lawyers will have to create rules and legal frameworks for outer space, for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and for Artificial Intelligence. They will have to write laws for new equations between humans and machines.

Our legal system has a reputation for being expensive and for being prone to delays. Use and abuse of instrument of adjournments is often done by advocates who see adjournment as a tactic to slow down proceedings, rather than a response to a genuine emergency. While the judicial system has its responsibilities, so does the lawyer community, the President added.

An advocate is a law officer of the court. He or she has a responsibility to the client, but also a duty to assist the court in delivery of justice. This adds to the cost of obtaining justice for the litigant. It would be a travesty of our republican ethic if a poor person did not get the same access to the law as a rich person. Unfortunately, in practice this is happening, Kovind said.

Speaking on National Law University, Odisha the President said NLUO is equipping its students in new fields. Using the Govt of India’s GIAN programme, it has offered courses in international e-commerce law and in corporate governance in India. These have involved guest faculty from the United States and Singapore.