Legal profession now competitive, lucrative: Justice Bela Trivedi

Law schools can lay the foundation of an “effective, transparent and responsive justice delivery system”, Supreme Court judge Justice Bela Trivedi said in Gandhinagar Saturday. She noted that the legal profession has now become a competitive and lucrative profession as against the earlier perception of it being a “low-risk, high-yield profession”.

“Despite the success stories, we cannot be oblivious to the challenges that we face in the administration of justice such as case backlog, delay in delivery of justice, accountability, etc. There have been constant endeavours being made by all stakeholders within the system to address these challenges. However, much more is expected and needed to be done, may be in terms of law reforms, judicial reforms on urgent basis to see that faith and confidence of the people of the country is maintained and to ensure that the system becomes more efficient, accountable, transparent and more assuring to the people of the nation to protect their right to access to justice,” said Justice Trivedi as she emphasised the key role played by educational institutions, particularly law schools, in building an effective, transparent and responsive justice delivery system. She was speaking at the 12th GNLU Convocation in Gandhinagar that was also attended by fellow Supreme Court judge Justice MR Shah.

Highlighting the role of law students in nation-building, Justice Shah said, “There shall be various challenges in your life thereafter… Face the challenges, believe in yourself, never be afraid of facing the challenges and problems and try to overcome them… When you cannot control what is happening, challenge yourself to control the way you respond to what is happening. More than anybody in any other profession, we have to ensure that we maintain a high standard of integrity and attitude.”

The convocation saw 252 students, including 180 students of the five-year integrated LLB programme of the 2016 batch, 65 students of the LLM programme of the 2020 batch, and seven PhD scholars, being conferred degrees. Fifteen students were awarded 30 gold medals. Vishesh Sharma of the BBA LLB programme topped the list with as many as eight gold medals. Among those to receive a PhD was Gujarat Public Service Commission ex-chairman Dinesh Dasa.