Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture: A Vision of Justice

Jurists, political leaders, writers and thinkers gathered last week to hear Justice Ranjan Gogoi deliver the third Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture

Justice Ranjan Gogoi spoke of how we need a revolution to be able to meet the challenges and make the judiciary accessible to the common man

At the third Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture held in Delhi last week, Justice Ranjan Gogoi spoke about the judiciary being the “last bastion of hope”, which needs to be “uncontaminated”, more “pro-active” and on the “front foot” to preserve its moral and institutional leverage.

Anant Goenka (left) Executive Director of The Express Group presents Justice Ranjan Gogoi a portrait

The Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture was instituted in 2016 by The Express Group to mark 25 years of the passing of its founder. Former President Pranab Mukherjee delivered the lecture last year, while the first lecture was delivered by then RBI governor Raghuram Rajan.

The third Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture was presented by OP Jindal Global University, in association with CNBC TV 18. The evening brought together judges from the Supreme and High courts, eminent jurists, political leaders and thinkers, many of whom spoke later about how a lecture such as this addressed key issues and challenges faced by the country. Eminent jurist Fali Nariman said, “I think the lecture was fantastically reasoned and well thought out…he expressed what many of us feel, and are not in a position to say.”

Story continues below this ad

From (L-R): Hrishikesh Roy, Chief Justice, Kerala High Court; Deepak Gupta, Judge, Supreme Court; N V Ramanna, Judge, Supreme Court; Madan B Lokur, Judge, Supreme Court

“He spoke up for the need for independent judges to come with solutions, not the usual things — we can’t do this, we can’t do that — sometimes, we have to be an active judiciary as well,” said former Attorney General of India Soli Sorabjee.

Jurist Fali S Nariman and his wife Bapsi at the third Ramnath Goenka Memorial lecture. (Express Photo by Abhinav Saha)

Among those in the audience were Supreme Court Justices Madan B Lokur, AK Sikri, NV Ramana, DY Chandrachud, Navin Sinha, Deepak Gupta and Ashok Bhushan; Supreme Court Secretary General Ravindra Maithani, acting Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Gita Mittal, Kerala High Court Chief Justice Hrishikesh Roy, former CJI RM Lodha; former Attorney General Ashok Desai, eminent jurists Fali S Nariman and Soli Sorabjee, senior advocates Indira Jaising, Arvind P Datar, Dushyant Dave, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sidharth Luthra, Sanjay R Hegde, Sajan Poovayya; former Home Minister P Chidambaram; former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, advocate Madhavi G Divan and CPI leader D Raja. The vote of thanks was made by C Raj Kumar, founding Vice Chancellor of OP Jindal Global University.

(Left) Congress leader and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and P Chidambaram, former Finance Minister of India

Read full text of the third RNG Memorial here.

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram

Tags:
RNG Memorial lecture