Chief Justice of India Bhushan R Gavai has said that the Indian Constitution was not just a document for governance, but a revolutionary statement that played a major role in advancing socio-economic justice for its citizens.
Speaking at the Milan Court of Appeal, the CJI said on Wednesday that social and economic democracy was the unfinished goal of India’s political democracy. The dream of Mahatma Gandhi to wipe every tear from every eye formed the moral foundation of the Constitution.
He said the socio-economic justice achieved by the country in the last 75 years proved critics of the Indian Constitution wrong and projected the country as a successful democracy.
Speaking about Sir Ivor Jennings, a critic, who termed the Indian Constitution in 1951 as too long, too rigid, too prolix, the CJI said the ‘alleged flaws’ of the country’s Constitution became the very foundation for one of the world’s most successful experiments in socio-economic transformation.
Speaking about the Directive Principles of State Policy, which were gradually made enforceable through judicial interpretation and legislative action, he said in several instances, what was once a moral directive was now a legal right.
The right to education, to livelihood, to legal aid — all these emerged from the interplay of parliament’s will and judicial innovation, he added.
The CJI said coming from a historically marginalised background, he wss a product of the constitutional ideals that sought to democratise opportunity and dismantle the barriers of caste and exclusion.
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