Mysore/Mysuru: Retired Judge of Madras High Court Justice K. Chandru (Krishnaswamy Chandru) has lamented that Governments are amending laws without discussions and also unmindful of the far-reaching consequences of the proposed amendments.

He was delivering a special lecture on ‘Rule of Law and Human Rights’ at a function held at JSS Law College Silver Jubilee Hall in Kuvempunagar here on Friday.

Observing that there is a need to save social and economic freedom as per the wishes and ideology of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Justice Chandru said that advocates and future advocates have an important role to play in this regard.

“In his final speech of Constitution Committee meeting, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar said that we have political freedom but without social and economic freedom it is a waste and democracy will not be successful. Accordingly, by attaining social and economic freedom we need to play vital role in making democracy a success in our country. Law students must understand the laws of the land properly and ensure their proper implementation,” he added.

Observing that our mindset have still not changed over the years, he pointed out that there is a tendency to treat a particular community as criminals and there are instances of Police Stations acting as Courts and Inspectors behaving as Judges.

Hate politics

He lamented that Karnataka is being converted into a testing ground for hate politics. Here, religious issues are being pushed to the forefront, thereby ensuring that law makers are not responsive to real problems and diverting public attention towards religious issues.

“Karnataka is one of the multi-cultural States of the country and the BJP is trying to divide people on religious issues thereby creating an environment of hate politics. It may extend this agenda to other Southern States as well. But I am confident that South Indian States will not become a battle ground for such an experiment,” said Justice Chandru.

“An amendment has been brought to the Constitution to declare India as a secular nation. Here, even the Parsi Community which has very less population is also given full freedom. India is a multi-religious country and everyone is free to carry out their religious activities. It is wrong to impose one religion, one food habit and one ideology here,”  he concluded.

JSS Law College Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Prof. K.S. Suresh, Principal Dr. S. Nataraju and others were present on the occasion.