Perennial Values Identified By Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer Will Help Guide Us Forward: Attorney General R. Venkataramani

Attorney General of India R. Venkatramani, while speaking at the 9th VR Krishna Iyer Memorial Law Lecture organized by the Sarada Krishna Satgamaya Foundation for Law and Justice at the Kerala High Court yesterday, on the topic 'Perennial Values of Constitutional Law Discovered by Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer', remarked that Justice Iyer, whose worldview was deeply anchored in 'Liberty of all, and all for Liberty', regarded Constitution as an instrument of refining all power through the political process and Court as instrument of deliberation and social participation.

According to Venkatramani, Justice Iyer thought that the Court ought to navigate through various schemes and provisions of the document, in order to bring together all institutions in pursuit of liberty for all.

In this regard, the AG enumerated the six perennial values of the Constitution as identified by Justice Iyer, in pursuit of the above, as follows:

1. Equality;

2. Dismantling the blindness of power to all values of liberty;

3. Dismantling monopoly of reason outside the Constitution;

4. Opening up avenues of remedy for every right and need for articulating access to Justice;

5. Empowering the deprived by gender, caste, economic, and other social phenomena; and 

6. Proportionality as a tool of legal evaluation. 

The AG opined that these perennial values of the Constitution serve as tools for continued articulation of social, economic, and political Justice. 

"We need these perennial values as our tools for continued articulation of Justice - social, economic, political. Justice Iyer forayed into institutionalizing democracy and breathing accountability in political and governance process," he quipped. 

Venkatramani went on to state that socio-economic rights demand two levels of Constitutional focus - firstly, the articulation of competing claims and their respective fields which may include enumerating layers of rights and interests by interpretive process, which is often the role of the Court, although it deserves to be done in legislative and executive chambers, and secondly, the evaluation of economic and social outcomes, the causes of enforcements, the institutional measures and management of enforcements for all which are not essentially quantified. He added that approaches outside judicial lens are necessary for these matters. 

It is here that Venkatramani said that the perennial values identified by Justice Iyer would help guide the way forward, while adding that the legal fraternity would also have to come up with new statements to address emerging challenges. 

In this regard, Venkatramani reflected on how Justice Iyer had crafted his philosophy by identifying the afore values. He added that Justice Iyer had first and foremost, emphasized upon opening up avenues of remedy for every right, as well as the need for articulating access to justice.

"For Justice Iyer, access to justice meant using constitution in protecting and delineating liberty and using constitutional tools to advance egalitarian ends," he said. 

Venkatramani proceeded to add that access to justice, which has now become a global phenomena embedded in the very basic structure, ought to include access to legislative and executive justice, as well. 

On another note, the Attorney General said that elections, legislative debates, print, visual and social media have now become important sites for public mediation, and the emergence of public reason as a vessel for public discourse could thus serve as an important tool for a vibrant democracy to emerge. 

Venkatramani thus emphasized upon wise management of the perennial values of the Indian Constitution as identified by Justice Iyer, as the guiding light for the nation to avoid any 'pitfalls and precipices', while stressing upon the need for a new theory of Constitutional courts. 

Supreme Court judge Justice PS Narasimha, Chief Justice of Kerala High Court AJ Desai and former Supreme Court judge Justice KM Joseph also spoke at the event.

Justice VR Krishna Iyer Would've Reacted Strongly To Growing Economic Disparities, Disinvestment Of PSUs: Justice KM Joseph

Justice VR Krishna Iyer Is Product Of Social & Cultural Milieu Of Kerala: Justice P S Narasimha