The AG described Palkhivala as a tall figure in the Indian legal fraternity who he could only admire from a distance.
“The depths he brought to legal and constitutional discourse is astounding,” the AG said.
In his address, the Centre’s top law officer also spoke about freedom of speech and basic structure doctrine.
He argued that the right to free speech and expression is also a means to discover oneself and one’s inner urges.
“The urge and need to express are different. We need to communicate as a responsibility. The increased use of Instragram, WhatsApp and so forth may not be a need to communicate, but because communication channels have become so narrow, we need to communicate on every thing under the sun”.
He spoke of how no civilisation exists without moral and ethical codes, and how the concept of dharma is a vast one.
On the basic structure doctrine, he said,
“It [doctrine] is an enabling aspect for citizens to use the Constitution as a living document, and for [ensuring] the Constitution [is] to not be treated by governance institutions as a playground without referees. Understanding the doctrine is an independent value and a means of public reasoning to test governmental action, apart from striking down actions.”
He argued that the Supreme Court has increasingly laid down new, expansive rights derived from the existing fundamental rights. For example, the right to know the antecedents of a candidate emerged from the freedom of speech.
Source: Barandbench
