PUTTAPARTHI: Strongly advocating the importance of liberty and spirituality in life, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said, “Life has no meaning without liberty.” Delivering the inaugural address at the conference on ‘Human Values and Legal World’, organised at Prashanti Nilayam in Puttaparthi on Saturday, Justice Misra asked, “Can human race survive without liberty?” and added, “What is the point if I do not have liberty? Life sans liberty has no meaning. It is death.”
Dwelling at length about the importance of spirituality, humanity in life, and legal world, he said, spirituality is not beyond rationality and rationality is not bereft of spirituality. There has to be a synthesis, amalgamation, synergy between the two. “My spiritual and moral summoning has brought me here.” There is no need for a tussle between science and spirituality, he stressed. Referring to human values and human rights enshrined in the Constitution, he said some are inherent and some, one has to cultivate. “The concepts of law are built on the foundations of human values. If the values are lost, the entire edifice will crumble,” he cautioned.
He emphasised the need for imparting justice with a human touch. “Law and justice is blended with humanity,” he said.
Paying glowing tributes to spiritual icon Satya Sai Baba, Justice Misra said, “Divinity is humanity.” He also dwelt on the need to shed ego to attain greater sense of humanity and spirituality. Throw that ‘I’ if you want to grow up morally,” he said.
Largest gathering of legal fraternity
More than 30 sitting judges of the Supreme Court, various High Courts, and over 750 delegates from the legal fraternity are attending the two-day conference, which is said to be the first of its kind in India. Justice Dalveer Bhandari, Judge of International Court of Justice, Supreme Court judge N V Ramana, Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Justice T B Radhakrishnan, are among those who are participating in the conference, which has separate seminars on the subjects of ‘Constituional Values and Human Rights’, ‘Role of Judiciary in Advancing Human Values’, and ‘Dharma and the Rule of Law’.