HYDERABAD: Underlining the contribution of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in making the Indian civil services a constitutional framework in binding independent India, Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi termed the IPS probationers as young achievers and nation builders in bringing justice closer to the common man.
The CJI was delivering a lecture at the 33rd Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial on ‘Rule of Law in Modern Democracy’ held in Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVP NPA) in the city on Saturday.
About 156 IPS probationers of 2018 batch undergoing Phase-I training, including 15 foreign officer trainees from Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives, and 103 probationers of 2017 batch undergoing Phase-II training attended the meeting.
Addressing them, Justice Gogoi raised the issue of fairness in discharging duties and drew a distinction between institutional fairness and fairness in individual functioning. He expected all the probationers to take necessary steps to exercise their legitimate powers in a fair and reasonable manner.
“The IPS probationers are “young achievers and nation builders” to whom the baton needs to be passed. “The true meaning of the democratic system is legal equanimity, political freedom and governance by rule of law. The rule of law has emerged as the soul of a modern democratic nation,” the Chief Justice explained. Justice Gogoi also cautioned that the rule of law need not necessarily be intertwined with the policy of the government, and judicial review becomes the cornerstone of the rule of law.