Posted On:
24 NOV 2020 5:10PM by PIB Chennai
“As our Constitution empowers people by providing us Fundamental Rights, citizens should empower the Constitution by following, preserving, protecting and adhering to it to make it more meaningful with our works and deeds”, said Dr. Justice S. Vimala, Former Judge, High Court of Madras while delivering the Key Note address during a webinar on Constitution Day that was organised today by the Press Information Bureau Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Chennai.
Dr. Vimala, the first woman Director of a State Judicial Academy in India, said that the 42nd Amendment Act of the Constitution introduced a new chapter called Article 51A, which highlights 10 Fundamental Duties for the citizens to follow. The 11th Fundamental Duty was added by the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, she said. These duties were framed based on Indian tradition, mythology, religions and practices, she added.
Dr. Vimala stressed that being the citizens of India, our duty is to obey all the laws and choose at least one or two Fundamental Duties and work on that. In the wake of pandemic, the first woman judge of Chennai Mahila court briefed about Class G of the Fundamental Duties, which says, ‘to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures’. She urged people to protect and preserve natural resources, especially water as at present there is acute water shortage which threatens the life of the future generation.
“It is the duty of our students to ensure to strive towards excellence in all spheres of their activities so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endurance and achievements. For that we have to use our powerful tools- brain, eyes and tongue”, Dr. Vimala said. Eyes will be positive only when we look at green environment, thereby preserving it; we can make the tongue positive by speaking for the downtrodden and marginal people and by making the eyes and tongue positive, we can make the lives of people more meaningful and useful, she added.
Professor (Dr) Gurudath Chilkunda,Dean, School of Law, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, in his Special Address said that our Constitution has empowered all classes of people to become power holders. Through the Amendments that we have made to the Constitution, the empowerment of downtrodden has yielded great results, he added.
“Power corrupts people, but our Constitution during the last 70 years has ensured that people can’t become corrupt. In the past, attempts were made by executive, legislature and judiciary to assert their powers. But they were rightly reminded about their limits by the Constitution”, he said.
Prof. Gurudath opined to view the changes made into the Constitution in the form of Amendments positively as the constitution is a living document leading to social transformation. He further stated that our Constitution has been structured in such a way that there will not be any coup from other countries as it had not been till now.
Shri M. Annadurai, Additional Director General, PIB in his introductory address said that the objective of observing Constitution Day is to highlight the Constitutional values among the citizens. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar who was a lawyer and who had experienced untouchability and discrimination had drafted the Constitution. This has made it more revolutionary than that of the United States and France whose Constitution were drafted much before India, he added.
Earlier, Shri Gurubabu Balaraman, Director, Press Information Bureau, Chennai welcomed the participants and Shri Nadeem Thufail, Deputy Director, Press Information Bureau, Chennai rendered the vote of thanks.
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