10-03-2006, 03:22 AM
<!--emo&:ind--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/india.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='india.gif' /><!--endemo--> Give precedence to 'desi' legal principles: SC
Dhananjay Mahapatra
[ 3 Oct, 2006 0154hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
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NEW DELHI: Probably for the first time in its more than 50-year-old history, the Supreme Court used an indigenous legal principle, developed 2,500 years ago, to adjudicate a dispute.
It exhorted lawyers and courts to rely on 'swadeshi principles', of which Mahatma Gandhi was a staunch votary. And coincidentally, the judgment was delivered just three days before Mahatma's 137th birth anniversary.
The apex court said the intellectual treasure trove bequeathed to future generations by the great minds of ancient India are rarely cited by lawyers or relied upon by the courts.
The stress on use of 'swadeshi' instead of 'videshi' was contained in the judgment given by a Bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhan and Markandey Katju on September 29 in an appeal filed by Ispat Industries Ltd challenging a 2001 order of Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Authority (CEGAT), Mumbai.
In adjudication of the dispute between Ispat and Commissioner of Customs, the Bench found utility in the 'Gunapradhan Axion of the Mimansa Principles of Interpretation', which were laid down by Jaimini in 5th Century BC.
The 'Gunapradhan Axion' states that if a word or a sentence, purporting to express a subordinate idea, clashes with the principal idea, the former must be adjusted to the latter or must be disregarded altogether, Justice Katju, writing for the Bench, explained.
He said it is deeply regrettable that in the country's courts of law, lawyers quote Maxwell and Craies but nobody refers to the Mimansa Principles of Interpretation (MPI).
"MPI is part of that intellectual treasury, but it is distressing to note that apart from the reference to these principles in the judgment of Sir John Edge, the then Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, in Beni Prasad vs Hardai Devi (1892) and once more by Justice Katju in a recent case, there has been almost no utilisation of these principles even in our own country," the Bench said.
Dhananjay Mahapatra
[ 3 Oct, 2006 0154hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
RSS Feeds| SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates
NEW DELHI: Probably for the first time in its more than 50-year-old history, the Supreme Court used an indigenous legal principle, developed 2,500 years ago, to adjudicate a dispute.
It exhorted lawyers and courts to rely on 'swadeshi principles', of which Mahatma Gandhi was a staunch votary. And coincidentally, the judgment was delivered just three days before Mahatma's 137th birth anniversary.
The apex court said the intellectual treasure trove bequeathed to future generations by the great minds of ancient India are rarely cited by lawyers or relied upon by the courts.
The stress on use of 'swadeshi' instead of 'videshi' was contained in the judgment given by a Bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhan and Markandey Katju on September 29 in an appeal filed by Ispat Industries Ltd challenging a 2001 order of Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Authority (CEGAT), Mumbai.
In adjudication of the dispute between Ispat and Commissioner of Customs, the Bench found utility in the 'Gunapradhan Axion of the Mimansa Principles of Interpretation', which were laid down by Jaimini in 5th Century BC.
The 'Gunapradhan Axion' states that if a word or a sentence, purporting to express a subordinate idea, clashes with the principal idea, the former must be adjusted to the latter or must be disregarded altogether, Justice Katju, writing for the Bench, explained.
He said it is deeply regrettable that in the country's courts of law, lawyers quote Maxwell and Craies but nobody refers to the Mimansa Principles of Interpretation (MPI).
"MPI is part of that intellectual treasury, but it is distressing to note that apart from the reference to these principles in the judgment of Sir John Edge, the then Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, in Beni Prasad vs Hardai Devi (1892) and once more by Justice Katju in a recent case, there has been almost no utilisation of these principles even in our own country," the Bench said.