R. VENKATRAMANI, Sr. Advocate, Supreme Court of India delivered a highly enriching live interactive webinar session on the topic “CONSTITUTION & HUMAN RIGHTS” atAsian Law College(ALC) for its BA-LLB & LLB students and aspirants on Saturday, 12th Dec 2020 at 3:00 PM under its Legal Lecture Series (LLS). The webinar presented itself as a truly scholarly affair for all whole who participated in it. The lecture officially closed the celebration of “Human Rights Week” at ALC campus and was offered as a tribute to the “Human Right Day” i.e. 10th December. Needless to say, this lecture came as a great opportunity for B.A.LL.B./LL.B. students to not only enhance their knowledge about various facets of Constitution and Human Rights, but also helped them to become a part of the nation-wide celebration of “Human Rights Week”!
Mr. R. Venkatramani has completed 40 years of practice in Supreme Court. He has practiced in various branches of law prominently constitutional law, arbitration law, consumer protection law, indirect taxes, corporate and securities law, environmental law, education laws, land laws, criminal law, human rights law, as well as law relating to services. He has represented several State Governments, Universities, Public Sector Undertakings in their major litigations in Supreme Court and High Courts. He has also been a Special Senior Counsel for various departments of Government of India in Supreme Court and High Courts and has also been acting as Counsel for the Supreme Court in matters pertaining to the service conditions of employees of the Court. Moreover, he has been actively involved in academic activities, since 1988 commencing from association with the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and engaged with several law schools in their academic activities. Here, he is mostly concerned with reforms in legal education, law research and socially relevant institutional developments.
Mr. R. Venkatramani was invited to be Member of the Ethics Committee of the Indian Council for Medical Research; Member cum office bearer of several Lawyers’ Associations; Life Member of Indian Society of International Law: Resource person of the Society for its Annual Summer Courses and actively participating in the Projects of the Society; Member, Indian Law Institute. He also has served as Law Member in the ‘Expert Group on Welfare Legislations’ set up by the Planning Commission of India in the year 1990; Member of the South Asian Task Force on Judiciary consisting of Members of SAARC Nations to submit reports on the conditions of Judiciary, reforms in Institutional structures and conditions of service etc. with a view to enhancing rule of law and availability of efficacious legal remedies; on the Panel of the Jury invited for Public Hearings on Child Labour at New Delhi in 1997 and on Crimes on Women at Bangalore in 1999; Member of the Sub-Committee on Directive Principles of State Policy, constituted by the Commission reviewing the working of the Constitution under the Chairmanship of Justice M. N. Venkatachaliah.
Moreover, Mr. R. Venkatramani has been invited to speak at the workshop Jointly organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and International Commission of Jurists at GENEVA on the 4th to 6th March, 2001. The workshop was designed to submit a report to the Human Rights Commission, on the Optional Protocol to the International Covenants on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966. He also has been requested by the ICJ to coordinate with its activities in the Afro-Asian region, particularly pertaining to ICESCR. He is also associated with the International Working Group engaged in drafting an Instrument on the Right to Food following an International Conference held at BERLIN in May 2002. He also was invited to be involved in the Nepalese Constitution drafting and experience sharing exercise (2008).
Besides, Mr. R. Venkatramani has several publications to his credit including: Books- on ‘Land Reforms’ (Co-author: 1975); ‘Judgements of Justice O. Chinnappa Reddy’ (Former Judge of the Supreme Court) published by the International Institute of Human Rights Society (1995); Volume on ‘Torts’ in the series of Halsbury’s Laws of India, published by Butterworths; Restatement of Indian Law (Public Interest Litigation) [sponsored by the Committee on Restatement of Laws – Joint Committee of the Supreme Court of India and Indian Law Institute]. He is currently working on- ‘Scope and application of International Instruments in Domestic Lawmaking and Judicial Enforcement’ and a book on Constitutional Rights and Jurisprudence.
An initiative of Asian Education Group (AEG) – considered as the largest centre for professional media, IT, law, management, fashion & hospitality education in Asia with world-class facilities – this webinar was organized by Asian Law College (ALC) – which is a constituent group college of Asian Education Group and is ranked as one of the best Law Colleges in Delhi NCR – for all B.A.LL.B. & LL.B. students. The webinar was followed by a lively Q&A Session with the most distinguished guest.
The webinar session started with the illustrious guest, Mr. R. Venkatramani thanking the ALC team for inviting him for this session. He also thanked all the students who were participating in this webinar amidst the challenging COVID-19 conditions and said that he “was missing the physical space because of the pandemic and would have felt happier to be among them.”
The honourable guest commenced his talk by quoting H. G. Wells’ famous book ‘The Time Machine’ and said, “A lawyer is truly a time traveler, and it is important for them to accumulate good knowledge about the human history.” Referring to the topic of the day, viz., “CONSTITUTION & HUMAN RIGHTS”, he said, “Human Rights is all about people’s pain and misery, loss and deficiency … and the fulfilling of basic needs of human beings.” He explained at length how in human history, “certain external incidences created the need for law and ethics to become instrumental in defining the social order.” He further stated, “In human history, people always wanted something written down to regulate the varied aspects of human conduct in society, like the Manusmriti in India and the Hammurabi Code of the Babylon. In this way, attempts were made in different civilizations to create a corpus of principles that eventually came to be called laws.”
Coming on to the rise of colonialism and India’s struggle for freedom, the learned guest speaker Mr. R. Venkatramani presented a detailed account of the writing down of the Constitution of India as an amalgamation of varied cultural and moral tenets from across the world and the incorporation of Fundamental Rights as the most important guarantee for Human Rights in India. Here, he also spoke about the several challenges that the Indian Constitution had to surmount in the post-Independence era to safeguard its essential character as a champion of Human Rights in India.
The webinar was then followed by a Q&A session with the distinguished guest. Here, there was a series of questions related to the topic of the day, viz., “CONSTITUTION & HUMAN RIGHTS” as well as his life and his valuable career suggestions that were put forward by the enthusiastic students to which the knowledgeable speaker answered most authoritatively and convincingly to the complete satisfaction of the students and all participants.
Once done, Mr. R. Venkatramani was presented with a glittering “Memento” on behalf of Asian Education Group.
With this, the highly enriching session with the highly acclaimed Indian legal luminary, MR. R. VENKATRAMANI, Sr. Advocate, Supreme Court of India came to a solemn end!