Bar and Bench complementary, not competing institutions in constitutional democracy: ex-CJI Gavai

Former Chief Justice of India B R Gavai on Sunday said the Bar and the Bench are two wheels of the golden chariot on which the States accountability rests and if one falters, the entire structure begins to lose balance.

Former Chief Justice of India B R Gavai on Sunday said the Bar and the Bench are two wheels of the golden chariot on which the State's accountability rests and if one falters, the entire structure begins to lose balance. Speaking at the 52nd Annual Convocation of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, the ex-top judge stated that an independent judiciary does not operate in isolation and that the Bar and the Bench together sustain the promise of constitutional democracy. ''The Bar and the Bench are not two distinct or competing institutions in a constitutional democracy. They are complementary. They are, as I often said in my speeches in India, the two wheels of the golden chariot on which the accountability of the State rests. If one falters, the entire structure begins to lose balance,'' he said. Justice Gavai also said lawyers shape a society's moral and political imagination, and the Indian freedom movement was shaped in significant measure by individuals trained in law, like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and B R Ambedkar. An independent Bar resists pressures, challenges excesses, maintains a culture of constitutional argument and speaks for those who may otherwise have no voice, he added. Justice Gavai stated that the Bar is not a professional privilege but a constitutional necessity and if the judiciary is the guardian of the Constitution, the Bar is its vigilant ally. ''Experience of both India and Sri Lanka demonstrates that the strength of constitutional democracy depends not only upon constitutional text or institutional design. It depends equally upon the presence of an independent, vigilant, and engaged Bar,'' he said.