CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF LAW AND GOVERNANCE
Jawaharlal Nehru University
SEMINAR SERIES
Dr M P Raju, Advocate
On
Towards an Indian Theory of Constitutional Values:
From Hierarchy of Values to Universal Values
Abstract : The talk intends to highlight a value based approach in the context of the Indian Constitution which may unveil a theory of constitutional values having its roots in the ancient Indian plural traditions. Hopefully, a value theory may greet us in its epiphany evolving from the principle of hierarchy of values (paramo dharmah) through that of universal values (sarvesham) reaching the pinnacle of composite constitutional culture steering carefully away from the pitfalls of both universalism and relativism. The engine of this value-evolution appears to be ‘aanvikshiki’, the scientific temper, exercised through multiple lifeways, both religious and non-religious, including the small and little queer value systems, but necessarily and at the same time non-violently opposing those value systems which are contrary to the universal values and their hierarchy.
3.00 PM, Monday, 12 March 2018
Conference Room, CSLG, JNU
About the Speaker: Dr M. P. Raju is a lawyer practicing mainly in the Supreme Court of India and a member of the Supreme Court Bar Association for the last 27 years. He was an awardee of Indo-Canadian Shastri Fellowship for the comparative study of the Constitutions of Canada and India and a visiting scholar in comparative constitutional law at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. He had been a Senior Counsel for the Central Government in the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court. He is an Honorary Professor at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Amity University, and a visiting Professor in Comparative Constitutional Law at the Indian Law Institute, New Delhi. His books include, Minority Rights – Myth or reality (2002), Uniform Civil Code, a Mirage? (2003), Education – a Mission in Jeopardy (2005), and the recent one India’s Constitution – Roots, Values and Wrongs (2017). A few of his widely acclaimed recent articles are: ‘Speaking Truth to Power’ (on the four Justices of the Supreme Court speaking to the nation through media), Frontline, February 16, 2018; ‘Composite Culture and its Discontents’ (on seventy years of Independence), Frontline, September1, 2017; ‘Guided by Passion’ (on convicting and sentencing of Justice C.S. Karnan by Supreme Court), Frontline, June 9, 2017; ‘Does the Supreme Court See Secularism and Identity Politics Incompatible?’ (on the seven judge verdict on identity politics in electioneering) The Wire, 16-2-2017.
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