Editorial

By Somesh Arora, Advocate 

 

Covid has brought in new challenges for all of us. So many brethren advocates and eminent jurists and judges have left us in its wake, unexpectedly and pre maturely. Many who were taken ill, are still not in the best of health, despite recovery. Safety, vaccination and health protocol has become necessity not only for us but also our families, for an indefinite time. Many Bar associations have pooled their resources to help lawyers both economically as well as medically. As far as dispensation of justice was concerned, inspite of best efforts by Judiciary, only important matters could be attended to by risking lives of judges, court officials and advocates. Number of lawyers including younger lot received a setback in the career growth trajectory and even lost employment in recession hit times.

In these difficult times, however, advocates, jurists, law students joined hands to reinvent the All India Advocate Forum( Forum) and turn the challenge of low work regime into an opportunity. From the realization, that time should be utilized to hone new skills in various fields of laws. With objective of updating knowledge of all, and for interacting with young budding talents and to taking advantage of their tech driven IT skills. To build a platform that is apolitical, voluntary, puts no pressure to remain or quit and no obligation to pay for services provided- the idea of rebuilding the Forum germinated. Two well attended seminars in curfew itself – one on Money Laundering and another on Arbitration were organized with elaborate question and answer sessions. Same were put up on You-tube and circulated through social media for all interested to learn and understand these subjects. Response of the young lawyers and their efforts put up so enthusiastically, were phenomenal. Next was the demand to initiate an enrollment drive and have state wise units and to reach right upto mofussil towns, so that no one willing to learn practical nuances of law is left out because of lack of opportunity. Mr. Ajaiveer Singh, Founder and the President of the Forum which has been in existence since 80s painstakingly decided to evolve the platform further to make use of available technology and be the pioneer in the field of legal knowledge sharing in cost effective manner, to benefit all. Suggestions were invited through deliberations and interactions with various state presidents and worthwhile ones, implemented with promptness.

On anvil, in the days to come are interactive website and a Digital canteen café to provide a platform for informed gossip as are generally done in the bar rooms. It is hoped that in the days to come more eminent legal personalities will get associated with this knowledge sharing platform and many eminent will emerge in future proudly, recollecting the profound knowledge gained through the Forum`s sincere efforts.

This Journal which is part of the envisaged activities of the Forum will be its official mouthpiece and will provide platform to established and well as budding lawyers to express themselves. The topics shall not be confined to varied legal issues or analysis of unique or path breaking decisions, but can cover various general topics relating to law, judiciary and our democracy with the view to improving the same in tune with changing times. Neo concepts like artificial intelligence driven technologies and their coexistence with real intelligence may need legal regulation and this may get ushered in this decade only. How the legal systems worldwide have to evolve in a society or in a sovereign nation, which will increasingly allow acceptability of robotics for household services, banking services, security( internal and external), medical and even legal services needs a lot of thinking and deliberations, if India has to be a world leader in designing of these legal systems. Government of India has created its own Directorate of Artificial Intelligence ( AI)and even earmarked funds in the budget, but equally important in comparison to research and development of AI, shall be ethical and legal aspects over its usage which need to developed with lot of deliberations in time. Forum shall involve the big players in the field of AI research and technology, shortly to understand the concept. Equally, while the debate about whether Covid was a lab mishap or accidental development will continue in the years to come. It cannot be missed out that reoccurrence of such accidents or deliberately designed means of warfare needs to be avoided in future by comity of nations. How international laws need recasting in this regard should elicit an informed response from the worthy members. In the second phase of Covid, the efforts of Judiciary in providing timely intervention even through suo- moto actions were hailed by many who got the relief. Will in future, Judicial administration need a pro-active quick response teams to red flag areas of concerns to humanity and citizens, so that action can be taken without losing precious days, in time of crisis or doctrine of separation of powers should be held sacrosanct even in unprecedented situations? There are many such matters to ponder and address if India has to become a truly welfare society.

How regular and timely judicial appointments can be ensured and how Tribunals can be reformed so that they actually achieve objective of speedy justice and reducing burden on higher judiciary? These and many other issues will engage our members and readers in days to come. This is our profound hope.

With these words, I feel honored to present this first volume of our journal……. to all of you and wish that all our eminent jurists, advocate fraternity, authors and others members excel in their respective careers and are admired for their knowledge, dedication and hard work and bring accolades to their profession.