Discarding redundant colonial practices should be judiciary’s guiding principles: President Murmu

New Delhi, Nov 5: President Droupadi Murmu Tuesday said that equal justice and eliminating redundant colonial practices should be the guiding principles for the country's judiciary.

Terming the Supreme Court as the conscience-keeper of Independent India, she said the apex court has developed a jurisprudence rooted in Indian ethos and realities.

Addressing an event here, Murmu said the members of the Constituent Assembly would have thought about the events of the decades behind them just as "we are looking back at the last 75 years of our judicial history".

"The experience of suffering imperial arrogance, like those caused by the bitter opposition to the Ilbert Bill and the passage of the Rowlatt Act, would have hurt their sensibility. They conceived the judiciary of Independent India as an arm of the social revolution which would uphold the ideal of equality," she said.

Murmu said equal justice and eliminating the now redundant colonial practices "should be the guiding principles for our judiciary."

While continuing with the useful aspects of the pre-independence jurisprudence, "we should remove the legacy over-burden", the President said while releasing three publications of the Supreme Court of India at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The released publications are "Justice for Nation: Reflections on 75 Years of the Supreme Court of India"; "Prisons in India: Mapping Prison Manuals and Measures for Reformation and Decongestion"; and "Legal Aid Through Law Schools: A Report on Working of Legal Aid Cells in India", according to a statement issued by the President's office.

Murmu said the book titled 'Justice for the Nation', captures the high points of the Supreme Court's 75-year journey.

"It also describes the impact of the Supreme Court on various aspects of the lives of the people. Our justice delivery system must strengthen our onward march as a just and fair society.

"I am glad to observe that the report on the working of legal aid cells, released today, is devoted to the legal aid clinics operating in law schools in our country," she said.

The President said such legal aid clinics contribute to imparting holistic legal education to the country's youth and sensitise them to the needs of the vulnerable segments of society.

"The status of undertrial prisoners has been an abiding concern for me. I am happy that the report on the prison system, released today, seeks to understand the role of the judiciary in reducing the number of undertrial prisoners," she said.