After his recent resignation from the post of Solicitor General of India Gopal Subramanium is still a busy man. Subramanium starts his day at 8 am and gets free from work at 10 pm
every day. At present he is working on intellectual property rights, constitutional and criminal law cases."Earlier also I was a private lawyer. I tried to be Gopal Subramanium
the essential person throughout my career and I am happy to think what I am right now." says one of the most sought-after lawyers of the country.
Though Subramanium was busy with his back-to-back conferences he spared some time for Bureaucracy Today and shared the reforms he proposed during his tenure in the Bar Council of India and discussed with this publication the issues of corruption and delays in the judiciary and judicial activism.
REFORMS IN BAR COUNCIL OF INDIA
Asked whether the Bar Council of India (BCI) has been able to successfully discipline the legal profession, Subramanium says: "Discipline is really a more complex expression. The real word ought to be effectively discipline the legal profession which means uplifting the standard of professionalism and performance potential of all the lawyers in the uniform way. So the first step which we took was to look at legal education and reforms. I had a privilege of being a member of a committee which wrote a report on legal educational reforms. After that report was written, the recommendations were accepted by the Bar Council of India. And then later I started attending BCI meetings and I was also selected as its Chairman. When I became Chairman I was very keen that under all circumstances a Bar examination should be conducted. We conducted that exam and it was done in a flawless manner and was a very successful experiment. Law students and even advocates liked it. It was conducted with totally modern, scientific parameters and it was an open book exam." Gopal explained and then added,"This has been the first major change. The other change which I had in my mind was to blueprint a programme for lawyers for voluntary continuing legal education so that they could have additional skills. I was then off course to have a proper law reforms division in the council and in addition to this I created the legal aid division. These were part of my blueprint. One of the other facets of my idea was to have a UIN programme which means that the Bar Council of India would be able to connect to any lawyer who deserves help. The beginning has started. We now have the new Chairman of the Bar Council of India. I resigned because I was holding the post of Chairman by virtue of being the Solicitor General of India. The new Chairman, I am sure, will carry forward that blueprint."
CORRUPTION AND DELAYS IN JUDICIARY
Asked about the corruption and delays in the judiciary, Subramanium says: "The point is whether the judiciary is citizenfriendly. Does the judiciary give adequate assurance to citizens ? This is a very important aspect and I feel that it is no longer safe to leave these matters to subjective impression. These must be objectively evaluated and I think the time has come when we must establish a performance audit commission for the judiciary which is not going to be an inclusive body but is going to be a supportive body to give lots of feedback and the data on how exactly the quantity levels of satisfaction are being operated."
Talking about judicial delays, he says: " About the delays I was getting nearer to writing a blueprint for judicial reforms but I had to abandon it because I am no more the Solicitor General. But I think judicial reforms are perfectly feasible. I think there does not need to be any tinkering with the form or structure. What needs to be effectively done is high quality payments and high quality orientation that would go a long way forward."
" I also had a blueprint in my mind of my ultimate vision and goals which is that fundamental rights can be enforced even by district courts under the Constitution. Special law should be made by Parliament. I carry my blueprint in my head and I tried to put it down on paper. I suggested various aspects of it to the Government at different points of time. But there was no seriousness," says Gopal.
On the issue of corruption, Subramanium elaborates: "I think the judiciary can often be a matter of subjective perception. It may not really be true and sometimes it may be true so you need to know how to figure out corruption. It cannot be suspicion, reputation or loose talk. We have to look at it with a close scrutiny. So we must develop transparent criteria which the judge if observes will be a safe impression that nothing has gone wrong. Sometimes people fail to understand bonafide remarks and expressions made in court. So we need to explain the judicial process to people. Then we also need to explain it to members of the Bar. They need to be careful when they say anything about a charge. Also how erroneous perceptions get generated and how they should be dealt with."
JUDICIAL ACTIVISM
Nowadays politicians are entering the judiciary. He says: "Judicial activism is completely justified. It is the need of society. There have to be some instruments of social casinos and the judiciary is one of them."
