My Lord, My Justice K.T. Thomas, My Lord Hon’ble Mr. U.C. Banerjee, Rt. Hon’ble Einfeld, Hon’ble Dr. Justice Nasim Hasan Shah, Hon’ble Justice V. Alleear, Hon’ble Edussuriya, Hon’ble Justice Consuelo Ynares, Hon’ble Justice Balaney, Hon’ble Laxman Aryal, Hon’ble Ashok Desai, Hon’ble judges Foreign Countries, Hon’ble Judges of this Court Past and Present, fellow lawyers Academicians, Jurists, Mr. & Mrs. Jagdish Gandhi, Ladies and gentlemen.

I, on my behalf and on behalf of the members of the Reception Committee welcome all the dignitaries, adorning the dais and seated at front, in this historic city, which is famous throughout the World for its etiquette, mild and suave manners, gentle behaviour, sweet language, refined culture, hospitality, religious tolerance, and communal harmony which fought bravely against the most powerful colonial power of the World in 1857, and continued to uphold the banner of revolt even when the fire of Revolution was extinguished in Delhi.

William Howard Russel, War Correspondent of ‘London Times’ who visited Lucknow in Nineteenth Century described Lucknow as a magnificent City. I quote his sayings.

"Not Rome, not Athens, not Constantinople, not any City I have ever seen, appear to me so striking and beautiful as this and the more I gaze, the more its beauties grow upon me. A vision of palaces, domes, azure and golden cupolas, colonnades, long facades of air perspective in pillars and column, terraced roofs all rising up amidst a calm looks for miles and miles away, the towers of the fairy tale City gleam in sky. Spires of gold glitter in the Sun, Turrets and gilded spheres shine like constellations. There is nothing mean or squalled to be seen. There is a City more vast than Paris as it seems, and more brilliant."

Much was lost, due to ruthless and barbaric suppression of its people by the erstwhile Colonila power. Royal palaces were destroyed, Mosques, Imambaras and Temples were ruined. Thousand were killed and one fourth of its population was exiled, but its beauty and tehzib could not be ruined, wrecked and killed even by several upheavals in the History.

Today, we have assembled in this city, which remained peaceful and calm after partition, to debate on Article 51 of the Constitution of India. If I am not wrong, in no Constitution of any Country of the World, such a provision exists like Article 51. Harmony, Peace and Security to all its habitants and abroad since the last Seven Thousand years, have been the cherished goal of India. There might have been internal quarrel, feud and schism between the rulers but the history never pointed out a single instance when India committed aggression against any Country. It always stood for just and honorable relation between various nations of the World.

After attainment of freedom, India strived for complete disarmament, ban on nuclear weapons and maintaining harmonious relations with its neighbours, but unfortunately, had to fight three wars. In the recent years, on our account of the ethnic, regional and religious, diversities, religious dogmatism, terrorism spread its wings in this sub-continent. In the Hilly religion of North and North East of this country, taking advantage of inherent, ethnic, regional and religious diversities, seeds of dissension and secession were sown. Thousands of peace loving innocent people have been killed, either by mercenaries or by the terrorists, who were supplied with deadly weapons from outside.

After the process of globalization began, eschewing the past history of violence, turmoil or war, the European Countries have united together. Such a process should at once be started by the SAARC, which more or less has a common ancestry. They are knitted together by composite civilization, culture and language. These countries succeeded in breaking the shackles and chains of slavery and have made political, social and economic strides but one third of its people are still below the poverty line. Most of such people have no proper shelter over their heads, no potable water to drink, no nutritious food to keep them well. Millions die every year due to lack of medical facilities. About one third, of its population cannot read or write. The most of the revenue these countries generate are spent on administrative and defense requirements. Most part of their revenue are spent on payment of interest on loan, which they take either from IMF or other Foreign Countries. Instead of its spending thousands of crores on armament, nuclear weapons and missiles they should try to spend the same for eradication of poverty, illiteracy and diseases. National chauvinism, religious fanaticism revivalism, obscurantist thoughts have blurred their imagination and perception. The time has come when the people of these countries should rise-up and force the rulers to shun away, from the path of war mongering and devote themselves for development and progress of their people. But this will be possible only when a sustained strong movement for Peace is built up by people of these Countries so territorial disputes be resolved amicably.

In the recent years, United Nations has charted out a draft Code for dealing with six crimes namely: aggression, trade of aggression, genocides, Intervention, apartheid, recruitment of mercenaries, international terrorism, systematic and vast violation of human rights, trafficking in Narcotic drugs and willful and severe damage to the environment. The establishment of Tribunal by the United Nations to deal with human rights violation in erstwhile Yugoslavia, the intervention of United Nations in Ruanda, Somalia etc. is a welcome sign. But the international criminal courts which may be established soon, cannot by imposed by compulsion. It should be through consensus by the concerned States, otherwise the same would not be acceptable to most of the developing countries.

The developing countries are not as mighty as USA, which through mercenaries kidnapped Hamberto Alvares from his home in Mexico and tried him Texas. The Supreme Court of United States, by setting aside the verdict of Court of Appeal, gave a frightening decision, which enables the states to invade another country, abduct a person, who is alleged to have committed an offence and put him on trial in USA. The other example is the action of USA which invaded Nicaragua, through mercenaries and directed attack against human and economic targets. When International Court of Justice entertained the appeal of Nicaragua, the Secretary of State of USA terminated the compulsory jurisdiction of International Court of Justice for six months. The International Court of Justice weekly surrendered its jurisdiction.

Five nations of the world enjoy hegemony over the United Nations Organization. The whole of Latin America, Africa and Asia except China, are not represented in the Security Council. Until and unless the structure of the United Nations is overhauled, and the developing nations of Africa, Latin America and Asia find their places in the Security Council and in various organs of the United States, the developing countries will not surrender their sovereignty to United Nations or any limb of the United Nations.

The creation of the International Criminal Courts to deal with such international offences, as suggested by the International Law Commission, is the dire need of the hour. The International Court of Justice should be strengthened. But it is necessary that the structural changes in the Security Council and various limb of the United Nations be made, to make it more representative and meaningful. Only then by consensus, the developing nations may subject themselves to International Law, International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court. A confidence requires to be generated amongst the developed and developing nations of the World to foster respect for International Law and encouragement of settlement of bilateral or international disputes by Arbitration. But, this cannot be done by words alone. The people of the World, who love peace and security and believe in harmonious relations between the nations should build up a strong mass movement in their countries, only then the cherished goal of this Conference may achieve success.

I express my thanks and gratitude to all the Hon’ble Judges, jurists, academicians and lawyers who have assembled in this International Conference.

I also express thanks to the Organizers of this Conference; particularly to Mr. Jagdish Gandhi, for his tireless efforts to make this Conference a success. Thank you, very much.

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