We have forgotten the past, aberration of last 33 years should not haunt us anymore: Advocate GA Lone
Ghulam Ahmad Lone
said the situation in the region has haunted lawyers for long and only four to five lawyers from J&K and Ladakh have been elevated to the bench of the High Court in the last 33 years.
Lone, was speaking in presence of
Chief Justice
of India Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai and other legal luminaries at the North Zone Regional Conference organised by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) in collaboration with the High Court of J&K and Ladakh and J&K Legal Services Authority at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre on the banks of Dal Lake in Srinagar.
'The Bar Association worked in harmony with the High Court since its inception in 1928 and provided justice to all without fear, favor or ill will…unfortunately we had an aberration in the last decade of the 20th century (in J&K). The whole apparatus was affected so were the lawyers. We have changed now but those aberrations are still haunting us,' said Lone. He further explained, 'they are haunting us because in the last 33 years there are only four to five lawyers from J&K and Ladakh who have been elevated to the bench of the High Court.' He said CJI's remarks that lawyers from this region (J&K and Ladakh) were as brilliant as lawyers from other parts of the country was encouraging and if that is so the 'past aberrations should no longer haunt the lawyer community.'
'We are one with you. We want to work in harmony and with dedication and uphold principles of law and constitution. We are committed to that,' said Lone adding, 'we make a pledge here that we have forgotten the past.' He quoted famous Persian poet-philosopher and jurist Maulana Rumi saying, 'Yesterday I was clever and I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise and I want to change myself.'
Lone also delved into the history of J&K and genesis of the legal system here which he claimed was formally introduced by the Dogra rulers of the region. 'Kashmir, as per Raj Tarangini of Kalhana, is a civilization and culture since 2000 to 3000 BC. We then witnessed a Sufi movement that proclaimed omnipotence and omnipresence of God and taught us to respect people irrespective of race, culture, caste, language or religion. We still uphold those principles,' said Lone. He further added that the region witnessed 'several invasions by Mughals, Afghans and Sikhs.'
'None of them left any legacy. They came, ruled the region and left. They did not give us any legal jurisprudence or any legal system. It is not mentioned in any history book,' said Lone adding, 'then after 1846 Dogra rulers were the first to introduce administrative, judicial and revenue systems here and provided laws, which we are still following.'
'Dogra rulers started the High Court in 1928. They also formed the Board of Judicial Advisors, who would hear appeals against the High Court,' said Lone, adding, 'You would understand the system of justice and fairness we had that the then Maharaja has not even once, to my knowledge, objected to decision of their (High Court and Board) and accepted their orders despite being a monarch.'
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But to those who have read his text, Arthashastra, he was a proto-economist and a policy wonk with a startlingly modern outlook. The wartime consigliere bit was important, too, since he did engineer the rise of the Mauryan dynasty, giving India its first pan-subcontinental empire. The economist But we must turn to the Arthshastra (literally, treatise on economic science) to recognize his true genius. Composed around the 4th century BC, it is a no-nonsense manual of statecraft and economic management. In it, Chanakya, who has been pictured in popular imagination as a bald-headed, thickset man with sharp, piercing eyes, lays out a meticulously detailed system where the health of the treasury ranks above all else. 'Kosh mulo dandaḥ," he wrote. The language, Sanskrit, is pithy, but the meaning is profound—power rests with the treasury. It wasn't just empty advice. Under his tutelage, the growing military strength of the Mauryan empire led to political stability, which in turn resulted in increased agricultural output and greater trade. This meant higher revenues and resources for the empire, allowing it to build even better roads, which facilitated more trade. It was a virtuous cycle of economic and military might feeding into and of each other. His antecedents remain elusive, with the place of his birth and his early years shrouded in mystery. The most authentic version says he was born as Vishnugupta and went to Takshashila, the ancient centre of learning, where he studied economics, politics, war strategies, medicine, and astrology. He started his career as an advisor to the Nanda king but was exiled from the court following a perceived insult. Chankaya swore revenge. 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The realist In the world of Chanakya, ideals took a backseat as he prioritized results over rhetoric. For that, like the great Chinese general and military strategist Sun Tzu, who lived 150 years before him and considered espionage a crucial element of warfare, the Arthashastra too stressed the importance of spying, auditing, and surveillance. Ministers were to be watched by spies disguised as mendicants. Bookkeepers were assumed to be cooking the numbers unless proven otherwise. 'Even trustworthy officials should not be fully trusted," he wrote with dispassionate realism. Yet, he was not without a social conscience. He encouraged welfare during famine, making it an essential part of a king's duties: 'Kingship requires detailed and expert knowledge of goods and the raw materials from which they are made, for provisioning the palace and the army, as also for distributing food to people in times of famine." 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