“Many people call me a story teller, but you have to tolerate me and if you agree with me, give me a smile,” a smiling Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra told a rapt audience. Not only did the CJI reveal the crux of several interesting stories and poems, he also chanted Sanskrit verses to demonstrate how the meaning and even the context changes when the words are pronounced differently in Sanskrit.

At the two day conference on ‘Human Values and the Legal World’ organised by the Sri Sathya Sai Organisation at Prashanti Nilayam, in Puttaparthi, CJI Dipak Misra delivered the inaugural address and touched upon wide-ranging legal issues in the context of law and human values.

Is it possible to set India’s legal system and the judiciary to stand apart from embracing and protecting basic human values? That question is central to the narrative on ‘Human Values and the legal World’.

In this context, “What is Dharma?” is the most important question that was brought to the forefront of the discussion during the CJI’s inaugural address.

“Dharma is not translatable into any language, neither English nor French or Greek or any other language. A quote from a famous scholar says of Dharma as ‘Water flows, it is the Dharma of Water to flow.’ Further, the quote goes on, ‘Dharma sustains the society, maintains the social order and ensures the progress and the well being of a society.’ An attempt has been made by the author to give a connotative dimension to the word ‘Dharma.’ This Conference is about the concept of Spirituality and Dharma and how the legal world responds to human values,” the CJI said.

In the inaugural address, CJI Dipak Misra further highlighted three important aspects that formed the essence of the two day conference in the following words:

“Divinity is Humanity.

Thoughtless thought is Spirituality.

Remaining in constant nowness is physical and economic morality.”

Continuing further, the CJI said, “This Conference is about Legal World, the concept of Spirituality and Dharma, how the legal world responds to the human values. There is a distinction between Human Values and Human Rights – let us not try to make too much of the distinction. What is my human right? You have to protect my human right by expressing your human values. Some human values are inherent, Nature does not endow human values in you. The Constitution and the laws teach you and gradually when you grow up in society, you have to inculcate the habit as a constitutional mandate that, “I am citizen of this country and it is my obligation and the human rights of all are protected. You cannot and never should happen that ‘I must enjoy my human right at the cost of denting or affecting the human values of others.’ Always keep this in mind.”

Referring to specific concepts such as the science of energy, as we generally understand it in the physical and scientific sense of the word, CJI Dipak Misra went a step ahead in co-relating it to the higher and alternate dimensions of worlds that are becoming known to many but unknown to most people, such as the fourth and fifth dimensional existence of a higher world.

Further, he probed the issues connecting spirituality, religion and beliefs, bringing together the subjects of “Law” and “Human Values” as chief concerns of a greater narrative: the question is not only what we, as human beings, accept and practise as our faith or our religion, but also how our beliefs and actions represent a changing story of a changing world, where the only constant remains ‘Dharma’ and ‘Human Values.’

While concluding the inaugural address, CJI Dipak Misra stated, “Human values are epitomised in many an Article in the Constitution and number of Statutes. Courts in India actualise them with intellectual passion and constitutional commitment. Only when law and justice is harmoniously blended with human values, it leaves its indelible footprints on the eternal sands of time and forges its everlasting impression in the life of humanity.”

READ: SC regards common man’s well being as its duty, says CJI Dipak Misra

The two-day event in Prashanti Nilayam witnessed talks by other SC judges and dignitaries including Justice Mr. Dalveer Bhandari of the International Court of Justice, Supreme Court Judge Justice NV Ramana and Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and former apex court judge and NCLAT chairerson SJ Mukhopadhyay. More than 30 sitting High Court judges, former Supreme Court and High Court judges also attended the two day conference organised by the Sri Sathya Sai Organisation (India).