SPEECH OF HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VIJENDER JAIN, CHIEF JUSTICE, PUNJAB & HARYANA HIGH COURT IN THE CEREMONY OF AWARDING OF ENROLMENT CERTIFICATES  TO THE NEW ENTRANTS IN LAW BHAWAN, SECTOR 37, CHANDIGARH ON 07 MARCH, 2007.

                   Mr. N.S. Toor, Chairman of the Bar Council; Mr. H.S. Mattewal, Advocate General, Punjab;  Mr. S.D. Sharma, Senior Advocate; Mr. C.M. Munjal, Chairman of the Enrolment Committee; Mr. B.S. Billing, Vice-Chairman of the Bar Council; Mr. Lekh Raj Sharma, Secretary of the Bar Council; Registrar General of Punjab and Haryana High Court; Senior Advocates  and the young entrants to this profession.

                When I was invited for this function, I was told that I had to give licences to the new entrants of legal fraternity. I felt it a pleasure to do so because myself had been a lawyer, who practiced for 23 years and has been a Judge for the last 15 years, but the lawyer's stint has not yet died. I know Mr. Mattewal for so many years and he has assumed the office of the Advocate General of Punjab and when he said that he knows what I desire from the State, that shows the court craft of a lawyer. I am not here to give you any speech at this occasion. As you all are aware that not only in this country we had Jawahar Lal Nehru, Moti Lal Nehru and great stalwarts like, Vallabh Bhai Patel, Krishna Menon and Mahatma Gandhi, they all were lawyers, but throughout the world Abraham Lincoln in U.S.A. or elsewhere   the renaissance was led in France by a great revolutionary lawyer, even other places, lawyers had played a very important role. That role has not diminished even today because lawyers are on the fore - front of maintaining the Constitution and the Rule of Law. I must comment that Bar Council is having such a nice building and a nice auditorium and the way they have organized the function for new entrants is commendable. I am sure that the facilities and  infrastructure which it is   providing is also unique in the States of Punjab and Haryana. As a matter of fact, as we march forward towards a new millennium in a globalised economy, computerization, information technology a great role is assigned to the persons who are enrolled as lawyers. I am confident that status enjoyed by lawyers from Delhi and Bombay is not going to be permanent because places like Chandigarh, Mohali, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Panchkula will be next generation commerce centers of the country. We will require more lawyers in this regard. Therefore, you have to gear yourselves to that kind of knowledge, whether it is in the field of Cyber Laws, Intellectual Property Rights or in the field of Meditation or Conciliation. You have to be head and shoulders above others and to compete not only with the lawyers from this country but also other parts of the world. As rightly said by my learned predecessor speakers that honesty is the hall - mark for success of a lawyer. I tell you my case. Nobody in my family was a lawyer. I am a first generation lawyer. I practised for 23 years before becoming a Judge. What is important for a lawyer is how much trust he generates and creates in the mind of a Judge. For quantum of money, one should not sacrifice the principles because ultimately it is your principles in the Court which is the basis of judging your integrity, dedication and honesty as an officer of the court on which a Judge believes in a statement on a matter of fact by a lawyer and he does not go to the file to corroborate said statement.

                   I wish a great success in your career.