He was delivering the vote of thanks at the inauguration of the International Judicial Conference 2020

Supreme Court judge Arun Mishra described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an “internationally acclaimed visionary” at a public forum on Saturday. He commended the “versatile genius” of Mr. Modi to “think globally and act locally”.

Justice Mishra, one of the first five senior-most judges of the Supreme Court, twice heaped praises on Mr. Modi while delivering his vote of thanks at the inaugural session of the International Judicial Conference 2020 ‘Judiciary and the Changing World’.

"India is a responsible and most friendly member of the international community under the stewardship of internationally acclaimed visionary Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi... We thank the versatile genius who thinks globally and acts locally, Shri Narendra Modi, for his inspiring speech, which will act as a catalayst in initiating the deliberations and setting the agenda for the conference," Justice Mishra said.

On the dais was Prime Minister Modi, Chief Justice Sharad A. Bobde, Justice N.V. Ramana, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal and Justice L. Nageswara Rao. The function had in attendance Supreme Court and high court judges, judges from across 24 nations, former judges and advocates. Mr. Prasad, in his address, had referred to the "glorious identity of independent judiciary".

In his inaugural address, Mr. Modi said how 1.3 billion Indians had “wholeheartedly” accepted “some critical judgments” recently. These judgments were the subject of global discussion. In an apparent reference to the Ayodhya land dispute verdict, Mr. Modi said several apprehensions were expressed about the consequences of these judgments.

“But look what happened! 1.3 billion Indian wholeheartedly accepted the judicial verdicts,” Mr. Modi said.

The Prime Minister said his government acted swiftly and with “complete sensitivity and responsiveness to the needs of modern society” by legislating the rights for transgenders and enacting a law against triple talaq.

Gender justice

Another achievement is how India has made big strides in gender justice. “Today, after 70 years of Independence, the participation of women in elections is at the highest level ever! For the first time in India, the enrolment of girls in educational institutions is more than the boys. This is on account of successful programmes such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao,” Mr. Modi told the assembled judges and foreign delegates.

Both the Prime Minister and the Law Minister referred to women in the defence services. Mr. Prasad said how the Prime Minister was “bold enough to permit Indian Air Force women to also fly fighter planes”. He said the PM’s initiative was “complemented by the recent Supreme Court judgment which gave women Army officers the right to command.

Chief Justice Bobde said, “The zeitgeist of our time is technological development. A small change in one corner can impact other corners”. He said conferences like these helped the judiciary gain knowledge from each other. He said a well-structured judicial system had been part of this country for over 2000 years

Justice Ramana flagged several global issues such as terrorism, cyber crimes, environmental degradation and health in his speech. He said terrorism had affected every part of the world. He said there was a need for the judiciary to evolve “innovative principles and jurisprudence to keep terrorism at bay while upholding the rule of law”.