By IANS,
Lucknow : The growing tendency among corporate houses to fire employees under the excuse of the ongoing economic recession has come under fire from none other than Supreme Court Judge S.H. Kapadia here.
The judge, who was in Lucknow to deliver the eighth Justice J.K. Mathur Memorial Lecture at the Ram Manohar Lohia Law University Saturday, criticised the “prevailing global capitalist culture which places profits before human needs.”
Citing emerging trends of corporate world diverting its huge profits to other uses, depriving their employees of benefits, he regretted that many countries disregarded their commitments under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
“People are treated as factors of production, working without job security in companies whose social utility was sometimes questionable,” Kapadia said.
The apex court judge also called upon judges to acquire more knowledge in the larger interest of better and more meaningful dispensation of justice.
He also advocated for greater sensitivity among judges to ensure better dispensation of justice, particularly in the context of changing global economic scenario.
Highlighting the proactive role of the apex court under Article 142 of the Constitution, he also urged expanding the scope of the Right to Life guaranteed under Article 21 to every person to include “decent living standards, pollution free environment, sustainable development of the economy, protection against arbitrary arrest, protection against false encounters and socio-economic concepts like inclusive growth.”
Justice Kapadia lamented that the record of past 60 years had little to boast of in matters related to implementation of socio-economic rights. “Civil and political rights have been assured but the same was not true of socio-economic rights”, he said.