We are extremely pleased to bring to the notice of our readers that the book, ‘Of Vineyard Equality’, by Justice Prabha Sridevan was launched on Sunday, November 20, 2016 at the Inter University Centre for IPR Studies, CUSAT, Kochi.
The press release on the launch of the book reads as follows:
In the book she has compiled her thoughts and experiences that enthused and filled her with passion as the sitting judge at Madras High Court into a book which comprises of articles and speeches written by her on topics relating to human rights, women’s rights and intellectual property rights.
The book has been published by LexLab, dedicated for publishing and distributing law books. Though, this is the first book launch, LexLab has also published four other books since its inception in 2015 and focuses to cater to the rising needs of legal fraternity and to provide a better understanding of law. The organisation by publishing law books of high editorial standards aims to become the global resource capital for law professionals, academicians, students and the general public interested in legal affairs.
Justice Prabha Sridevan is a name worth mentioning when talking about people in the legal fraternity who have had made various landmark judgments in order to uphold the true meaning of justice. She is the fifth women judge appointed to Madras High Court and has emphasized on women’s rights in many of her judgments during her ten year tenure as the sitting judge.
Post retirement, she was appointed as the Chairman, Intellectual Property Appellate Board from 2011 to 2013. She has also headed the think tank that meant to draft the country’s IPR Policy and is one among the three Indians who have been listed as the 50 most influential people in IPR, 2014-2015, by International Journal Managing Intellectual Property.
The ceremony commenced with a welcome speech by Atheetha R S, commissioning editor at LexLab, which was followed by a keynote address by Justice Muhamed Mustaque, judge at the High Court of Kerala. Justice Mustaque in his speech emphasised on the thought that actual justice does not prevail in a court room or in a judge’s judgement but in the society. He said that people as a society should differentiate that justice is to treat the fellow beings without discrimination and understand the true meaning of equality from within rather that counting on to courts and judges to provide that.
The first copy of the book was presented by Justice Muhamed Mustaque to Dr. K N Chandrasekharn Pillai, former Director, National Judicial Academy, former Director, Indian Law Institute, former Director and Dean, Faculty of CUSAT and former Member, Law Commission of India.
The book presentation was followed by a special address by Director, School of Legal Studies, CSAT, Dr P S Seema, on the legal explanation of equality where she described various landmark cases of our country wherein the provisions of the Constitution on equality were questioned. Through her speech she effortlessly described how the clash between personal laws and fundamental laws were dealt with in different cases and the justice provided by a change in interpretation of these laws.
She ended her speech with a question to every citizen who demands equality in a pluralistic country like ours, in spite of blindly following the way rules and laws are interpreted by the religious heads.
Justice Prabha Sridevan, during author’s address, backing what Justice Mustaque and Dr Seema said, called justice as an elusive concept. She said that her book is about the ‘laws that thwart justice’ and that the meaning of justice keeps on changing according to the laws in different cases depending upon its nature. She further explained about the title of her book wherein the phrase ‘Vineyard Equality’ was inspired by the thought of former judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Albie Sachs who according to her is one of the greatest judges to uphold fraternity, equality and justice.
The function ended with a vote of thanks by Raghul Sudeesh, founder of LexLab publications and Executive Editor at The Kochi Post, an online news portal. Mr Raghul has channelized his knowledge in law being a graduate from National University of Legal Studies and four year experience as a legal journalist. This knowledge and experience persuaded him to route into legal publishing industry therefore venturing LexLab.
The book can be purchased online from Amazon here.