New Delhi, March 17 Former Supreme Court Justice Mukundakam Sharma said on Tuesday that when India adopted an open economy and moved towards globalization, it became important that its laws were updated and modified to meet emerging needs.
He was speaking at the 2nd Bharat Legal Conclave on Aligning India's Legal Ecosystem with Global Standards and Legal Landscape, hosted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
"When we accepted an open economy and open trade and commerce, our laws had to be updated, modified, and new legislations brought in to suit the requirements and the necessity of the time," he said.
The former top court judge said that India had initially declared itself a socialist country, indicating a regulated and planned economy with a mixed model of production. However, with the advent of globalization, the country gradually transitioned towards an open market system.
"In the preamble of our Constitution, we have declared ourselves as a socialist country indicating a regulated and planned economy and also a mixed product. But with globalization, we have turned to the concept of open economy, open market," he said.
"There is definitely a conflict between the two concepts. It is not only us, even communist countries like China and Russia are accepting this notion of open economy," he said.
Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal also attended the event virtually and addressed the gathering. He said that in a rapidly transforming technological world, it is essential for our legal and regulatory framework to keep pace.
"Law is a living organism. It cannot remain static. It must continuously evolve in accordance with the changing needs of society. In addition to ease of doing business, ease of justice is equally important," the minister said.
He said that through the Digital India initiative, the country has built a strong digital foundation to address new challenges such as phishing, cyberattacks, regulation of artificial intelligence and global digital platforms.
"Our objective is to create a legal ecosystem that is innovative, inspirational, attracts investment and strengthens the rule of law. Alongside this, under Phase III of the e-Courts Project, technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) are being utilised," he said.