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Honourable Vice President sir, Honourable Governor Madam, Honourable Visitor sir, Honourable Chief Minister Sir, Honourable Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, Honourable Law Minister, Honourable Education Minister, Honourable Minister of State for Law and Justice. All distinguished and respected guests, faculty and staff members, students and their near and dear ones, and all well-wishers of the University, We extend most warm and heartiest welcome to this unique monumental campus of the GNLU, Motivated staff and committed students for the Best Public and Private Legal Service to the Nation and the World at large, of GNLU, offer you gratitude for gracing the occasion.
GNLU has been created to advance and disseminate learning and knowledge of law and legal processes and their role in national development.
We stand before you with humble folded hands having deep respect and firm conviction for getting your most inspiring blessings, inspiring us with your words from your hearts and feelings, make us see your vision which we shall live up for centuries to come in the service of this universe and humanity.
Today’s youth and law graduates who have studied law, who read ins and outs of our systems, who are well aware of needs, interests and concerns of India – a peaceful, progressive and powerful nation, your hearts and mind-touching messages will encourage them more than anything else.
As a teacher, honourable Vice-President sir you had been Vice-Chancellor, madam governor you are Chancellor of several universities, honourable CM sir, you inspire in words and actions by instilling education vision and helping most generously educational institutions, honourable Dave sir, you had been Chancellor/Visitor of the NALSAR and now we are honoured, Honorable Law Minister sir, your department has been, since the beginning of this University, most hospitable to the GNLU and supportive throughout, will remain unmatchable, thus, as a teacher, as a head of academic institution, as a representative of institution which wish and is true academic partner with the institutions of governance, request you all to share most useful and innovative ideas and tools for India and world, bless us with your network so we can work and realise dreams through them, give us critical financial support like what the Government of Gujarat has given to this university to become a seat of learning, intellectual torch-bearing, talk to us in a more informal and frank ways instead of heavily loaded speeches which we can easily relate with our vision, aspiration and needs.
To the entire audience, I bow down and most humbly ask for your full complete help as “dakshina” today, we at GNLU hope to get chair in each critical area of law so it can provide tree – training, research, education and extension of law and interdisciplinary fields to the humanity.
While overwhelmed by the support of the state government, I am unable to resist two important incidents in recent past – land and money – the Government granted this 50 acres of land free and there was a time for a proper plot of this land and it was a critical moment, we brought this request to the kind attention of Honorable CM sir through former Law Minister Shri Amitbhai Shah, and friends, in less than 24 hours, the issue was sorted out and our request was supported…same way, with regards to the capital expenditure, the Honorable Law Minister Shri Dileep Sanghani and Minister of State Shri Pradeepsingh Jadeja, the Law Secretary, Shri Pandey, the Additional Chief Secretary Shri Srivastava, Principal Secretary and Secretary to the Honorable Chief Minister Shri Kailshnathan and A. K. Sharma respectively and the officials of these three departments, in most effective and efficient manner resolved our anxiety. Honorable Justices, Mr Justice Mohit Shah, Mr Justice Dholakia, Mr Anil R. Dave, Mr Ashok Dave, Kalpesh Jhaveri, Bankim Mehta, Pradeep Bhatt, Belaben Trivedi, M. H. Shah, Pandey sir, J. G. Shah, among others could be reached at any time of the day for listening to our request and doing the needful in a most expeditious manner. The members of the statutory bodies, comprising among others, Honorable Kamal Trivedi, Chief Secretary Shri A. K Joti, Dr Hasmukh Adhia, and all the past and present members have remained a strong source of cooperation. The GUDA, the R&B Department, the Land & Revenue Department, the GPCB, all have been setting standards of example for us in terms of assistance and cooperation. GUDA built the approach road just in a week…efficiency of the GUDA is more than 100%, thanks Ms Mamta Verma, Nilesh Patel and their officials. Right from the Chief Minister himself to all departments and offices, we have been just encouraged to create a world class university in teaching, research, extension and training and by providing such excellent support, we are indeed overwhelmed. Thus, the GNLU has been blessed with the best support-system from day one and I most humbly ask all of you to offer a standing applause for their vision, commitment, and tireless assistance to make this university a centre of excellent in all sense. Now, it is our most sincere duty to ensure that each of us, myself, registrar, faculty and staff members, students, lives up to their expectations and fulfil their dreams. On this occasion, on behalf of the GNLU and on my own behalf, I offer most respectful tributes to former Law Minister late Shri Ashok Bhatt, our father figure, late Shri Kiritbhai Raval, late Shri K. B. Bhuva, for their drive and energy which have made us realise this dream.
The Gray Parikh Architect drew up this architect plan and the Cube Construction Engineering Limited converted these symbols of Atalika (Nest of Knowledge Light) and Vitan (a platform formed by the blessings of Yagna for people’s welfare), among others, into a concrete reality. We can assure them and all above that each and every corner of this university will become a must-visiting place in the years to come.
Are we expecting more? Yes, certainly, we invite our most learned Vice-President sir, CM sir, Justice Dave sir and in fact many of you to take few classes, if physical presence becomes prohibitive due to security and cost reasons, just let us know we will have video conference connection with your offices and carefully listen to what you have to encourage us through your vast experience and vision. You can think of staying with us few days and engage in research and pen down your memories away from security-tightened offices in this academic air. Instead of having more buildings, we will make best use of the IT knowledge and infrastructure to achieve the goals.
The grandiose entre of the GNLU reminds us of the Honorable President’s front ground, the design articulating ideas of Raisina Hills and India Gate, is ought to become a must-visiting place for thousands and millions of people. Honorable Vice-President sir, Honorable Dave Sir, we request you to emphasise foreign dignitaries to visit the GNLU and institutions of learning when they visit Delhi. GNLU wishes the leaders from all walks of life – law, judiciary, politics, science and technology, businesses, academicians, researchers, social welfare leaders, to engage us and realise their vision of a just and peaceful world through us.
My apology for uttering any politically or protocol incorrect/inconvenient words, but this beautiful cold afternoon of 7 January, your gracious presence, your thirst for best university encourage me to speak these words.
The Apex Educational Body of India, the University Grants Commission considered GNLU as the model legal education university in terms of access, equity, relevance and standards, itself is but one of the most important achievements for this 7 year old research-based teaching university. While students are admitted on the basis of common law admission test, our students have commitment and are known for organising events of a scale bringing as many as 35 nations and international organisations, such as, NATO, EU, UN, on issues of global concern but at the same time, their commitment ought to be recognised for truly helping the Gujarat High Court, District Courts in Ahmedabad, two PSUs, GIDC and GUVNL in reducing the backlog of cases by undertaking training assignment in remote parts of Gujarat, helping the judges of the Supreme Court of India and various High Courts, by engaging into carrying out legal awareness services in needy areas and keeping themselves fit by undertaking adventure sports and trekking and bringing a multicultural panorama at the GNLU every year. Thus, GNLU works from Grassroot to Global Level - a 3G Vision.
Dear distinguished audience, GNLU faculty and staff have professional and ethics based corporate culture and a profound academic soul, their efficiency is 300%, their caring attitude, substituting in a family manner as parents away from home, I say, is unmatchable in the whole nation and the world. GNLU faculty are our true treasures and are having a drive to become better than the best and each of our administrative staff can undertake any responsibility with the highest level of competence, integrity and efficiency.
We thank Honorable Education Minister and his whole department for entrusting us the task of a nodal agency to enhance the standards of legal education, among 32 law colleges in Gujarat and we can assure you that the GNLU which is already their second home in the years to come will change the landscape of legal education and like Gujarat model, will become a model for all other law universities.
Our students find their presence in all walks of professions where their value and ethics based legal education can be best utilised – from law firms and corporate to NGOs and judiciary. We request law firms, corporate and trade houses to plough back some of their profits from Gujarat by engaging GNLU students and GNLU as a whole for a sustainable long-term future for all. We request the Honorable CM sir to institute a law officer post virtually in each office where legal matters play a crucial role in the overall development. We request Honorable Judges to let GNLU and for that matter all NLUs final year students appear in the exams of judiciary in their final year like all other services, so judiciary gets best trained legal minds. The legal profession and judiciary services have the best future, what we need are proactive, do-what-speak actions from all decision-makers. While as many as 24 GNLU students assisted Supreme Court of India last year, 13 have cleared main exams of the junior civil judges in Gujarat recently…as the head of the institution, I am counting personally a day when the GNLU students will have decisive presence in the Supreme Court Bench and meaningful presence in international courts and tribunals. Honorable Vice-President sir, I have one more request, that is impressing the Government of India to have sizeable law officers in all departments and diplomatic missions. Sir, in 1993-1995 when you were the Permanent Representative of India to the UN in New York, you had only one law officer deputed from the Ministry of External Affairs, let me tell you, through persistent efforts including personal efforts, our MEA has appointed three law officers, one each in Geneva, Vienna and the Hague. As India seeks to have successful outcome for permanent membership resolution before end of this year, I get more convinced that your personal emphasis to have law officers for each of our important missions will serve the country in a much more concerted manner. You will be pleased to know that GNLU has established scholarship to assist Indian Mission in New York and Geneva, the Indian Member to the International Law Commission in Geneva and for undertaking internship at the International Court of Justice…GNLU wants its students to serve the most important and influential institutions of the world and your encouragement will mean a lot to us.
Our plans include establishing a Centre for Advance Legal Research for the Western Region as envisaged by the Ministry of Law and Justice of the Government of India, Centre for International Arbitration, Regional Centre for UN Centre for International Trade Law, Centre for Indian Council for Cultural Affairs, Centre for promoting activities of the Indian Council of World Affairs, the Indian Law and Judicial System Academy for foreign students, among others. We have started doing serious brainstorming on these network of institutions hosted at the GNLU. The three research journals, 22 gold medals recognition in each area of law and interdisciplinary fields, academic support program where senior and bright students teach and tutor junior or needy, our participation in more than 40 or more international and national moots, our solid plan to become the first research-based teaching university and our Medium Term Plan all guide us in our journey.
Rome was not built in one day and the Harvard University took many decades to become the most-sought after university in the world, we stand today and pledge and pray to God that GNLU too, become a source of model knowledge creation, implementation and extension for the peaceful and just world order. Let’s work towards realising a dream wherein India comes to be known for her best educational institutions like American and European institutions.
I take this opportunity to thank my predecessor Professor Mani and all our present and past staff, alumni, service providers of GNLU for their contribution to this institution building process.
I thank you all and once again extend the warmest welcome to the Attalika Avenue.
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