‘Mardi Gras-2015’ inaugurated at Odisha’s SOA Law School

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, April 11:

The legal profession, which once was considered the last resort for students after they had exhausted all other options for a career, has turned the corner and has been attracting large number of students, senior advocate Jagabandhu Sahoo said on Saturday.

“Things have changed in recent times and people want their children to study law as it has been throwing up several career opportunities,” Sahoo, a senior lawyer in the Odisha High Court said while speaking at the two-day ‘Mardi Gras’, the inaugural function of the SOA National Institute of Law (SNIL), under the SOA University.

Vice-Chancellor of the SOA University, Prof (Dr) Amit Banerjee presided over the inaugural function which was also addressed by BB Senapati, a retired bank official and the acting Dean of SNIL, Prof (Dr) Jyotirmoy Mohapatra.

Sahoo said that though the country had 10 lakh lawyers of whom around 50,000 were in Odisha, there was a still a dearth of legal practitioners. “Members of the Bar have to be qualitative so that it would reflect on the Bench as well,” he said.

Senapati said that the legal delivery system in India was ‘very slow’ while pointing out that the verdict in the Satyam fraud case took six years to be pronounced even though it was being looked into by a fast track court.

However, the principles of natural justice had to be adhered to while providing justice to the people, he said adding “law protects only those who are vigilant, not those who are negligent.”

Prof Banerjee described law as the most flexible entity in the world while saying it was the basis of all science.