How and why I became a lawyer

I, Fr P.D. Mathew SJ is a Jesuit priest of the Gujarat province of the Society of Jesus. For the last 40 years, I was engaged in the legal aid ministry. I started my legal profession in Bharuch district of Gujarat to help the tribals to get justice.

Many people ask me why I decided to become a lawyer as a Jesuit. In the formation, as a scholastic, I had the opportunity for staying in tribal areas. As a student of MSW, I conducted research on the exploitation of tribals in Bharuch district. Hundreds of tribals narrated their experiences as bonded labourers, domestic workers. Many of their women were sexually exploited. Many of them have lost their lands to upper caste people who live in their areas. While narrating their painful experiences many have wept. I heard their cries. Their tears have changed my Jesuit vocation. According to the plan of my then Jesuit provincial after my college studies in Chemistry, I was to be appointed as a professor in our college at Ahmedabad. But the research data of exploitation of the tribals and their tears prompted me to ask my provincial to allow me to study law to get a degree so that I could stay among the tribals and educate them about their human rights and dignity as citizens of India.

It took a long time to get permission from my provincial because he felt that the legal profession is not a decent profession for a religious person. But when I explained to him that the aim of my study of law was mainly to educate the tribals and weaker sections and to promote their rights he allowed me to secure an LL.B degree from the M. S. University, Baroda. When I passed the LL.B with distinction and gold medal the University offered me a teaching job and fees-free studies in LL.M. But I did not accept their offer.

When I was about to plunge into an adventurous way of Jesuit life and legal profession I was asked by my Jesuit Provincial Superior of India to go to Delhi and to start a legal aid cell at the Indian Social Institute to help the poor and the exploited at the national level. I worked in our institute for 25 years. As a lawyer in the Supreme Court, I was taking up PIL cases to liberate the bonded labourers, child labourers, SCs and STs. Many senior lawyers came forward to assist me freely in this venture.

Simultaneously I started moving from state to state to promote legal literacy and Para-legal training among NGOs, seminarians and religious trainees. Many of them later accepted the legal profession to promote justice and human rights among the marginalised sections of society. The training programmes were well accepted by NGOs and church organisations. More than 10,000 short term and long term training courses were given all over India to social activists to make them legal activists, with the help of practising lawyers of different courts.

The spiritual vision and mission of religious lawyers

As a Jesuit and a religious lawyer, I have got the vision and mission from Jesus. Chapter 4 of St Luke clearly states the vision and mission of Jesus. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives; and new sight to the blind; to free the oppressed.”

Today Jesus is also calling legally qualified persons to follow Him to preach the good news of justice and human rights among the poor, to liberate the oppressed and to give them a positive and divine outlook on human life.
Messages from Exodus 3:7–10, Isaiah 1:11 –17 and Amos 5:21–24, St Mathew 5:6, 25:34–40, 28:18–20 and other passages from the Bible are a source of life and spirit to continue doing the legal aid apostolate and to face the problem arising from it.

Role of priests and religious advocates in India

Our priests and religious lawyers must believe that they are disciples of Jesus and they are chosen by the Lord to work in the legal field with a prophetic vision and mission to liberate the oppressed sections of society and to promote justice among them.

They must work together as one body of Christ and collaborate with all lawyers committed to promoting justice and human rights among the weaker sections. They must create a network of lawyers to face the challenges of our times related to socio-economic and political justice and to promote equality, liberty and fraternity and other spiritual values of the Constitution of India to promote a secular spirituality and establish the Kingdom of God. Legal reforms and judicial reforms are the great needs of the peoples to get justice. Lok Adalats must be established in every parish and village for amicable settlement of cases. Building a just society must be their main aim, where all Indians irrespective of caste, creed, race, gender and place of birth could live together as children of Bharatmatha and children of God.

As members of the Catholic Church, the body of Christ, priests and religious lawyers must show, especially the Christian people, the way to Truth and Life by observing the laws of our country originated from the Ten Commandments and Holy Scriptures. The cannon laws, religious laws and civil laws are interrelated.

Our lawyers must become ambassadors for justice and peace and announce the tidings of good news and encourage ecumenical and inter-religious collaboration to promote human rights, peace and justice among all people.

Fr Constant Lievens is an ideal example for our priests and religious lawyers. This Belgian Jesuit worked as a missionary among the tribals of Chotanagpur from 1885 to 1893. He studied their language, culture and economic exploitation by officials and powerful people.

Later Lievens studied the tribal laws, learnt about the traditional rights of the tribals and helped the people to use the laws and courts to get the rights and justice. Why did he study law? Because he realised that left to themselves they could not find legal remedies to solve their problems, because no one taught them the legal provisions specified in law and their rights. So he explained the law to them, pointed out their rights and obligations. He also directed them to honest lawyers. To all those who approached him for help, he insisted that they should not stray even an inch from the path of legality. He had also sometimes taken their cases to court to defend them. Some magistrates openly appreciated his efforts to help the tribals to get justice through courts. Thus he lived in the very centre where the struggle for justice was most fierce.

The aim of the body of lawyers in the Church in India must be to promote human rights and justice among the weaker sections and most vulnerable people in India, particularly women, children, senior citizens, SCs/STs minorities, prisoners and migrants.

They must train Para – legal workers and social activists and young lawyers on social justice, human rights, integral ecology, constitutional values and fundamental rights of citizens, legal reforms, judicial reforms, legal aid to the poor, public interest litigation (PIL) legal rights awareness among the common people, socio-legal research on the exploitation of the poor, and publication of leaflets and booklets on laws in different languages.

This group must take up cases of violations of human rights and legal rights of weaker sections and file PILs for liberation and rehabilitation of oppressed groups such as bonded labourers, child workers, migrant labourers, sex workers, prisoners etc.

The need of the Church today is to have its own men and women to penetrate deeper into the complexities and intricacies of law and its impact on the administration of justice, especially to the poor and vulnerable.

It is a rare resource, which must be nurtured and used well. This ministry must be one of the priorities in our apostolic planning at the level of the provinces and dioceses, taking into account the challenges and opportunities it offers in our times. The ripples of this unique apostolate must spread and create waves in every part of the country. Our forum for priests and religious lawyers must have a good shape at national and zonal levels to encourage teamwork and collaboration so as to optimize resources.

The constitutional vision to build a secular and democratic India

Indian Constitution is the basic law of India. It was framed by 395 persons after deliberating for about 3 years. The government of India – the Legislature the Executive and the Judiciary – is bound to follow it. The constitutional vision and mission for all citizens and the government is – contained in the Preamble. “We the people of India”, having solemnly to resolved to constitute India into a sovereign, socialist, secular democratic republic and to secure to all its citizens: justice, social, economic and political, liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship. Equality of status and opportunity and to promote among them all fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and unity and integrity of the nation.”

It is written in the form of a solemn vow formula expecting all Indians and governments to observe them.

A good Constitution becomes ineffective if the people who are called to work under it happens to be a bad lot. Politicians belonging to all parties must hold fast to constitutional values and methods for achieving socio-economic and political objectives.

Who is failing to meet the expectation of the people of India today? Not the Constitution, but the people selected and appointed to run the government. They do not believe in the constitutional values and principles of democracy. There is a common perception that corruption in India has spread to all corners of public life and is currently chocking the constitutional aspirations enshrined in the Preamble.

The religious or communal virus that is destroying the country is growing today because of the misunderstanding among people of different religions and political parties – ‘vasudaiva kutumbakam.’

In this context, what is the role of the religious and priest advocates? Their role is to spread (evangelize) the spiritual values and principles of the Constitution among various sections of the people and encourage all to work together to build a secular democratic India as equal participants and to live in unity as brothers and sisters. They must become crusaders of non – violence and work tirelessly for peace, reconciliation, communal harmony, unity and sovereignty of India.

They should help children and teachers in schools to read the Preamble of our Constitution every day and encourage others to read it at the beginning of meetings, seminars, workshops and conferences and prompt them also to sing the Tagore’s poem. “Into that heaven of freedom my Father, let my country awake.”

All these efforts can counteract the tendencies of some people for saffronisation of our political culture and the formation of a Hindu nationalist state. These political tendencies can cause the biggest and most frightening set back to the development of our country based on the dreams of our freedom fighters and the constitutional Assembly that was led by Baba Saheb Ambedkar.

Jai Hind!