Judiciary central in securing constitutional rights: Ansari

Vice President M. Hamid Ansari on Saturday underlined the centrality of the judiciary in securing the constitutional rights of citizens.

"People increasingly turn to the judiciary for solving social problems due to its accessibility, affordability and confidence that justice will be dispensed speedily,"he said in his address at the 16th Convocation of University of Jammu.

He also emphasised that "any discussion of the constitutional ideal of India being a secular republic having a composite culture has to be premised on the existential reality of the society which is characterised by heterogeneity" and how the Indian state, in principle and practice, has given shape to the essential ingredients of the secular principle and composite culture.

"Apart from the principles enshrined in the constitutional text, the policy pronouncements of public figures, often nuanced to suit the occasion and judicial pronouncements shed useful light on the matter," he added.