In recognition for his outstanding contribution to International Legal Co-operation, Indian Law Minister M Veerappa Moily has received the Next Step Foundation 2010 award.
Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, Nigel Evans presented the prestigious award to 70-year-old Moily at a function organised by Rt Hon Keith Vaz, MP, Chairman, Home Affairs Committee on Thursday.
Among those present on the occasion were Dominic Grieve QC MP, Attorney General, Edward Garnier QC MP, Solicitor General, Lord Navnit
Dholakia, Deputy Leader of the Lib Dem party in the House of Lords, Virendra Sharma, NRI Labour MP,Indian's High Commissioner to UK Nalin Surie, Shailesh Vara,Conservative MP and Government whip and Valerie Vaz, MP.
Vaz said that the Indian Law Minister has been chosen for the award for undertaking the herculean task of improving the system of delivery of justice by incorporating the best international legal practice including that of the UK.
Moily's latest book titled 'Ramayana Mahanveshanam' an ambitious epic running into 1,700 pages and 43,000 lines was also released on the occasion.
Moily said, "Ramayan narrative is very relevant today as it depicts an ideal society - Ramarajya - non-violent and secular, governed by
egalitarianism, a society in which every person, irrespective of his or hersex, class, caste, and religion has equal rights and responsibilities, a new society, which was envisaged by the fathers of Indian Constitution".
He also pointed out that the focus of his Ramayana was that for 14 years, when Lord Rama was in exile, it was neither Rama nor Bharat who ruled Ayodhya but the people of the kingdom themselves who ruled.
Moily said his book also emphasised on 'dharma' which includes law, custom, duty, rights, justice, character and right action.
"Violation of any one of these results in adhrama or loss of dharma.
Hence, it is high time we realised that equating religion with dharma is the result of ignorance", the law minister said.
Referring to UK-India bilateral relations, Moily said he was quite excited about how the bilateral relation was evolving.
"The very fact that Britain's new Coalition Prime Minister David Cameron is visiting India, his first visit as premier, shows the importance
he attached to the bilateral relations.
"We are eagerly awaiting his arrival. It will create better understanding of each other and help build economic cooperation between the
two countries", Moily said.
He also referred to reforms being introduced in India in various fields including in the Ministry of Law and Justice to reduce pendency of cases and ensure that cases are disposed off within three to four years.
"The visit of Prime Minister Cameron will definitely pave way for better understanding as we need to share a lot of things to build our country.
Deputy speaker Nigel said, Cameron would be accompanied by three to four cabinet ministers.