THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
Siddharth Desai
President Draupadi Murmu has urged the executive, judiciary and legislature to evolve an effective dispute-resolution mechanism to mitigate people's plight. In a valedictory address at the Constitution Day Celebration organized by the Supreme Court a few days back the President said that “it would go a long way in making citizens effective stakeholders in the dispensation of Justice”, she also recalled her days as a political activist in Odisha to highlight that the excessive cost of litigation was a major impediment in the delivery of Justice. While there is a huge backlog of pending cases in the courts from the district to the apex Court, various studies have also revealed that the legal system is too expensive for most litigants.
The President went out of her written speech and narrated her own experiences when she as an MLA was a part of the standing committee in the State legislatures as she visited jails, later on as minister and Governor also she had the opportunity to visit jails. It was a very emotional appeal in the presence of CJI, the law minister and all the judges of the Supreme Court, she was trying to convey that something needs to be done to reform the entire system to make it much more accessible to the common man. She spoke about prisoners languishing in the jails in pathetic conditions, she also spoke about exorbitant fees in terms of the cost of litigations as she said “something has to be done” and she said “I leave it to you, because you are all learned people and much more experienced in this field than me so I leave it to you” she raised the issue, raised certain questions and then left it to the judges and the government to do something immediately.
I think there is a question of abject failure on the part of the Judiciary in foreseeing the problem which is going to hit. India is going to witness a litigation explosion because of the rise in literacy and education, and because of the rise in income levels, people are going to assert their rights so the number of cases filed is going to rise phenomenally and the Judiciary is completely unprepared. What we have witnessed is from two to three crores now the pendency of cases has risen to almost five crores. What we see is that there is a complete lack of manpower, be it at the district judiciary level, be it at the high court level and Supreme Court. So there has to be a mechanism through which we fill up the vacancies in time and have to take into account when certain posts are going to fall vacant. Six months in advance we have to plan it and forget about the increasing number of Judges, the existing vacancies have not been filled and we cannot blame the executives, we cannot blame the legislature. India is going to be hit by a litigation explosion for which nobody is working that hard. Several studies have projected that the number of cases being filed is going to rise phenomenally.
As far as the poor are concerned cost becomes relevant, the poor person who cannot afford a lawyer is provided with a free lawyer at the district level by the District Legal Services Authority, state level by the State Legal Services Authority and then the Supreme Court level by Supreme Court Legal Services Committee who render legal assistance thereby we have the hierarchy of Legal Services Authority which is being constituted under ‘NALSA’. All these authorities have a panel of counsels all these counsels are competent bearing some exceptions.
The question of how to deal with the cost part is answered to some extent as the litigants do not have to pay a single penny because they are being provided with a free lawyer from Legal Services Authority. The pure hardcore question today here is how to make people aware of it, the moment awareness goes across the country and in every nook and corner that there is Legal Services Authority everywhere then a lot of issues about the cost will be reduced.
What President said about the need for affordable Justice is apt in today’s situation. India stands today in a position where India’s efforts for its poorest segment are in sync with the preamble, article 39A & article 21 of the Indian constitution. The vision of ‘NALSA’ has also played a pivotal role in reducing the cost to the poorest segment in India. The Legal Services Authority is performing tremendously well and we have a mechanism in place. If we talk about the poorest of the poor, we have to make them aware and ask them to come and seek the help of the legal services authority. We have to make them aware that they can get the lawyer free of cost.
There are various aspects to ensuring affordable justice for the people in the country. Cost is just one part of it, of course making people aware of their legal rights, about what kind of facility they can avail at a particular court or legal services is also equally important. But then there are deeper issues vis-à-vis judicial reforms which have been debated and discussed threadbare for quite some time now and hopefully will be resolved shortly.
(The author is an advocate by profession)
