P. A. Chacko S. J.
India’s National Legal Services Day was started in 1995 by the Supreme Court of India. The aim is to provide free legal help and support to the weaker sections of society.
Equal justice to all means that the weaker and economically less powerful persons or communities should not be left out. Those who cannot afford to approach the courts need to be supported by state-sponsored free legal aid as per the given provisions.
The question is how many qualified lawyers will pitch in to act as lawyers in free legal aid cases.
Today we see high profile advocates amassing wealth by taking legal brief for economically and politically powerful gentry. The poor cannot approach them.
India’s celebrated jurist, justice V. R. Krishna Iyer stated : “Our legal system, including the police, is anti-Dalit and anti-poor… The law barks at all but bites only the poor, the powerless, the illiterate, the ignorant.”
Law courts also need magistrates and judges who will dispense justice through fair and unbiased judgements. They should not resort to divine hallucinations to deliver coloured judgements. Rather, they should base their sense and sensibilities on the Constitution which is the Bible of the nation.
We need to ensure legal equality for all , safeguard individual rights and uphold justice and fairplay. Honour those who make a difference through honest legal profession, especially those who use law as a tool for empowering the weaker seactions.
“Law is not a trade, not briefs, not merchandise, and so the heaven of commercial competition should not vulgarize the legal profession.” (Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer)