Audit Of Judiciary Is The Need Of Hour: Justice Murlidhar
Simran Sahni
9 Jan 2017 11:40 AM IST
Institute of Law, Nirma University organized the Ninth Lecture of the Institute's Annual Public Lecture Series on "Access to Justice: Distant Reality" by Hon'ble Mr. Justice Dr. S. Muralidhar, Judge, High Court of Delhi on 7th January, 2017 at 11.00 a.m. at Auditorium, C Block, Nirma University.
Justice Murlidhar talked about Access to Justice as the minimum pre-requisite of gaining Justice and it should be fair and equal as mentioned in our Constitution. He started the lecture by showing a clip of “Samvidhan” and raising the question of access to justice, equality, poverty and other social issues which are unanswered till today even after years of independence. According to him, Justice is not limited to courts and lawyers and an ideal justice delivery system would be a mix of Preventive, Remedial and Rehabilitative system. He pointed out the lack of awareness among people about the legal system’s functionalities and free legal aid.
He also talked about the phases of Justice – Legal Representation (legal aid to people), expanded notion of Locus Standi, expanded legal system (ADR, Lok Adalats) and the Virtual and Global legal systems. He then went on about the long procedure one has to follow to get even a single document prepared in the Indian courts, the time one has to spend fighting a case, poor people not able to continue the case due to lack of money, lawyers not being diligent, under trial suffering due to lack of fast justice delivery system.
The barriers to Access of Justice as pointed out by Justice Murlidhar included discriminatory laws and social situations where a poor person is tagged as a criminal; privileging sections of society who get favored; dependence of clients on lawyers; court costs, delays and uncertainty and failure to implement formal legal systems over informal legal systems (Khap Panchayats, Paani Panchayats, Kattar Panchayats etc.). He concluded by saying that, Visibility, Accessibility, Awareness and Outreach are necessary for improving the current legal system and making it more people friendly.
Justice Murlidhar talked about Access to Justice as the minimum pre-requisite of gaining Justice and it should be fair and equal as mentioned in our Constitution. He started the lecture by showing a clip of “Samvidhan” and raising the question of access to justice, equality, poverty and other social issues which are unanswered till today even after years of independence. According to him, Justice is not limited to courts and lawyers and an ideal justice delivery system would be a mix of Preventive, Remedial and Rehabilitative system. He pointed out the lack of awareness among people about the legal system’s functionalities and free legal aid.
He also talked about the phases of Justice – Legal Representation (legal aid to people), expanded notion of Locus Standi, expanded legal system (ADR, Lok Adalats) and the Virtual and Global legal systems. He then went on about the long procedure one has to follow to get even a single document prepared in the Indian courts, the time one has to spend fighting a case, poor people not able to continue the case due to lack of money, lawyers not being diligent, under trial suffering due to lack of fast justice delivery system.
The barriers to Access of Justice as pointed out by Justice Murlidhar included discriminatory laws and social situations where a poor person is tagged as a criminal; privileging sections of society who get favored; dependence of clients on lawyers; court costs, delays and uncertainty and failure to implement formal legal systems over informal legal systems (Khap Panchayats, Paani Panchayats, Kattar Panchayats etc.). He concluded by saying that, Visibility, Accessibility, Awareness and Outreach are necessary for improving the current legal system and making it more people friendly.
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