The Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju while speaking at the 18th All India Legal Services Authorities Meet said that high fees are levied by many Supreme Court lawyers for a single hearing and said Justice should be accessible to all.
“Resourceful people can afford big lawyers. There are lawyers in the Supreme Court whose fees a common man cannot afford. If they charge 10-15 lakhs per hearing, how can a common man pay up? The court should not be privileged. I believe that the doors of Justice should be open to all” said the aggrieved Law Minister while addressing the event.
He stressed that the government and the Judiciary should work hand in hand to reduce about 5 crore cases pending in the courts across the country.
He also raised that the use of local and regional language in local and High Court respectively, while mother tongue should not be seen inferior to English and just because a Lawyer is good at conversing in English should get high fees is absurd.
Mr. Rijju said that Supreme Court proceedings happen in English, he imagines High Courts and local courts giving the regional and local language a priority.
He further said, around 71 redundant laws will be repealed during the next parliament session which is starting on Monday.
“Till now we have removed 1486 outdated laws and provisions. We have also identified 1824 such laws. In the upcoming parliament session, I am committed to removing 71 such acts” said the law minister.
Mr. Rijju urged the legal services Authority to take up undertrial cases and release the prisoners by August 15, 2022, on the eve of Independence Day.
He also said that there are approximately 3.5 prisoners in undertrial for every district and urged the Chief Justices of the High Court to impress upon the District Court Judges to speed up the trial process.
He further added that the Government of India has decided to give remission to prisoners and guidelines are to be framed. The undertrial review committee which is under the District judges should help effectively and to the maximum.
The author is an avid blogger and likes to write on subject matters related to Law, Politics and matters of Constitutional importance.
