Law is as important a profession as it is a system in India. Lawyers are the heart and soul of providing perennial justice to each Indian. A Lawyer is concurred no less than a Messiah. Still, we hear people curse our litigators simply, for not taking up their case. I mean, ultimately, it’s the lawyers who decide to take up a case or not. My question that may seem inconspicuous, is why does one have to buy justice. What is the trend that has followed since the drafting of the constitution, one of hiked fees that has denied access to a so many people to even try themselves in court. I think it is every Indian’s right to move the court and money should not be a factor in deciding this.
What Is My Point Here?
Of course I’m not trying to imply that it is the lawyers who are at fault. Everybody needs wages and salaries to survive and everybody deserves to be rewarded for working hard. However, it is the middle class and the underprivileged, poverty stricken populace that is suffering due to these inflated prices over the years. I mean this is another pareto situation where one gains only if the other loses. However, this is an issue of national importance and justice should be treated as a necessity rather than a luxury.
Has The Problem Already Been Addressed?
In 2017, the Supreme Court Of India introduced the Middle Income Group Scheme. According to this, a person with income of less than Rs. 60,000 a month or Rs. 7.5 lakhs an year will be provided legal services in the Supreme Court of India by the Middle Income Group Legal Aid Society which is headed by the Chief Justice of India and also consists of the Attorney General of India, Solicitor General of India and many senior advocates in the Supreme Court. The litigant would have to pay a sum total of Rs. 500 to the society and will in turn be provided with an advocate for the entire case. However, the final right to assign the advocate rests with the society which will only assign if it thinks the case is viable. The advocate assigned will receive a lump sum honorarium of Rs. 10,000 for preparing the case and Rs. 3,000 to 9,000 per hearing.
The Middle Income Group Scheme is absolutely a resolution to the hiked fee problem for the poor. However, the residual problem lies in the fact that this scheme has been introduced only in the Supreme Court. The other courts in India have still to address this concern. Reports say that the Chattisgarh High Court have taken an initiative to form a Middle Income Scheme.
What Should The Government Do?
Should the government regulate a lawyers fees? Or should the government treat justice as just another commodity and let it depend on the forces of demand and supply? I don’t think either of them will help. The government at one stage planned to indirectly regulate a doctor’s fees, since health care in India was turning out to be expensive. Health care is a necessity too. It only resulted in the doctors leaving for abroad in order to earn a higher pay, which in turn contributed to the deficiency of doctors in India. Surely the government cannot do that with lawyers.
The government has the money and power to setup institutions. It can train advocates specially to be a part of schemes such as one introduced by the Supreme Court. A very efficient way to do this would be to induct law as well in the Union Public Service Commission to generate such lawyers to be part of such Middle income Group Schemes.
Whatever be the scenario, the government will have to act straight away in order to deliver to the promise of justice that was not just made today but in 1947 and ensure the country a life free of injustice.
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