Govt. encourages legal aid to ensure the poor have easy access to justice: Union Law Minister

The Union government is moving ahead with a citizen-centric approach and the emphasis is on legal assistance. Various campaigns have been launched to bridge any gap in the rural areas, says Kiren Rijiju

Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday asserted that the Union Government and the Supreme Court were working together to create legal awareness, provide legal aid and ensure that people in rural areas had access to justice.

“Para-legal volunteers and teams working in remote areas have done tremendous work to ensure that people had access to legal aid. But our target is much more and lakhs of people are waiting for legal assistance,” Mr. Rijiju said.

He was speaking after inaugurating the Mega Legal Services camp and legal aid clinic organised by the National Legal Services Authority and Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority at Government Law College in Villupuram.

The government was moving ahead with a citizen-centric approach and the emphasis was on legal assistance. Various campaigns have been launched to bridge any gap in the rural areas, he said.

Mr. Rijiju said that the rich and powerful and resourceful people may not require legal aid and services because they can manage. They have the resources to arrange for legal aid for themselves but poor people are not in a position to afford good lawyers or any other resources and hence require help. It is very important for the government to intervene when the citizens need their help, he said.

“Though we talk about justice, we never talk about the quality of justice. Justice is relevant only when it is quality justice. Merely closing the case is not justice. Sometimes we talk about the miscarriage of justice. Sometimes there may be manipulation and there might not be proper delivery of justice and the cases are settled. We must be very clear that the deserving get justice,” he added.

.Acting Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Justice T. Raja and Justice R. Mahadevan, Judge of the Madras High Court and Chairman, High Court Legal Services Committee were also present.