‘Making justice accessible requires a systemic approach beyond formal equality‘

Explore how systemic reforms and diverse representation can enhance access to justice for marginalized communities, beyond mere formal equality.

For Sanchita Ain, Advocate-on-Record at the Supreme Court, the struggle for access to justice began with her own right to practise law. 

“I myself have a disability — a chronic neurological condition — and at one point I believed I was unfit for litigation because I could not work the long hours the profession demands,” she said. “What made the difference was accommodation — not sympathy, but institutional accommodation. If systems are not put in place, inclusion depends on individual goodwill.” 

Speaking at Justice Unplugged 2026, a daylong legal conclave, Ms. Ain recounted how she had to repeatedly push the Supreme Court administration to provide a sign language interpreter for Sarah Sunny, a lawyer with hearing disability she represented in September 2023. “She did not need permission for an interpreter. It was her right,” she said, pointing to persistent “court bureaucracy” that forces litigants and lawyers with disabilities to “run from pillar to post”. 

Moderating the discussion, Kunal Shankar, Deputy Business Editor, The Hindu, framed the broader structural question: whether greater representation on the Bench — across gender, caste, disability and other identities — could meaningfully expand access to justice. He noted that empirical studies have repeatedly pointed to the under-representation of marginalised communities in higher judicial appointments, and asked whether reform of the appointments process was integral to improving access. 

Karuna Nundy, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court, responded by turning the focus to diversity within the judiciary. “What is the essential problem with having mostly upper-caste, able-bodied men as judges across the board?” she asked. “Representation is a good in and of itself. It must not be that if you are a woman, or Dalit, or queer person, you must be 10 times more brilliant than the next person to deserve a place.”