NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Saturday said there was a need of having a system in place wherein litigants in the remotest village get access to justice and expressed hope that the central government would help in achieving the target at the earliest by clearing the names for appointment at various high courts. Launching an awareness and outreach campaign, CJI Ramana pressed for early clearance of the names recommended by the collegium for appointment as judges.
“We have recommended more than 106 judges to different high courts and 9 chief justices to various high courts. The government has cleared some of them and the law minister has assured that the rest of the things will come in one or two days. I thank the government for clearing these vacancies and giving quick access to justice to the people. These appointments will take care of the pendency to some extent.
I seek cooperation and support from the government to enable access to justice and to strengthen the democracy,” the CJI said. Justice U U Lalit, Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority, said, “Of all the pending cases, just about 1 percent are with the legal services committees all over the country… Therefore, this pan-India legal awareness programme has been initiated.” He urged all senior advocates to voluntarily take up pro bono work as a way of giving back to society and mooted to have in place internship for law college graduates and asked them to work as legal volunteers.
Stressing to have in place a database of lawyers, Justice D Y Chandrachud said lawyers who are willing to offer pro bono or free legal aid services in specific areas of law should be made part of a database similar to one which was compiled around 2018 to assist victims of sexual harassment during the MeToo movement.
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