10.5.2021
NLC’s agendas are certain to become a reality because:
a) unlike before, a large section of the legal fraternity, informed public, and in particular the press, is aware that the Collegium system of appointment and designation of lawyers as senior advocates have completely destroyed any semblance of inclusiveness in the higher judiciary as well as the in designated bar. People now readily accept that there is a real apartheid in the justice delivery system,
b) the concept of virtual court, which includes making available the records of the court proceedings to the litigants cannot be denied forever. The mounting public opinion willl compel the court to do it sooner than later.
c) the judiciary has, like a moth attracted to a flame, leaped into the forbidden and slippery ground of goverance, which it certainly cannot do any better than the elected government.
d) criminal trials are pending in cities like Mumbai for the last more than 20 years. Criminal appeals in the HCs and SC, for even longer. What is being heard in the courts today are a few cases where high flying lawyers appear and where there is media hype. In the bombay HC a bail application of an under trial when mentioned, is given a date after one month. So pathetic is the situation. The courts will be forced to introspect, set its house in order and realize that it’s primary duty is to adjudicate disputes, what we lawyers call lis.
The voice of the people is the voice of God- ‘vox populi, vox dei’. NLC is a platform to raise the voice of the people, the poor litigant who is denied justice, ill-treated and discriminated, who is given a step motherly treatment, even worse, who face apartheid in the temples of Justice.
