Legal Aid in India
LEGAL AID: CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY PROVISIONS
To the poor the Courts are a maze, if he pleads there all his life, law is so lordly, and loath to end his case; without money paid in presents, law listeneth to few”
- Piers Plowman
The Constitution of India mandates the state to accord justice to all members of the society in all facets of human activity. Our national goal is to achieve justice - social, economic and political through the process of Rule of Law. Equal access to law for the rich and the poor alike is essential for the maintenance of Rule of Law. Thus, it is necessary to provide effective legal aid to poor and underprivileged so as to enable them to access justice and to use effectively the judicial system for enforcement of rights given to them by law.
CONCEPT OF PROTECTIVE DISCRIMINATION AND LEGAL AID
The principle of equality of law does not mean that the same law should apply to everyone but that the law should deal alike with all in one class; that there should be an equality of treatment under equal circumstances. The legislature is entitled to make reasonable classification for purposes of legislations and treat all in one class on an equal footing. Article 14 of the Constitution ensures equality among equals. Its aim is to protect persons similarly placed against discriminatory treatment.
Widening the scope of fairness inherent in the guarantee of equality under Article 14, the Supreme Court has held that the Court would not only strike down a law on the grounds of absence of reasonableness of the classification made by it, but would conversely, uphold a law which makes protective discrimination. It means that Article 14 enjoins the State to take into account the de facto inequalities which exist in the society and to “take affirmative action by way of giving preference to the socially and economically disadvantaged persons or inflicting handicaps on those more advantageously placed, in order to bring out real equality.” Such
To the poor the Courts are a maze, if he pleads there all his life, law is so lordly, and loath to end his case; without money paid in presents, law listeneth to few”
- Piers Plowman
The Constitution of India mandates the state to accord justice to all members of the society in all facets of human activity. Our national goal is to achieve justice - social, economic and political through the process of Rule of Law. Equal access to law for the rich and the poor alike is essential for the maintenance of Rule of Law. Thus, it is necessary to provide effective legal aid to poor and underprivileged so as to enable them to access justice and to use effectively the judicial system for enforcement of rights given to them by law.
CONCEPT OF PROTECTIVE DISCRIMINATION AND LEGAL AID
The principle of equality of law does not mean that the same law should apply to everyone but that the law should deal alike with all in one class; that there should be an equality of treatment under equal circumstances. The legislature is entitled to make reasonable classification for purposes of legislations and treat all in one class on an equal footing. Article 14 of the Constitution ensures equality among equals. Its aim is to protect persons similarly placed against discriminatory treatment.
Widening the scope of fairness inherent in the guarantee of equality under Article 14, the Supreme Court has held that the Court would not only strike down a law on the grounds of absence of reasonableness of the classification made by it, but would conversely, uphold a law which makes protective discrimination. It means that Article 14 enjoins the State to take into account the de facto inequalities which exist in the society and to “take affirmative action by way of giving preference to the socially and economically disadvantaged persons or inflicting handicaps on those more advantageously placed, in order to bring out real equality.” Such