New Delhi: The chief justice of the Orissa high court, Justice S. Muralidhar, said on Thursday that India’s laws are designed in a way that discriminates against the poor. The justice system, he argued, works unequally for the rich and the poor.
“There are many barriers to accessing justice that a marginalised person faces. The laws and processes are mystifying even for an educated literate person. The laws are themselves structured to discriminate against the poor,” Chief Justice Muralidhar said. “The system works differently for the poor. The beggars’ courts, the Juvenile Justice Boards and the Mahila Magistrate courts are the first point of encounter for the poor with the legal system.”
The judge was speaking at a lecture organised by Community for the Eradication of Discrimination in Education and Employment on “Appearing in Court: Challenges in Representing the Marginalised”.
Statistics, Justice Muralidhar argued, proves how unfair justice in India can be. Twenty-one percent of the undertrial population of 3.72 lakh in India and 21% of the convict population of 1.13 lakh belong to the Scheduled Castes. Also, 37.1% of convicts and 34.3% of the undertrials belong to OBCs, he stated. For Muslims, those numbers are 17.4% and 19.5%, respectively.
Those who have no option but to opt for legal aid services, the chief justice continued, do not get the representation they deserve. “The lack of confidence in the legal aid lawyer is a reflection of the general approach to welfare services by the providers and the perception that this is an act of dignity rather than the right of the person who receives such service. I call it the ration shop syndrome. The poor believe that if you get any service for free or it is substantially subsidised, then you cannot demand quality,” he said.
To address historic injustices, he argued, the state should come up with affirmative action policies. As things stand however, laws continue to discriminate against the poor and marginalised, only making their situation worse.
“These include those belonging to the SC, ST, Dalits, Adivasis, socially and educationally disadvantaged classes, economically deprived classes and a whole host of others, including religious and sexual minorities, differently abled and children in conflict with the law,” he said. “Then there are status offenders – sex workers, mentally ill and many others whose very existence and every activity is criminalised and, therefore, very often find themselves on the wrong side of the law. Thus, begging, street dwelling, and prostitution are all treated as law and order problems.”
“It is a matter of concern that in at least 20 states in India, there are still anti-beggary laws. Only in Delhi and J&K have these laws been struck down by judicial verdicts. Then there are de-notified tribes who have for long been the victim of police atrocities. Those coming in conflict with the law in these situations are invariably those below the poverty line and high-risk groups for whom legal aid is an absolute necessity.”