President Pratibha Patil on Saturday underlined the need for exploring ways to make the litigation in the country affordable for the benefit of poor and downtrodden in society.
Inaugurating the Access to justice and socio-economic development of North Eastern States" programme in Guwahati, Patil said, "Litigation in the country is not inexpensive. It is expensive. We need to find ways to make litigation inexpensive for the poor and down trodden in terms of court fees and lawyers' fees."
She said, "Access to justice is not possible for the poor and downtrodden without the legal aid system which needs to be made robust, affordable and competent."
Stating that the rule of law is the foundation of the state, Patil stressed on justice for all to facilitate legal empowerment of the society to achieve the basic constitutional goals of social and economic development."
She raised concern over mounting arrears in the courts at all levels and commented that justice delayed was amounted to justice denied.
"Early dispensation of justice is the cardinal principle of law to live up to the expectation of people seeking justice," the President added and called for a holistic and well-coordinated effort to ensure access to justice for all.
She lauded efforts of some of the high courts in the country, launching their websites to make functioning of the court more transparent and said the same initiatives should be undertaken at lower level courts to make the judicial process transparent so as to consolidate people's confidence in it.
Patil lauded the Supreme Court of India for constituting North Eastern Regional Committee with Dr Justice Mukundakam Sharma as its president to take care of 'Access to Justice and Socio-Economic Development of N-E States' programme.
She said, "Contribution of N-E region to the country has been tremendous and development of the region is of topmost priority for the Nation. The N-E Vision 2020 document reflects the collective aspiration of the people of the region."
The President said better connectivity within the region and with the rest of the country held key to rapid economic development of the North East.