Address At The Inauguration Of Mobile Legal Service Units Of The Gujarat State Legal Services Authority

ADDRESS

It was a happy experience to visit permanent legal service clinic at Ahmedabad functioning round the clock providing free and competent legal services to the poor and needy people of the society and also working as a alternative dispute resolution centre.

I am delighted to inaugurate the Mobile Legal Service Unit of the Gujarat State Legal Services Authority. My greetings to the teams who have evolved such programs that will help to take the legal services to the place where there are needed. It is indeed a noble cause to take the legal services to all parts of the state and also providing accessibility to justice.

Majesty of Human Rights and Judiciary

Every citizen in the country has a right to live with dignity; every citizen has a right to aspire for distinction. Availability of a large number of opportunities to resort to just and fair means in order to attain that dignity and distinction, is what democracy is all about. That is what our Constitution is all about. And that is what makes life wholesome and worth living in a true and vibrant democracy. At this point, I would like to remind all of us that at social levels it is necessary to work for Unity of Minds. The increasing intolerance for views of others and increasing contempt about ways of lives of others or their religions or the expressions of these differences through lawless violence against people cannot be justified in any context. All of us have to work hard and do everything to make our behaviours civilised to protect the rights of every individual. That is the very foundation of the democratic values, which I believe is our civilisational heritage and is the very soul of our nation. Judiciary and safeguarding human rights are the guardians of civilised life. Wherever life exists in our planet, no life can be allowed to be devalued by anybody. The system cannot be a mute witness to this inhuman act.

If justice fails to protect human rights, nation fails. The main live components in judiciary are the judges. It is said "If I have integrity, nothing else matters. If I don't have integrity, nothing else matters". It is indeed a beautiful thought not only for government machinery and officials particularly judges and magistrates.

Transparency in Government administration and management

One of the difficult problems for anyone who deals with the Government agencies, as a citizen or as a businessman, is its sheer complexity. There is now an increasing awareness in the Central and State Governments to bring in functional agencies that could lead to a one-stop shop to all the needs of the citizen. Persons in this one-stop shop themselves may have to do several coordination within the complex systems. Modern IT tools help to speed up such coordination. Eventually it can reach real-time capability as is done for railway booking. Actions by some of the State/Central Govt departments have resulted in the launch of Internet portals of Central and State governments. Portals of this nature are being attempted in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and many more. In these States, electronic network systems are being used to provide market related information, land records and food stocks. But these actions are at an initial introductory phases only. In one State, a florist even participates in the flower auction at Netherlands, using real-time communication. It is well-known that the Railways and the Airlines are already using computerized reservation system effectively; but such an operational system is yet to emerge even as a beginning in many other areas of government - public interfaces, in banking, tax or electricity bill payment etc.

With this background, for India, transforming into a transparent society, it is essential that government functions which have interfaces or interactions with public especially where the state and central functionaries have to serve or support or even correct the citizens, such functions have to be done through the tools of information technology and communication. This means, software have to be written to codify the rules, procedures and other related government functions and public access should be through IT with necessary access control to govern in a transparent manner. Since India has the core competence in information technology and communication, the possibility of success to bringing in transparency in administration and management through e-commerce and e-business leading to e-governance, is definitely possible. Actions have to be initiated in a mission mode. Appropriate legal instruments to empower government for such mode of interactions should also be done simultaneously. These developments are contingent upon establishment of electronic connectivity in both rural and urban areas.

Information based legal advisory

We have to start use of Information and communication Technology (ICT) in legal dispute resolution at the gross root level. Pending cases in various courts leads to enormous mental stress, agony, hatred and huge loss of earning & wastage of manpower. ICT tools can be used to create an electronic advisory system to assist the public / local agencies as reportedly made available in healthcare through Internet. Legal Mentoring and revitalizing village panchayat system through electronic connectivity to the Courts by using ICT will create Human Rights Awareness among the common public.

Judicial Magistrates and Training

When I was studying the report by the Review Commission of Working of Constitution, I was impressed by a recommendation: "One of the recommendations that interest me from the report made by " to cope up with the workload of cases at the lower level and also curtail arrears and delay, the States should appoint honorary judicial magistrates selected from experienced lawyers on the criminal side to try and dispose less serious and petty cases on part-time basis which would relieve the load on regular magistracy". Also the Judicial commission has recommended to providing intensive training packages for judges at various levels and brainstorming sessions on quality and quantity of judgments given and their impact on Indian socio- economic structure. Mobile legal service also needs a good training practice to its magistrates and officials.