Litigation is like bleeding wound, says CJI-designate Justice Lalit

New Delhi: Litigation is like a bleeding wound and the more it is allowed to bleed, the more will the man suffer, Chief Justice of India-designate Justice Uday Umesh Lalit said on Sunday.

Justice Lalit, also the Executive Chairman of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), was formally launching the recently-introduced Legal Aid Defence Counsel (LADC) system in 365 District Legal Services Authorities at a hybrid event organised at Vigyan Bhawan here.

LADC, constituted under NALSA, intends to provide free legal assistance to the poor who are forced to hire private counsel to fight their criminal cases, and in the process, end up losing their assets.

Justice Lalit, who will take charge as the CJI on August 27, highlighted that over 70 per cent of the population is below the poverty line and only 12 per cent opt for the free legal aid provided by legal services authorities.

"What does the population between 12 per cent to 70 per cent do?" he said, adding, "That means the difference between 12 per cent and 70 per cent is not with us. They have solicited the engagement of private counsel... They must have sold their assets, they must have sold their jewellery, they must have mortgaged their properties, that is what the litigation brings in. Litigation is like a bleeding wound.

The more you let it bleed, the more will the man suffer," he said.

Legal aid needs to give confidence to such people that the system can lead them through this door to the "temple of justice" and that "it will be taken care of in the most professional manner", he added.

Elaborating on the LADC system, he said criminal cases are pursued on behalf of the state by public prosecutors, and on the similar line, such cases would be fought for poor litigants through this mechanism whose funding will also come from the government through the NALSA route.

He dubbed the situation where the poor are forced to hire private lawyers "malady of litigation" and said, in criminal cases, it so happens that the person accused is dragged into litigation.

The success of the LADC system would lie in extending a hand of confidence towards the people whose resources are eaten up in litigation and they get "sucked into this trap", he added.