Legal
Literacy and Rule of Law
The litigation in England and America is costly and beyond the reach
of poor or middle class citizens and it is no different in India of
today.
Lord Denning while deciding a case before him in England stated : "This
shows that when the sole asset is the proceeds of a house, it is must
better for the disputing parties to settle at the outset, because, if
they go to law, much of those proceedings will be caught up in cost,
even though both parties are legally aided with a nil contribution.
This is a small comfort to a person who, in order to establish that
her home belongs to her, has that home saddled with debt which may
well exceed the value of equity." In India such instances are
plenty. "Delay defeats justice". Cost of litigation is back
breaking. Law is a means to an end-social justice, otherwise it is
meaningless. Cost of litigation must be reduced. Central and State
Governments must not profiter from the administration of justice by
charging citizens exemplary and excessive stamp duty. It i.e. stamp
duty ought to go other wise law will remain a dead letter and Courts will
become the monopoly of the rich where the poor can never reach.
The State Governments, Central Government, Law Schools, and Colleges
- Mass Media, Television, Radio and News papers, Universities must
educate the citizenry in India about the laws passed by the
Parliament and various State Legislatures in their own mother tongue.
Governments, Central as well as State must publish these Statutes,
Rules, Regulations and bye-laws in English and Hindi, the National
language and different regional languages so that people know what
their legal rights under these various statutes are and they also
know their responsibilities and liabilities and duties so that
inadvertently they do not commit breach of any of these laws which
may lead to serious consequences for them.
The voluntary organisations, social institutions, public spirited citizens
and dedicated lawyers and legal aid institutions started by them may
publish and bring out legal pamphlets in simple language to make
citizens knowledgable about the various Statutes and also organise
seminars and courses and in fact, according to my information,
Consumers Guidance Society of India, Mumbai Grahak Panchyat,
Saraswati Publications and Committee for the Advancement of Legal
literacy and legal aid bodies, Bar Councils of State, Legal Aid
Societies, to mention only a few have in fact been publishing these
small legal leaflets in English, Marathi, Gujarati and Sindhi
languages giving gist of different laws, published by Governments
Central and State written by eminent lawyers and law teachers,
organise seminars under the "Law and Layman Series" from
Senior and distinguished lawyers, Law teachers, Social Scientists and
Educationists so as to enlighten people and citizens and prepare them
to assert their rights and fight against illegal invasion of their
rights and resot to legal remedies against executive excesses and
administrative illegalities and at the same time perform their
fundamental duties.
In this connection, I came aross a vey useful book published in England
called
"Every Man's Own Lawyer" written by a Barrister which has run into
75 Editions and which gives in sample language the summary of various
laws, the nature of laws, legal remedies and knowledge about the
various Courts and the procedure published by" Every Man's Own
Lawyer Publishing Co. Ltd., London. Likewise, there is another
leading book by Henry Abraham called " The Judicial Process"
which gives an introductory analysis of courts of U.S.A., England and
France, their procedure and information about various courts and in
India also there is a book called "Legal Remedies" by Mr.
M. V. Shukla revised by Mr. Vijay Malik dealing with "Legal
Remedies" which deals with various enactments in India and I may
refer to yet another book called the "Indian Legal System"
published by Indian Law Institute, Delhi. I therefore, suggest that
the above stated measures are absolutely necessary to spread legal
literacy and education amongst the illiterate masses of India so that
they know the socio-economic and tenancy legislations and their
rights under it and specifically made for their benefit by
democratically elected Governments at the Centre and States, a view
Rule of Law heralds social changes and gives the tiller of soil his
land.
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