S Mukherjee

Activist, Change Agent, Concerned citizen, Educator/Teacher, Entrepreneur, Hindu

I am a Commerce graduate from the University of Calcutta and a qualified Cost Accountant. Presently I am engaged in the teaching students for examinations of Class XII in the Commerce Subjects along with entrance examinations for Professional qualifications of CA, CS & CMA. Besides teaching students, I am involved in organizing the festivals of Durga Puja, Kali Puja & Saraswati Puja for our regional association known as "Sanghasree."

India being a vast country has only one Supreme Court situated at New Delhi & High Courts mostly situated at the State Capitals. However, litigation in these Courts are from every corner of the state or country. This creates an unnecessary burden on the access to justice due to heavy litigation expenses to be borne by the parties adding to the high representation cost of lawyers in the courts of appeal. Further, the complex rules of procedure and formats make it even more difficult for an educated common man to represent himself. Since justice delivery is an essential component of ensuring governance in society, the present legal architecture in skewed against the commoners. Today, India suffers in both, cost of access to justice and ease of access to justice. In order to weed out the above mentioned deficiencies, a multi-pronged approach needs to be undertaken for an effective solution. The distant High Courts and Supreme Court of India must embrace digitalization. This would cover filing of affidavits/documents through a common portal and ensure correctness through in-built checks, in turn reducing the cost of serving to multiple parties and being ecologically friendly with loads of printed documents being eliminated. In addition to this, e-hearings through video conferencing would enable faster disposal of the cases and facilitating lesser adjournments. A positive impact would also be created for the opposite party who can have ready reference of the arguments made by his opposition. The litigants also, do not have to travel to New Delhi or state capitals for being present in the hearings but will be present in the hearings through live streaming which would of course be provided only to the involved parties by ensuring authentication or an option to visit the district headquarters where it can be beamed live. Even meetings of client with its attorney digitally, reduce costs. Moreover, if the Supreme Court, High Courts and even the District Courts can agree to abolish the British-era procedures and complex set of formats and enable the court proceedings in a simple and comprehensible manner for the common man, then perhaps justice would be affordable and accessible in India. For those wanting guidance of legal professionals, fees commensurate to the income category especially for the middle income group (BPL already has a mechanism in every state) is crucial for the success of justice delivery in India.

Commerce, Cost Accounting, Education, Organisation, Professional Qualifications, Teaching