Judicial workers build democratic society: Madras high court judge

Coimbatore: Judges, advocates and paralegal volunteers are engineers who build conscious and democratic society, said Justice

Huluvadi G Ramesh

of the Madras high court on Saturday.

Inaugurating the training programme for panel advocates at the judicial training academy in the city, he said judicial workers should get a clear understanding of the legal processes and take them to the needy. He said panel advocates and paralegal volunteers should work with legal service authorities to reach public more effectively.

He said they have to identify people who are in difficulty and in need of aid for litigations as well as those who are facing problems of survival and help them get legal aid.

Drawing a parallel between paralegal volunteers and midwives, he said, “The duty of paralegal volunteers is like midwives in villages who go from house to house, inquire about the health of people and get them assistance from primary health centres and hospitals. Likewise, we have to identify problems of the public and give them legal assistance,” he said.

For this, paralegal volunteers should acquire knowledge and understanding of legal procedures and be equipped with legal information, he added. Justice Ramesh added that paralegal volunteers must enlighten local body administrations on their roles and responsibilities. “Local bodies such as panchayats, jillas and taluk administrations have to be told of their responsibilities, power and duties and how to man their jurisdiction and utilise their funds,” he said. Local governance bodies have to be taught of appropriate laws and how to act as elected bodies to successfully implement government schemes, he said.

Legal service authorities must create awareness on legal aspects among public by holding legal aid camps and legal literacy programmes on subjects such as schemes for scheduled castes and tribes and disabled people, he said. National and state level legal service authorities have been framing methods for this, he added. The Coimbatore district legal services authority conducted the event.

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