Access to Justice in Contemporary Indian Society: Challenges and Possibilities

The present article is an attempt to examine the multiple issues related to access to justice, especially for the marginalized sections of the contemporary Indian society. In view of the fact that Justice, Social, Economic and Political; mentioned in the preamble to the Indian Constitution, being one of the pertinent values, its access for the people gains utmost significance. In the introductory section the paper gives a broad outline of the challenges before the democratic institutions in India with her phenomenal diversities in contemporary times and their consequences on delivering justice to the people. In the section that follows access to justice is given a conceptual clarity in terms of its meaning, nature and safeguards. A discussion on the relations between the legislature and judiciary encompassing confrontation as well as competition follows in the next section. A very humble attempt is attempted in the next section to build a case in favour of a responsible and accountable judiciary for delivering justice to all in an effective manner. In the concluding section the possibilities and prospects of overcoming the hurdles on the path of access to justice are carefully probed before coming up with some useful suggestions.