Justice Beyond Courtrooms: A Call to Reach the Margins
In a landmark address at the NALSA East-Zone Regional Conference in Sonapur, Guwahati, Supreme Court judge and Executive Chairman Justice Surya Kant urged that India’s justice system must move beyond the confines of courtrooms. He emphasized that true justice is measured by its reach into the lives of people living on the margins, especially in the eastern and northeastern states. The conference, a collaboration between the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), the Assam State Legal Services Authority, and the Gauhati High Court, serves as a platform to translate legal guarantees into everyday protections for vulnerable communities.
The Paradox of Abundance and Vulnerability
Justice Kant spoke of a region rich in economic and cultural wealth—from Assam’s tea gardens and Odisha’s coastline to Bengal’s scholarly legacy and Jharkhand’s mineral resources. Yet he cautioned that economic growth does not automatically translate into justice for all. He framed the challenge as a paradox: growth coexists with poverty, inequality, and limited access to legal remedies in many districts of the East. He reminded attendees that progress is not housed in GDP figures alone but in the equitable distribution of dignity, justice, and opportunity across every community.
Addressing Regional Social Challenges
The Chief Justice highlighted several critical social issues that require a coordinated legal services response: child marriage, rising drug abuse, displacement of tribal communities, the plight of tea garden workers, and escalating mental health concerns. He cited data illustrating the depth of these problems—such as Bihar’s high prevalence of child marriages and Assam’s surge in narcotics-related cases—to underscore that these are interconnected chapters of a larger narrative of structural vulnerability affecting families and communities across the East.
NALSA’s Bridge-Building Initiatives
Justice Kant outlined a suite of NALSA programs designed to bridge law and lived reality. DAWN (Drug Awareness and Wellness Navigation) focuses on prevention and rehabilitation; ASHA provides a standard operating procedure aimed at curbing child marriage through education and vocational training; SAMVAD expands legal access to tribal and denotified communities; and the Legal Services to Workers in the Unorganised Sector program works toward fair wages and workplace dignity. These initiatives exemplify a proactive, on-the-ground approach to justice, rather than passively waiting for litigants at court portals.
Towards an Architecture of Care
At the core of the address was the call for NALSA to act as a “bridge between law and life.” Justice Kant emphasized that the authority must ensure law is not confined to books or courtrooms but translated into tangible, everyday justice for the most marginalized. He also announced the new NALSA Veer Parivar Sahayata Yojana 2025, which offers free legal aid to families of defense personnel serving in difficult border terrains, framing this initiative as part of a broader “architecture of care” inspired by Ubuntu—“I am, because you are”—and the Indian ethos of service to humanity as service to God.
Measuring Real Impact
The judge warned that success would not be judged by speeches or resolutions, but by outcomes: a child saved from premature marriage in Bihar, a young person in Nagaland finding a pathway away from addiction, a tribal family in Odisha securing forest rights, or a tea worker in Assam ensuring better education and nutrition for their children. He urged stronger coordination among agencies and the prudent use of technology to extend legal aid to remote areas, while reminding that technology must remain a bridge, not a substitute for human compassion and listening.
Frontiers of Justice and a Call to Compassion
Concluding, Justice Kant described the eastern states as “frontiers of India’s justice” and invoked Srimanta Sankardev’s words on human compassion. If divinity resides in compassion, he argued, legal services must be temples of such compassion. The two-day conference will focus on child rights, narcotics, tribal protections, labour welfare, and mental health, aiming to convert discourse into action for the people who need it most.
