General
ByAbraham Thomas, New Delhi
Published on: Nov 09, 2025 05:38 am IST
General CJI Bhushan R Gavai emphasized the importance of faith in legal aid, stating its true success lies in citizens’ trust, not just statistics.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai on Saturday said that the success of the legal service movement should not be determined by statistics or reports but by the faith of common people who feel somebody is there to stand by them in time of distress.
Addressing the national conference on “Strengthening Legal Aid Delivery Mechanisms” in New Delhi, the CJI said, “The strength of a just society lies in our ability to foresee where injustice may arise, and to reach there before it does.”
Sharing his experience of visiting the Manipur riot victims’ relief camp at Churachandpur in March this year, CJI Gavai said that there he got to know what legal aid really means to those who receive it, when an elderly woman came up to him with folded hands and teary eyes to say, “Live long, brother”.
“The true reward of the legal services movement does not lie in statistics or annual reports. It lies in the quiet gratitude and renewed faith of citizens who once felt invisible,” CJI said. He further stated, “The real measure of success of the legal service movement is in the trust of the common person, in the belief that someone, somewhere, is willing to stand by them. And that is why our work must always be guided by the spirit that we are changing lives.”
Joined by other judges of the Supreme Court on the Legal Service Day, justice Gavai said that on this day he is reminded about Gandhiji’s talisman to recall the face of the poorest and the weakest person we have seen, and ask ourselves if the step we contemplate will be of any use to them.
“The legal service movement is Gandhiji’s talisman in action,” said the CJI, as he asserted, “Justice is not a privilege of the few but a right of every citizen, and that our role, as judges, lawyers, and officers of the court, is to ensure that the light of justice reaches even the last person standing at the margins of society.”
He appreciated the legal aid lawyers, para legal volunteers who are the foot soldiers of the legal aid movement spread across states and districts reminding them, “Even your presence for a single day, your visit to a village or a jail, your conversation with a person in distress, can be life-changing for someone who has never had anyone come for them before.”
Terming legal aid as a “living” and not a “reactive” movement, he said, “We must not wait for distress to knock on our doors. Instead, we must continuously reflect on how society is changing on the new challenges, the new forms of exclusion, and the emerging needs of the people we serve.”
He recalled the words of BR Ambedkar who said that the battle for freedom is a battle for reclamation of human personality to suggest that these words find expression in the work of the legal aid movement which seeks to return the voice and dignity to those who are marginalised, unheard, and unseen.
“The Constitution’s promise will be truly fulfilled only when every person, regardless of caste, gender, language, or circumstances, feels that the system of justice belongs to them… Let us remember that every act of legal aid, however small it may appear, is an act of nation building,” CJI said.
CJI is presently the Patron-in-chief of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) which organised the event.