THE 13th all India conference of All India Lawyers Union(AILU) will be held on December 27-29,  2019 at Kochi in Kerala. A reception committee of 350 members was formed with P Rajeev former MP as its chairman.

The AILU all India conference will deliberate on the issues pertaining to the country especially the recently passed constitutional amendment act, which hits at the basic spirit of the Indian constitution. Being lawyers this is one of the foremost agendas that shall be discussed in the conference.

The abrogation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir and dismembering of the state in two union territories will be another important issue to dwell upon.

The AILU shall also discuss the passing of the CAA which will further lead to the NRC in the country. All of this is being done in the guise of being nationalist, whereas the reality is that the spirit of nationalism is drawn from the constitution of the country. And, the present ruling dispensation has led an attack on the constitution by amending some of the fundamental provisions of it.

The CAA seeks to alter the basis of citizenship provided in Article 5 and 6 of the Constitution and the Citizenship Act of 1955. The religion cannot be the criterion for grant of or for denial of citizenship in a democratic secular republic. India is not a theocratic nation. The Act strikes at the basic structure of the Constitution. Lawyers have a duty and obligation to rise to the occasion and organise democratic protests peaceably.

Even in a communally surcharged contemporary political situation in 1947 and despite creation of Pakistan as a theocratic country, the people of India resolved to make India into a sovereign socialist and secular country. Constitution is our resolution of change and trajectory. Part III of the Constitution provides means and manner to achieve our goals which are set out in Part IV of the Constitution.

The Supreme Court in its decision in S R Bommai case opined that the religion is the personal affair of an individual which requires the state not to interfere. However, this basic spirit is being altered by the BJP government. The AILU works for the defence of ethos and true conscience of the Indian Constitution

The AILU conference shall also opine on the present adversarial system of justice delivery, which is plagued by docket explosion and therefore needs to be restructured if the social economic and political justice is to be provided to the people. This vast country of 1.37 billion people requires a robust judicial system. However, due to docket explosion, the system is completely choked. Former chief justice, T S Thakur estimated that there is a shortage of 70,000 judges in the country.

 Despite  Law Commission’s recommendations in 1987 for raising the strength of judges to 107 judges per 10 lakh people by 2002 in India the strength remains to just 17.7 per cent. This deficiency of judges coupled with infrastructural deficit makes it difficult proposition to cope with the mounting arrears of cases estimated to be 3 crores out of which subordinate judiciary accounts for 2,50,79,618 cases approximately. Pendency in 25 high courts is estimated 36,54,843 cases and Supreme Court adds to it another 41,581 cases waiting for consideration. Pendency of cases in tribunals is not counted.

The archaic feudal setup in the courts and the manner of conducting courts’ proceedings in high courts in a language alien to the people leaves the litigant frightened and sceptical. India is a vast country with 22 official languages. English is not spoken by all Indians.

Study published by a Journal points out that only 0.2 per cent cases reach to the Supreme Court from the state of Tamil Nadu whereas 14 per cent of the cases come to the apex court from High Court of Delhi. It is a pointer to the fact that people from faraway places are unable to approach the top court. Same is the case with the people of the states with large population and vast territory where the people have to travel more than 600 km in the quest for justice.  If we want to take justice to the doorstep of the people then it is axiomatic that the benches of the Supreme Court should be set up in the East, South and West. The decentralisation and the democratisation of the justice delivery system should be the demand of the movement of the lawyers as the demand of the people. It is for the lawyers to take this cause of the people.

The AILU is of the firm opinion that for survival of democracy and its expansion the independence of judiciary is to be protected and independence of judiciary can be ensured by making it accountable to the philosophy of the Constitution. The lawyers therefore must be in forefront in the movement for insulating the judiciary to ward it off of any danger of interfering in the independence of judiciary from inside and from outside and thereby to make the democracy and the democratic institution the cornerstones of the Indian polity.

The AILU has been campaigning for establishment of National Judicial Commission since 1992 for the purpose of recommending names for appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the high courts; for making recommendation for transfer of High Court judges and for looking into the complaints of the misdemeanour of the erring judge should be taken up by the lawyers movement. The N JAC Act and the Constitution (99th amendment) Act set aside by the Supreme Court should not deter us from taking this demand further.

Massive response of the lawyers to the call of BCI on the charter of demands pertaining to stipend, insurance and pension demonstrate the urgent need of addressing this issue by the lawyers’ movement. The core question in this regard is in what ways these demands are to be raised against whom. The government’s direct involvement in disbursing the funds in all probabilities would bring all kind of manoeuvring in the hands of the political executive to impinge upon the independence and autonomy of the Bar. The Bar Councils should come forward to devise the welfare schemes for the lawyers. The lawyers’ movement cannot afford to postpone this issue for long.

The AILU has established its state units in 26 states and union territories. It has grown in strength since last conference. In 2016 the conference was held on the basis of 29 thousand members.