Staff Reporter
‘Corruption, witnesses turning hostile in court other areas of concern’
‘Educate people about the evils of drugs’
‘There is indignation in society about corruption’
BANGALORE: Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court Cyriac Joseph on Saturday expressed serious concern over drug abuse among the youth, corruption and increasing incidents of witnesses turning hostile in courts.
He was speaking after inaugurating the 7th annual conference of chairmen of District Legal Services Authorities and Taluk Legal Services Committees and member-secretaries of District Legal Services Authorities on the premises of the Karnataka High Court.
The Chief Justice said legal services authorities could not close its eyes to the problems of drug abuse among students, increasing corruption and incidents of witnesses turning hostile. The authorities could take up programmes to educate people about the evils of drugs. Similarly, it should make people aware that giving bribes was as bad as taking them.
‘Alarming’
A recent survey had indicated that at least 25 per cent of Bangalore University students used drugs. Terming this an alarming social phenomenon, he said the legal services authorities should take the lead in making students aware of the dangers of drug abuse.
He said there was a great deal of indignation in society about corruption, and this was reflected in the increasing number of cases of corruption being filed in courts.
He said there were complaints by some people criticising the role of judges and judicial officers in raising funds for activities related to legal services. Judges could avoid being directly involved in fund-raising activities. Though the provisions of the Legal Services Act gave judges the power to raise funds, they could desist from doing so directly.
Referring to some reports, he said there was criticism that too much money was being spent on programmes conducted by the Legal Services Authority. Though this allegation was false, he hoped the authority would take note of it and further clamp down on unnecessary expenditure.
Chidananda Ullal, judge of the High Court, urged the authority to take up the issue of legal aid for prisoners.
S.R. Bannurmath, judge of the High Court, said that in the past ten years, 16,000 lok adalats had been conducted, four lakh cases settled and compensation totalling Rs. 380 crore given in programmes conducted by the legal services authorities.
There was an urgent need for the authority to conduct programmes to make people more aware of their duties in the criminal justice system. The high acquittal rate in the country was due to the indifferent attitude of the people, he said.
V. Gopala Gowda, Executive Chairman of the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority and senior High Court judge, refuted allegations that the authority was incurring avoidable expenditure and that judges were involved in raising funds.
The State Government had acknowledged the pioneering role of the authority and allotted Rs. 11.44 crore to it. Besides, Rs. 2 crore had been set aside for permanent lok adalats. Therefore, there was no reason for judges to be involved in schemes to raise funds for legal services.
Several High Court judges, S.R. Nayak, Chairman of the State Human Rights Commission, and judicial officers were present.