Chief Justice of India T S Thakur today said that lawyers are demanding crores of rupees as fees these days but asked youngsters to attain the stature of eminent lawyers who never say no to a poor man who seeks legal aid.
The CJI said this in response to remarks by Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly, V S Achuthanandan that a Supreme Court lawyer sought Rs 60 lakh when he approached him for a case.
"...I think the lawyers are demanding crores of rupees these days. But having said that I must say that there are lawyers and those who have distinguished themselves...
"I can assure you as the Chief Justice...You ask any outstanding or any eminent lawyer of the Supreme Court to pick up poor man's case and argue, he will never say no to it," Justice Thakur said, adding that they don't ask fee in such situations.
"We would like all lawyers...Youngsters also grow to that stature. In fact, it should be a matter of inspiration for youngsters," he said at the foundation stone laying ceremony of "M K Nambiar Academy for Continuing Legal Studies" here.
The CJI said the legal profession not only does bring recognition but also lots of dividends in terms of money and rewards.
"But that is not important. What is important also is that you have that heart to share with others what you have got. You must pay back to the society," he said at the function organised by the Kerala Bar Council here.
The CJI's remarks came a day after Law Minister Sadananda Gowda said it is "highly impossible" for an ordinary litigant to go to higher courts seeking justice because of high fees charged by advocates.
"Today, an ordinary man can't afford to go to the court," Gowda had said after inaugurating Justice V R Krishna Iyer International Mission for Law and Justice here.
"In emerging economies such as ours, the way in which
knowledge is generated, stored and distributed threatens to increase inequality of education, skills, livelihoods and incomes," the CJI said.
"And how does a judge weigh in the judicial scales such a private economy against having a public economy of such information in the public interest of individual and national development," he added.
"Judicial virtue is then in danger of becoming a spectacle. Relevant information and skills to understand it for decision making, do not fall into anyone's lap from the sky.
"The constitutional jurisdiction and powers of the constitutional courts in India, unique in the entire Anglo Saxon legal world, compel contemplation in a global economy of capturing creation itself and manipulating it for pure profit and/or domination," Thakur said.
"This retreat shows that the judges of constitutional courts in India are alive to the major global transitions of knowledge and the probable challenges that these pose for justice, social, economic and political. It is thus that they have convened here to absorb by learning and contemplate by building on this learning," he said.
