House panel to meet CJI today on free legal aid

A key parliamentary panel chaired by BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi will meet chief justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud on Thursday to discuss issues related to free legal aid, a rare meeting between members of legislature and head of the judiciary which has been held only once in the past many years.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar's criticism of the judiciary, including on the landmark 1973 Kesavananda Bharati case verdict that gave the basic structure doctrine, which was later described as "North Star" by Chandrachud.

The parliamentary standing committee on personnel, public grievances, law and justice, administered by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, is scheduled to visit the Supreme Court on Thursday. The panel includes many noted lawyers who are members of Parliament from several political parties.


"The standing committee on law and justice will visit the Supreme Court on Thursday to discuss issues related to free legal aid governed under NALSA (National Legal Services Authority). Panel members will deliberate with Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, who is executive chairman of NALSA and CJI DY Chandrachud," Modi told ET.

For better understanding of free legal aid, the panel had also visited Tihar Jail in Delhi and Bhondsi jail in Gurgaon, he said.

Modi said this will be the first official meeting with Chandrachud as CJI and perhaps only the second official meeting between a parliamentary panel and CJI.

Last year the panel had met Justice UU Lalit during his tenure as CJI and Chandrachud to discuss issues related to e-courts.

When asked if it would be a routine feature to hold meetings with CJI, Modi said, "Not really, but whenever the panel requires, it will hold meetings with judiciary on issues related to e-courts, judicial infrastructure and free legal aid."

The 30-member panel includes lawyer-MPs Mahesh Jethmalani of the BJP, Vivek Tankha of the Congress, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Kalyan Banerjee of the All India Trinamool Congress, the DMK's P Wilson and A Raja, besides MPs from various other political parties.

In a recent report, the panel had asked the government to "fix all bottlenecks" responsible for delays in the appointment of high court judges, saying the vacancies must be filled with the same zeal as shown in the appointment of Supreme Court judges.

It also pointed out that as on December 31, 2022, vacancies in high courts stood at 30 per cent of the total strength of 1,108, underlining that six high courts have vacancies of 40% and above and another six have vacancies in the range of 30-40%.