Laws work unequally for rich and poor: Odisha HC chief justice

Odisha high court chief justice S Muralidhar has said that India's legal system is structured in such a way that promotes discrimination against the poor and works unequally for the poor and the rich.

Justice Muralidhar's remarks came on Thursday while addressing a lecture organised by Community for the Eradication of Discrimination in Education and Employment on “Appearing in Court: Challenges in Representing the Marginalised”.

He expressed his worry about the quality of legal aid, saying that those who get it do not really have a choice. "The poor believe that if you get any service for free or it is substantially subsidised, then you cannot demand quality,” he said.

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Justice Muralidhar said 21% of the undertrial population of 3.72 lakh in India and 21% of the convict population of 1.13 lakh belong to the Scheduled Caste. Similarly, 37.1% of convicts and 34.3% of the undertrials belong to OBCs. The corresponding percentage for Muslims – 17.4% and 19.5%, respectively.

Muralidhar said, if lawyers from Dalit and Adivasi communities work on human rights matters, they run the risk of being labelled as Maoist or Naxalite lawyers.