Newly-elected Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi on Saturday stressed the need for improving the quality of lawyers offering legal aid in India.
A report published in the Outlook stated that Gogoi, while addressing a felicitation programme organised by the Bar Council of India, while acknowledging the depth of legal aid, said, “In India, 67 per cent of prisoners are undertrials, out of these undertrials, almost 47 per cent are between 18-30 years, which means a large population of youth are undertrials. Quality of lawyers who are offering legal aid needs to be improved.”
The report further stated that he also advocated for the improvement of facilities for lawyers and said that the lawyer to population ratio in India needs to grow. “What is the lawyer population in India? About 13-14 lakh lawyers, that is not much. In the United States, there is 1 lawyer for every 200 people but in India, it is one lawyer for every 1,800 people. Lawyer-population ratio has to grow,” he said.
Gogoi took over as the 46th CJI on October 3 last. He was administered the oath of office by the President of India Ram Nath Kovind at a function held in Rashtrapati Bhawan.