JUDICIARY AND THE POOR

Prasanta Bhushan ,the eminent lawyer and public intellectual, has this to say in an interview published in the Tehelka weekly dated 26/11/05.

"The judiciary is responsive to the middle and upper classes.. There has been a change since the PILs in the late 70s and early 80s when justice Krishna Iyer, Bhagwati, Chinappa Reddy wre there. The wheel has turned a great deal since. Now we don't find great responses especially in the higher courts, for the causes of the poor.

"Take for instance the removal of jhuggies. the court removed jhuggies in Delhi. When we petitioned that most of the land where the poor live will not be needed for any public purpose in the future and according to government's own policy, these colonies should not be regularised and civic amenities like water, sanitation, should be provided, the court didn't respond. That's how it's."