Fix poor connectivity in rural areas: CJI to Prasad
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 26
As Covid-19 exposes the digital divide in legal profession, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana has requested the Centre to ask telecom companies to provide uninterrupted Internet facility to lawyers in remote areas to enable them address courts, which have been functioning in virtual mode since March last year.
A whole generation of lawyers is being pushed out of system due to technological inequality. — NV Ramana, CJI
The CJI said he had written to IT and Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to address the problem.
Highlighting that poor Internet connectivity in rural, tribal, remote and hilly areas was adversely impacting the pace of justice delivery, the CJI said, “A whole generation of lawyers is being pushed out of the system due to digital divide.”
The CJI said he has asked the minister to evolve a mechanism to help advocates who lost their livelihood due to the pandemic. He said legal professionals and associated functionaries should be declared as frontline workers and be vaccinated on a priority.
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