Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant on Saturday inaugurated four access-to-justice initiatives of the Bihar State Legal Services Authority, including the Victim Rights Centre (VRC), the VRC booklet, a dedicated helpline for the transgender community, and multi-utility vehicles to take legal aid to villages.
Delivering the special address, CJI Surya Kant posed a foundational question for the justice system: “When a person needs justice, how close is justice to that person?” He said the four initiatives were guided by one conviction: “Justice must not wait for the citizen to find it. The justice system must find its way to the citizen.”
Lamenting the marginalisation of victims in criminal trials, the CJI observed: “The victim walks in, gives a statement, and often disappears from the story until the day of testimony.” He added, “A victim frequently experiences the process itself as a second injury, arriving already wounded and then made to navigate a system that speaks a language not known to them.”
The Victim Rights Centre, he explained, rests on the idea that “a victim of crime should not have to learn the law to receive what the law already promises” compensation, legal aid, medical assistance, counselling, protection and rehabilitation. Noting that “they may all exist in law, yet remain beyond the reach of the person who needs them most,” he said, the Centre would provide, “One centre, one file, one point of accountability”.
Describing it as more than an information desk, he said it was “a case management system built around the person, with a deadline attached to every task. “The VRC booklet,” he said, was “a practical guide to understanding the Centre, its processes and the manner in which a victim can access its support,” adding, “an institution cannot serve those who do not know that it exists.”
On the transgender helpline, the CJI recalled the Supreme Court’s NALSA judgment but noted that “for a person facing harassment or discrimination, the first difficulty may still be knowing where to seek help, or finding legal assistance without fear of public scrutiny.”
He stressed, “The strength of a helpline is not merely in answering a call, but in ensuring that the person on the other side is heard.”
Flagging off the multi-utility vehicles, he said, “it reminds us that access to justice is not complete when an institution opens its doors. It is complete when those who need it can actually find their way to those doors.”
Concluding with a metaphor, the CJI said: “A victim who comes before the system is often like a young plant that has survived a storm. It does not need to be told merely that the soil is there. It needs to be sheltered, supported and given the time and care to take root again.”
He cautioned that the initiatives “must not be measured by the ceremony of their inauguration” but by “whether a promised entitlement reaches the person” and “whether assistance reaches the village that has no easy access to a courtroom”.
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