Abstract

The Indian Constitution has been the backbone of the Indian Legal System ever since its inception. Many would say that it had been a ‘Lawyer’s Constitution’ considering the legal qualifications of the members of the Constituent Assembly and their inputs that went into the drafting of the Indian Constitution. The Constitution thus drafted has been a legal miracle, drawing from the very best Constitutional and legal practices of the world. Yet, this glory itself has in fact surfaced a critical curtailment in working this fine Constitution and a legal system. Illiteracy has been profound in a country like India, let alone legal illiteracy. The carefully crafted legal framework of this country has thus been reduced to a fierce weapon whose benefits can be enjoyed if only one knows how to use it. The legal knowledge, pre-requisite to make use of the Indian legal system has barely penetrated into the masses who continue to dwell under a veil of injustice and legal disavowal. In this paper we aim to delve into the intricacies of legal illiteracy to enquire into the question “whether the convoluted legal procedures latent within the Indian Judicial system has rendered justice to become a bane than a boon for the masses?” We proceed with a hypothesis which propounds that the “legal jargon and elaborate procedures in the Indian legal system has been turning the populace apathetic towards the Indian Judicial system” using the variables of legal structure and procedure and mass indifference towards legal procedure.

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