More priest, religious lawyers needed in India

More young priests, nuns and brothers are needed to train as lawyers in India as cases flood the court system delaying justice, while, for the poor, it may not come at all.  This urgency was expressed at the Delhi National Capital Region Lawyers' Forum that brought together 30 professionals to discuss "the prophetic call of legal professionals in the Indian Church today" March 23-24 in New Delhi.  "More than any ministry in the Catholic Church we need religious lawyers who can give their services unconditionally to the people living on the margins of society," said Holy Cross Sister Rani Punnasseril, a lawyer.  She told UCANEWS that the need is most urgent for rural Catholics and tribal people who do not know what to do when their human rights are violated. "Some of them do not even have enough money to get a lawyer and fight their case in a court," she said.

India has some 900 men and women religious who are lawyers but many of them are not active, said Franciscan Sister Ann Mary, president of the forum of lawyers in the New Delhi area.  Religious lawyers are different because their main focus is not to make a living earning fees. "We focus on the human rights of people (and) because of our missionary call we are committed to work for those who are oppressed," Sister Mary said. 

India's inadequate legal system delays justice and many people cannot afford expensive lawyers.  The Supreme Court on several occasions stressed the issue of unequal access to justice but no serious attempt has been made to rectify the system. Published reports have said that India's judicial system carries "an impossible burden" as some 80,000 cases are pending in India's Supreme Court for just 30 judges as of 2014. Cases keep piling up and millions of cases are pending in state and district courts. To solve this, they are aiming to create a national forum of Religious lawyers to build a network of "missionary lawyers," Sister Mary said.  "We are working to get justice for ordinary people and that is possible when we work together as a force," she said, adding that the meeting was the first move toward that goal.   (Source: UCANEWS)