Institute of Legal and Management Studies

Supreme Court judge and Executive Chairman of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) Justice Surya Kant on Saturday said that the country's justice system must move beyond the confines of courtrooms and reach the lives of those who live on the margins, particularly in the eastern and northeastern states.

Delivering the inaugural address at the NALSA East-Zone Regional Conference in Sonapur, Guwahati, Justice Surya Kant said the event was “more than an inauguration — it is a reaffirmation that our commitment to justice must reach where it has been slow to travel, across the valleys, tea gardens, and borderlands of India's East.”

Describing what he called the “paradox of abundance and vulnerability,” Justice Surya Kant noted that while the eastern region contributes immensely to India's economy and culture — from Assam's tea and Odisha's coastline to Bengal's intellectual traditions and Jharkhand's minerals — several states in the region continue to struggle with poverty, inequality and lack of access to justice.

“True progress is not measured by GDP or statistics,” he said, “but by whether justice, dignity, and opportunity are equitably distributed across every community.”

Justice Surya Kant listed some of the pressing social issues confronting the region, including child marriage, drug abuse, displacement of tribal communities, the plight of tea garden workers, and a growing mental health crisis. He cited data showing that Bihar continues to report close to 40% of women married before 18, and that Assam has witnessed a six-fold rise in cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in four years. “These are not separate issues,” he said, “but chapters of the same story — a story of structural vulnerability.”

Calling on legal services institutions to act as a “bridge between law and life,” Justice Surya Kant outlined several initiatives taken by NALSA to address these challenges. Among them are DAWN (Drug Awareness and Wellness Navigation), which focuses on prevention and rehabilitation; ASHA, a standard operating procedure for tackling child marriage through education and vocational training; SAMVAD, which provides legal access to tribal and denotified communities; and the Legal Services to Workers in the Unorganised Sector programme, aimed at ensuring fair wages and workplace dignity.

Justice Surya Kant also announced the recently introduced 'NALSA Veer Parivar Sahayata Yojana 2025', which offers free legal aid to families of defence personnel serving in difficult border terrains. He described these schemes as part of an “architecture of care,” inspired by the philosophy of Ubuntu — “I am, because you are” — and the Indian ideal of Manav Seva Hi Madhav Seva (service to humanity is service to God).

He said the success of the conference would not be measured by the eloquence of speeches or the number of resolutions passed, but by whether concrete results follow.

Justice Surya Kant urged stronger coordination among agencies and the use of technology to extend legal aid to remote areas, but added that technology must remain a bridge, not a substitute.

“Above all,” he said, “we must cultivate the courage to listen — to children, to workers, to tribes, to those battling despair — and to shape justice not in our language, but in their sentiments.”

Concluding his address, Justice Surya Kant said the eastern states were not mere geographical frontiers but “frontiers of India's justice.” Quoting Assamese saint Srimanta Sankardev — 'Manuhor maromat Ishwar thake' (God resides in human compassion) — he said,

The two-day conference, jointly organised by NALSA, the Assam State Legal Services Authority, and the Gauhati High Court, will focus on issues such as child rights, the menace of narcotics, protection of tribal communities, labour welfare, and mental health.