When Justice Has a Price: Economic Inequality and Access to Justice

Access to justice is heart of a democratic body, despite of this the ability to seek and obtain justice is mostly shaped by ones economic status, Indian Constitution and judiciary have consistently held that access to justice is an integral part of fundamental rights specifically under Article 14 and 21, despite of the doctrinal reforms the ground reality is far from what it is perceived to be, justice being unreachable is the lived reality of poor people. Supreme Court in the case of Anita Kushwaha upheld that access to justice is an integral part of fundamental rights and even laid down the grounds for the same, despite this constitutional recognition significant hindrances continues to prevent disadvantaged sections of society from approaching the courts of justice. The present paper explores the lived reality of economically disadvantaged groups, it examines how economic inequality plays a significant role in shaping access to justice, it revolves around highlighting evolution of justice delivery from community based dispute resolution in ancient time to centralized and economically exclusionary legal structures introduced in colonial period and further to the complexities which arose after 1991 liberalization. The study adopts doctrinal and historical methodologies, while analyzing constitutional jurisprudence with statutory frameworks and empirical insights from global access to justice data. This research demonstrates how litigation cost, geographical barriers, and limited legal awareness widens the gap between rich and poor towards access to justice, though mechanisms like legal aid, Lok Adalat's , decentralization of power have acted as bridge between the gap, but that bridge is broken as it still lacks functional mechanism and ground level implementation. Ultimately, this study argues that in order to have meaningful access to justice symbolic recognition has to go hand in hand with structural reforms as "when justice has price, its justice suicide"