Every Indian knows someone who’s been wronged, a landlord who won’t return a deposit, an employer who withholds pay, a neighbour who crosses a boundary line.
Yet a lot of the wronged never take the next step.
They imagine months of hearings, rude officers, money they don’t have, and a system too distant to care. The truth is simpler: it’s not always the system that stops them, it’s the belief that it won’t listen.
They don’t file. Not because they don’t know their rights but because they fear what comes after.
Ask anyone, and you’ll hear the same refrains:
“It’ll take years.”
“Police won’t register it.”
“The lawyer will cost more than the loss.”
“Why invite more trouble?”
What people don’t realise:
The law has created ways to make that first step easier.
Free legal aid and mediation mechanisms exist under the District Legal Services Authorities (DLSA) in almost every district, offering free redressal, advice, and representation for those who can’t afford it.
For petty offences, Lok Adalats provide a faster, informal resolution, often settling cases in a single sitting without the procedural drag of formal courts.
And the first step to justice, filing a complaint, isn’t as complicated as it feels.
You can simply file an FIR or complaint at your nearest police station (or online in many states).
Good Counsels Exist; You Just Have to Look for It:
It’s also pertinent to mention that not every lawyer is out to drain pockets or drag cases endlessly.
Many genuinely want to make a difference, young lawyers, pro bono advocates, and legal NPOs who dedicate time to people who’d otherwise never step into a courtroom.
Sometimes, it’s also about finding the right legal counsel, or even keeping an eye out for legal aid camps, non-profits, and student collectives offering free help.
Still, most people never cross that line.
People imagine the system to be colder than it is, harsher than it’s become.
And so, injustice survives not because justice is absent, but because people stop just short of reaching for it.
It’s a facade, a mental wall some people build, convincing themselves that the process is too slow, too costly. But often, all it takes is crossing that invisible boundary to find that the first step was never as hard as it seemed.
