The Fiji Law Society was looking at the possibility of extending legal aid benefits to give the poor as well the rich access to the law.
This, according to an artcile published in The Fiji Times on April 10, 1980.
The report read society president Kishor Govind made the comment at the ceremonial welcome for the new Chief Justice, Justice Timoci Tuivaga.
The society felt the law existed only for the rich and privileged.
“Equality before the law can be realised only if the poorer and the less fortunate sections of our society have access to the law,” he said. “Justice which cannot be afforded is justice which is denied.”
He said people needed to know what their rights and obligations were before they could exercise or be conscious of them.
The society had planned to embark on a program of community legal education, the report stated.
“Continuing legal education was also needed for members of the profession to enable them to keep abreast of the changing law.
“A citizen’s greatest feeling of security lies in the knowledge that he lives and his conduct is determined not at the whim of one or more people but by the rule of law.
“Therefore, for democracy to be truly meaningful, it is of the essence that the judiciary be beyond any extraneous pulls and pressures.”
Justice Govind said the appointment of the first Fiji citizen to the highest judicial office in the land was yet another sign of Fiji’s growing maturity as a nation.
