NATIONAL LEGAL SERVICES AUTHORITY
·
The National
Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has been constituted under the Legal Services
Authorities Act, 1987 to provide free Legal Services to the weaker sections of
the society and to organize Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes.
·
Actually, Article 39A of the Constitution of
India provides for free legal aid to the poor and weaker sections of the
society and ensures justice for all.
·
Articles 14 and
22(1) of the Constitution also make it obligatory for the State to ensure
equality before law and a legal system which promotes justice on the basis of
equal opportunity to all. In 1987, the Legal Services Authorities Act was
enacted by the Parliament which came into force on 9th November,
1995 to establish a nationwide uniform network for providing free and competent
legal services to the weaker sections of the society on the basis of equal
opportunity.
The Central Authority
shall consist of –
- The Chief
Justice of India who shall be the Patron-in-Chief.
- A serving
or retired Judge of the Supreme Court to be nominated by the President, in
consultation with the Chief Justice of India, who shall be the Executive
Chairman; and
- Such number
of other members, possessing such experience and qualifications, as maybe
prescribed by the Central Government, to be nominated by that government
in consultation with the Chief Justice of India.
The Central Authority shall perform all or any
of the following functions, namely:-
- Lay down
policies and principles for making legal services available under the
provisions of this Act;
- Frame the
most effective and economical schemes for the purpose of making legal
services available under the provisions of this Act;
- Utilize the
funds at its disposal and make appropriate allocations of funds to the
State Authorities and District Authorities;
- Take
necessary steps by way of social justice litigation with regard to
consumer protection, environmental protection or any other matter of
special concern to the weaker sections of the society and for this
purpose, give training to social workers in legal skills;
- Organize
legal aid camps, especially in rural areas, slums or labour colonies with
the dual purpose of educating the weaker sections of the society as to
their rights as well as encouraging the settlement of disputes through Lok
Adalats;
- Encourage
the settlement of disputes by way of negotiations, arbitration and
conciliation;
- Undertake
and promote research in the field of legal services with special reference
to the need for such services among the poor;
- To do all
things necessary for the purpose of ensuring commitment to the fundamental
duties of citizens under Part IVA of the Constitution;
- Monitor and
evaluate implementation of the legal aid programmes at periodic intervals
and provide for independent evaluation of programmes and schemes implemented
in whole or in part by funds provided under this Act;
- Provide
grants-in-aid for specific schemes to various voluntary social service
institutions and the State and District Authorities, from out of the
amounts placed at its disposal for the implementation of legal services
schemes under the provisions of this Act;
- Develop, in
consultation with the Bar Council of India, programmes for clinical legal
education and promote guidance and supervise the establishment and working
of legal services clinics in universities, law colleges and other
institutions;
- Take
appropriate measures for spreading legal literacy and legal awareness
amongst the people and, in particular, to educate weaker sections of the
society about the rights, benefits and privileges guaranteed by social
welfare legislations and other enactments as well as administrative
programmes and measures;
- Make
special efforts to enlist the support of voluntary social welfare
institutions working at the grassroots level, particularly among the
Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, women and rural and urban
labour, and
- Coordinate
and monitor the functioning of State Authorities, District Authorities, Supreme
Court Legal Services Committee, High Court Legal Services Committees,
Taluk Legal Services Committees and voluntary social service institutions
and other legal services organizations and given general directions for
the proper implementation of the Legal Services programmes.
- In every
State, State Legal Services Authority has been constituted to give effect
to the policies and directions of the NALSA and to give free legal
services to the people and conduct Lok Adalats in the State.
- The State Legal Services Authority is
headed by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of the respective High Court who is
the Patronin-Chief of the State Legal Services Authority.
- In every
District, District Legal Services Authority has been constituted to
implement Legal Services Programmes in the District.
- The
District Legal Services Authority is situated in the District Courts
Complex in every District and chaired by the District Judge of the
respective district. Primarily, the State Legal Services Authorities,
District Legal Services Authorities, Taluk Legal Services Committees, etc.
have been asked to discharge the following main functions on regular
basis:
- To Provide
Free and Competent Legal Services to the eligible persons;
- To organize
Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes; and
- To organize
legal awareness camps in the rural areas.
Advantages of the Movement:
It has helped overcome three impediments:
1) Economic inequality (legal aid) - the poor cannot afford good legal counsels to get them out on bail, nor
can they afford the bail amount. This was sought to be remedied by the
provisions of legal aid and an attorney for all those below a certain specified
income bracket. They have a right to be informed about the same, since being
illiterate and poor, they are often unaware of their rights.
2) Organizational impediments (diffused interests) - to facilitate collective action, since the individual
was too small to play a significant role/effect a change. According to Justice
Krishna Iyer, another reason for justice ‘on the streets, rather than the
courts’ is that the Constitution with its mandate of socio-economic rights is
in contradiction with the colonial Justice and law hangover. These are not
attuned to the Indian social realities and the ‘mystiques of lacunose legalese
and processual pyramids with sophisticated rules’, alongwith ‘slowmotion
justice and high priced legal services has led to victimization of the common
man.
3) Procedural obstacles (informal justice) - to overcome the current, traditional procedures
through alternate dispute resolutions, specialized or small claims courts such
as the Family Courts or the Lok Adalats, etc.
The second National Lok Adalat held across
India on 6 December 2014 involving the Supreme Court, 24 high courts, districts
courts and taluka-level courts saw the settlement of a record number of 1.25
crore cases, that also resulted in reducing the pendency of cases by about nine
percent. According to National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), which
organised the National Lok Adalat, "Approximately, 1.25 crore cases, as
per details available so far, which include pending and pre-litigation cases,
have been settled. The immediate impact of this has been in the reduction of pendency
averaging about nine percent across all states.”
Analysis of the Working of NALSA:
·
The National
Legal Services Authority was set up in 1995 under the Legal Services
Authorities Act, 1987 to provide ''free and competent'' legal services to the
needy.
·
According to the
views of the Committee headed by E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan the programme
lacked proper planning and suffered from paucity of funds and failure at the
level of states to utilise even the grants made.
·
The actual
benefit of this scheme is not gaining access to poor litigants and the
programme is ''confined to high profile areas or capital cities only.''
·
To be eligible
for legal aid, the annual income limit fixed by the central government for
cases before the Supreme Court is Rs. 50,000.
·
Over the past
decade, the Authority claims to have aided 8.25 million individuals, besides
holding 4,86,000 Lok Adalats or conciliation courts nationwide and settling
18.3 million cases.
·
But critics say
that tells little about the sort of cases in which the Authority helped
individuals, the quality of legal aid or the outcome.
·
Nor does it tells the plight of citizens who
are neither eligible for legal aid nor can afford legal recourse on their own
-- with no limits enforced on lawyers' fees or duration of proceedings.
·
As in ordinary
cases, in aided cases, too, the quality of lawyering is a key issue, only
perhaps more so given the 'meagre' fees NALSA Advocates supposedly get.
·
The Committee
noted that counsels engaged for the poor under the legal aid programme ''are
paid meagerly'' and ''good and reputed lawyers do not come forward to take up
the cases.
·
Even Senior Advocates do not take up such
cases. As a result poor litigants feel that legal aid being provided to them is
mere eyewash.
·
The Committee recommended ''reasonably''
enhancing the fee structure -- and standardising it nationwide -- so as to draw
experienced and competent lawyers to legal aid.
·
The Committee said that the government has
been providing adequate funds to NALSA from year to year. However, there has
not been total utilisation of the "allocated grants.''
Some Steps taken by NALSA to Bring Justice at the Doorstep:
a)
Para-Legal
Volunteers
·
One of the
problems faced by legal services institutions is their inability to reach out
to the common people. It is in this context that the National Legal Services
Authority (NALSA) has come up with the idea of para-legal volunteers to bridge
the gap between the common person and legal services institutions.
·
The scheme seeks
to utilise community-based volunteers selected from villages and other
localities to provide basic legal services to the common people. Educated
persons with commitment to social service and with a record of good character
are selected.
·
The volunteers
are trained by district legal services authorities.
·
The training
equips them to identify the lawrelated needs of the marginalised in their
locality.
·
Such needs
include assistance to secure legal rights, benefits and actionable entitlements
under different government schemes that are denied to them.
·
Coming as they
do from the same locality, they are in a better position to identify those who
need assistance and bring them to the nearest legal services institutions to
solve their problems within the framework of law.
·
They can assist disempowered people to get
their entitlements from government offices where ordinary people often face
hassles on account of bureaucratic lethargy and apathy.
b)
Legal Aid
Clinics in Villages
·
In order to
reach out to the common people, NALSA has come up with a project to set up
legal aid clinics in all villages, subject to financial viability. Ignorance of
what to do when faced with law-related situations is a common problem for
disempowered people.
·
Legal aid
clinics work on the lines of primary health centres, where assistance is given
for simple ailments and other minor medical requirements of village residents.
·
Legal aid clinics assist in drafting simple
notices, filling up forms to avail benefits under governmental schemes and by
giving initial advice on simple problems. A legal aid clinic is a facility to
assist and empower people who face barriers to ‘access to justice.’
·
Trained
para-legal volunteers are available to run legal aid clinics in villages.
·
The common
people in villages will feel more confident to discuss their problems with a
friendly volunteer from their own community rather than with a city-based legal
professional.
·
The volunteers
willrefer any complicated legal matters that require professional assistance to
the nearest legal services institutions.
·
When complex
legal problems are involved, the services of professional lawyers will be made
available in the legal aid clinics.
c)
Free and
Competent Legal Services
·
There has been a
widespread grievance that lawyers engaged by legal services institutions do not
perform their duties effectively and that the lawyers are not paid
commensurately for their work. In order to solve these problems, NALSA has
framed the National Legal Services Authority (Free and Competent Legal
services) Regulations, 2010 to provide free and competent legal services.
Scrutiny of legal aid applications, monitoring of cases where legal aid is
provided, and engaging senior lawyers on payment of regular fees in special
cases, are the salient features of the Regulations.
·
In serious matters where the life and liberty
of a person are in jeopardy, the Regulations empower legal services authorities
to specially engage senior lawyers.
d)
Legal Aid Camps:
·
NALSA has
organized camps targeted neighbourhood itself. The people shall not be made to
travel long distances for the purpose of attending camps. Instead of pompous
inaugural functions and speeches, time, energy and resources shall be devoted
on interaction with the people. Local bar shall be encouraged to participate.
·
Local
voluntarily organizations, social clubs, colleges, universities and other
educational institutions shall be engaged to join as partners in such ventures
for mutual benefit.
e)
Student Legal
Aid Clinics
·
Association of
law students with the work of providing legal services would not only help the
cause of legal services but also give to the young students a sense of
identification and involvement with the cause of the poor.
·
The legal aid
clinic is an excellent medium to teach professional responsibility and a
greater sense of public service. The law school legal aid clinic is a viable
and effective instrument for community education and preventive legal services
programme.
·
Inclusion of the law students in legal aid
will contribute towards a better legal education, socially relevant and
professionally valuable. The law school clinics can plough back into the legal
curriculum and will be a goldmine of information that can make learning and teaching
of law stimulating, challenging and productive.
·
Law school legal
aid clinic can be located at the law colleges premises itself which will be an
excellent source for study of conflicts in civil society.
·
Each State
Authority shall prepare a law school legal aid manual depending on the local
needs of the State. The law students shall be encouraged to form into different
groups, each group adopting a village, preferably a remote village. The
students who have adopted a village may conduct sociolegal surveys in that
village.
·
The
questionnaire in the surveys may be prepared in consultation with the teachers
of the law schools, the contents of which may vary depending on the local
circumstances. The questionnaire shall be sufficient enough to gather the
problems faced by villagers, especially relating to their legal rights.
·
The nature of
disputes, if any, inter-se the inhabitants of the village may be identified and
they may be encouraged to resolve the disputes amicably through the ADR
techniques like conciliation, mediation, Lok Adalat, etc.
·
For this purpose, the students may seek the
help of their teachers, and if necessary, of the nearest legal services
institutions.
·
The students
shall be encouraged to organize legal awareness classes for small groups of
people (4 or 5 houses together or 10 to 12 people). It should be more in the
form of informal gatherings.
·
In appropriate
cases, senior students and post-graduate students who have already enrolled as
lawyers may be entrusted with the filing and conducting of the litigation in
the courts, free of cost. The students may adopt colonies and slum areas in
urban locations also where economically and socially backward people reside.
Such areas also may be chosen for setting up of legal aid clinics.
f)
Legal Aid
Clinics in Jails
·
Prisoners are
doubly handicapped persons. Most of them belong to lower strata of the society,
both socially and economically. Secondly, they are incommunicado,
walled-off from the world. But they
being citizens of India are entitled to protect their rights enshrined in
Article 21 of the Constitution and its variants.
·
Therefore, it is
highly essential that prisoners also are given legal aid especially in matters
relating to defending or prosecuting their cases and appeals and also legal problems
they and their family might face on account of their being behind the bars. The
legal aid clinics in Jails shall be run under the District Legal Services
Authorities. Panel of lawyers selected in consultation with the local bar
association may be deployed for manning the legal aid clinics in prisons.
Services of sociologists and psychiatrists also may be availed of while
providing legal aid to the prisoners. The applications, appeals and petitions
from the prisoners may be forwarded to the appropriate authorities and courts
as expeditiously as possible. Their pleas in relation to the remission, parole,
etc. also may be assisted and attended to by the legal aid counsel deputed to
such clinics in Jails.
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