Government is making every efforts in providing access to justice to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Classes and other Economically Weaker sections of the society. National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has been constituted under the Legal Services Authorities (LSA) Act, 1987 to provide free and competent legal services to the weaker sections of the society including beneficiaries covered under Section 12 of the Act, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities, and to organize Lok Adalats to secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice on the basis of equal opportunities.
For this purpose, the legal services institutions have been setup from the Taluk Court level to the Supreme Court. The activities/programmes undertaken by Legal Services Authorities include legal aid and advice; legal awareness programmes; legal services/empowerment camps; legal services clinics; legal literacy clubs; Lok Adalats and implementation of victim compensation scheme.
To enable quick and equitable access to justice, National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has launched Legal Services Mobile App on Android and iOS versions to enable easy access to legal aid to common citizens.
Further, a scheme on Access to Justice titled “Designing Innovative Solutions for Holistic Access to Justice in India” is implemented by the Government of India which aims to strengthen pre-litigation advice and consultation through Tele-Law;ensure pan – India dispensation framework to deliver Pro Bono legal Services through Nyaya Bandhu (Pro Bono Legal Services) programme and to empower citizens through Pan India legal literacy and legal awareness programme. The Scheme embeds use of technology and developing contextualized IEC (Information, Education and Communication) material in regional / local dialect to support its intervention and to achieve easy accessibility of legal services to the poor and weakest sections of the society. All these services under the scheme are provided free of cost to all citizens including the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and other Economically Weaker sections of the society.
This information was given by the Union Minister of Law and Justice, Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
****
SS/RKM