Affordable Justice to Common Man

1. National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has been step up under The Legal Services Authorities (LSA) Act, 1987 to provide free and competent legal services to the weaker sections of the society as 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. 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.
2. Under the aegis of the Legal Services Act, Lok Adalats are organised to promote justice on a basis of equal opportunities. For this purpose, the legal services institutions have been setup from the Taluk Court level to the Supreme Court. National Lok Adalats are organized simultaneously in all Taluks, Districts and High Courts on a pre-fixed date. State Lok Adalats are organised by State Legal Services Authorities as per local conditions and needs and Permanent Lok Adalats are conducted on daily basis or as per the number of sittings decided per week.

Further in view of Covid, E-Lok Adalat was conceptualized which significantly improved access to justice for people who were otherwise unable to participate in the Lok Adalats. The first E-Lok Adalat was held on 27.06.2020 and since then E-Lok Adalats have been organized in 28 Stats / UTs, wherein 441.17 lakh cases were taken up and 76.16 lakh cases disposed of.

The details of the case disposed off in these Lok Adalats during the last three years are at Annexure-I.

3. Besides, 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; to 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 weaker sections of the society.

The Tele-Law service seeks to connect the beneficiary with the lawyer via tele/ video conferencing facilities available at the Common Service Centers and through Tele-Law Citizens Mobile Application. As on 30th November 2023, Tele-Law services is available across 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats in 766 districts across 36 States and UTs and has rendered legal advice to 60,23,222 beneficiaries, which includes women, children, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe etc.

The Nyaya Bandhu platform enables seamless connect on the Nyaya Bandhu Application (available on Android/ iOS) between the interested Pro Bono Advocates and registered beneficiaries entitled for free legal aid under section 12 of Legal Services Authorities Act,1987. As on 30th November, 2023, there are 10,629 Pro Bono advocates and 89 law schools have constituted Pro Bono Clubs to facilitate the culture of Pro bono among law students. All these services under the scheme are provided free of cost to all citizens of the weaker sections of the society.

4. The National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms set up in August, 2011 has been pursuing a co-ordinated approach for phased liquidation of arrears and pendency in judicial administration, which, inter-alia, involves better infrastructure for courts, increase in strength of subordinate judiciary, policy and legislative measures in the areas prone to excessive litigation, re-engineering of court procedure for quick disposal of cases and emphasis on human resource development.

Under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for the Development of Infrastructure Facilities for the Judiciary going on since 1993-94, court buildings and residential accommodations for judicial officers of the district and subordinate judiciary is being constructed. Three new components viz., digital computer room, lawyers’ halls and toilet complexes have also been added under the ambit of the above CSS. The scheme has been extended from 2021-22 to 2025-26 with a budgetary outlay of Rs. 9000 crores including central share of Rs. 5307.00 crore for this scheme. It has been ensured under the scheme guidelines that the States/UTs send project proposals which are disabled friendly and meet the requisite norms/accessibility standards as laid down by CPWD/Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment.

5. The government has established Fast Track Courts for dealing with cases of heinous crimes; cases involving senior citizens, women, children etc. As of 31.10.2023, 848 Fast Track Courts are functional for heinous crimes, crimes against women, and children etc. Further, the central government has approved a scheme for setting up Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) across the country for the expeditious disposal of pending cases of Rape under IPC and crimes under POCSO Act. As of 31.10.2023, a total of 758 FTSCs including 412 exclusive POCSO (ePOCSO) Courts are functional in 30 States/UTs across the country which have disposed of more than 2,00,000 cases.
6. A path breaking initiative of the Government has been the eCourts Mission Mode Project which is a Central Sector Scheme being implementing in close association e-Committee, Supreme Court of India. It is under implementation for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) development of the District & Subordinate courts.Some of the digital initiatives taken by Government under the eCourts Project to make justice accessible and available to common man is at Annexure-II.

Recently, in September 2023, the Union Cabinet approved eCourts Phase-III with a budgetary outlay of Rs.7,210 crore, in which one of the important component is digitisation of entire court record - both legacy court records and pending cases at an estimated outlay of Rs. 2038.40 crore, that would pave the wave for end-to-end digital and paperless courts facilitated through saturation of all court complexes with e-Sewa Kendras for universalizing e-filing of court cases. These e-Sewa Kendras would help in bridging the digital divide amongst citizens particularly in the rural areas to function as one-stop solution kiosk to provide free of cost services like e-filing, virtual hearing, etc., which would reduce the cost and time of the litigants and lawyers, thereby enhancing affordability and accessibility of justice delivery system.

This information was given by the MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE; MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS; MINISTER OF STATE FOR THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE, SHRI ARJUN RAM MEGHWAL in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

Annexrue-I

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (A) TO (D) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. †*84 FOR ANSWER ON 08.12.2023 REGARDING ‘AFFORDABLE JUSTICE TO COMMON MAN.

National  Lok Adalats

SOURCE pib.nic.in