legal services Flashcards
who is legal aid given to? How does it create a bridge
legal aid is given to a person who has limited means grants fro nominal fees, advice or counsel to represent them in court. Legal aid aims to create a bridge between poor and rich in society in order to provide equality to seek justice in court of law and to ensure that no one is debarred from legal advice because of lack of funds. Thus, the provision of legal aid is based on humanitarian considerations and the main aim of these provisions is to help those who are socially and economically backwards.
background of LA
in a participatory democracy, it is essential for people to have faith in their judicial institution that ensures approbate representation in court of law and settles the need for equality principle. An impartial and independent judiciary is the guardian of individual rights in a democratic society. For people to have faith in their court system, all people must have access to courts when necessary.
When disputes emerge between states or between citizens, people expect there to be will be a trustworthy, impartial third party with the power to resolve the issue peacefully and without undue influence
The state all has the responsibility to ensure that fair justice is made available at doorstep of the poor and economically weaker sections irrespective of their caste, creed, religion. The fundamental value of Indian system of justice is that the stability of our society depends upon ability of people to readily obtain access to courts because the court system is the mechanism recognised and accepted by all. Denying access to courts results in violence and vigilantism.
denying acess to courts leads to violence. How?
Human rights serve as the foundation of free legal aid’s sociolegal framework. It is essential to protect access to justice and acknowledge the equality principle as components of human rights. The incorporation of legal obligations in international and regional treaties, as well as the operations of monitoring agencies operating under these treaties, are reflected in these foundations.
Problems of adversarial
the adversarial system that the colonial era brought in made access to justice difficult BECAUSE IT ENDED THE ERA OF INFormal dispute settlement prevalent in Indian society leaving aside the quality of justice dispensation in indigenous mode.
ue to its lack of formality, technicality, and use of a language that all parties could understand, the pre-British system was easily accessible.
Thus it is due to the formal nature of adversarial system that makes access to justice for poor masses in India difficult.
3 provisions which promote equality and justice
Article 39-A of the Constitution was added by the Constitution Amendment Act of 1976. It states that the legal system must guarantee that justice is served on the basis of equal opportunity and that free legal aid must be provided by suitable legislation to guarantee that no citizen’s ability to obtain justice is restricted due to their financial situation or other disabilities. The wordingof 39-A clarifies the type of equality that will result in equal opportunity and facilitate everyone’s access to justice. In many of the cases that were brought before the courts, including the apexcourt, this kind of constitutional guarantee was often broken.
As envisaged sunder article 15 of constitution of India, the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds of religion race, birth. Based on this fundamental concept no citizen shall on the grounds only of race caste sex be subject to any disability.
Article 14 provides that the state shall not deny to any person equality before law of equal protection of laws within territory of India.
Legal aid under criminal law
section 340(1) 1898 of crcp provided that if a man was charged with an offence punishable with death, the court could provide him with counsel upon his request. However an amendment in CRCP 1973 facilitated the statutory implementation of legal
aid . section 340(1) of crcp provides that in a trial before sessions judge, if accused does not have sufficient means to engage a pleader, court should assign a pleader for his defence at the expense of state.
international law Legal aid
IL addresses the provision of free legal services from the perspective of human rights. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) contains a explicitprovision regarding legal services. India has ratified the ICCPR, which went into force in 1976, and is bound by international law to provide free legal assistance in accordance with the covenant’s requirements. The Indian Supreme Court adopted the practice of carrying out international legal duties where they are specifically stated in the Indian legal system.
The court also accepted international obligations as part of the land where Indian law can be properly understood as being in accordance with international law.
example treaties example
a number of international treaties like ICESCR, CEDAW and ICEFRD may be interpreted as implicitly referring to the need for free legal services while aiming at effective legal remedy and access to justice. There are number of declarations adopted by UN which refer to effective legal remedy of which free legal services form an essential component.
For instance, under article 8 of the UDHR, anybody who believes that their fundamental rights have been violated has the right to get justice from the national tribunals
Some international law scholar refer to the UDHR as a soft law because it is a resolution passed by the general assembly and contains idealistic statements about human rights.till it creates right centric obligations of norm creating character for members of the international community.
history of LSA ACT 1987
The idea of the state providing free legal aid to the poor was put forward in the 1958 report of the 14th Law Commission of India on the Reform of Judicial Administration. The report highlighted that the legal community bears the responsibility to administer legal aid schemes as well as offering funding legal representation in criminal proceedings.
The Union government launched the national legal aid programme in 1960, but it died a natural deathdue to financial shortages. In order to create a legal assistance programme for the states, the union government established a committee in 1973 under the direction of Justice Krishna Ayer.
Justice P.N. Bhagwati headed a national commission that was established in 1980 to supervise and govern legal aid programmes across the nation.ti. This committee came to be known as CILAS and started monitoring legal aid activities throughout the country.
The LSA was passed in 1987 in order to provide legal aid programmes across the nation with a statutory base. The LSA was then enacted by the parliament to give specific groups of individuals free legal aid.
who can be given legal aid?
section 12/13 deals with criteria of eligibility for ls
1)member of STC.STT, victim of human trafficking, woman/chi;d, disability, victim of mass disaster, flood, violence
2) industrial workman, annual income less than 9k
what does free legal aid includes?
payment of court fee, process free
supply of certified copies of orders other documents
preparation of appeal, paper book
NALSA
Article 39A of the Indian constitution provides free legal aid to the poor and weaker sections of society and ensures justice for all. Article 14 and 22 of constitution also make it obligatory for state to ensure equality before all.
NALSA was passed in 1987 by the parliament which came into force on 9th November 1995 to establish a uniform nation-wide network for providing free and competent legal services to weaker sections of society on basis of equal opportunity. NALSA has been constituted under the legal services authority act of 1987 to monitor implementation of legal aid programs. In every state a state keg services authority and in every HC, a HC legal services committee have been constituted.
The Supreme Court Legal Services Committee was established to oversee and carry out the legal services programme in relation to the Indian Supreme Court. NALSA lays down policies and guidelines for state legal services authorities to implement the legal services programmes throughout the country.
NALSA REGULATIONS
panel lawyrers
in 2010, NALSA adopted the NLSA regulations in exercise of its power under section 29 of LSA 1987, these regulations are applicable to legal service committees of SC,HC,taluks, district. some broad features of the regulations are as follows:
PANEL LAWYERS
the legal sercivices institution is vested with the authority to invite applications from legal practitioners with requisite professional experience to indicate types of cases as they may be entrusted with. The panel is prepared executive chairman of LS institution in consultation with attorney general, Advocate general, government pleader and bar association president. The panel lawyer may be removed from a case on account of non performance of duties or for actions against object and purpose of the act.
LSA Amendment act 2002
the parliament realised that litigation orientated legal serviss cannot bring results, therefore for encouraging pre litigation legal services especially in public utility service, the parliament made certain amendments in the LSA act by passing an act known as LSA AMEND ACT 2002. The purpose of this amendment is to bring out certain changes in LSA 1987 and to establish permanent low adult to settle disputes regarding public utility services at pre litigation state.
public utility services
transort services, postal, telehraph service, supply of power, service in hospital, insurance service.
