The Chief Justice of India and Law Minister Kiren Rijiju accompanied the President to the NALSA program at Vigyan Bhawan on Saturday. Justice Uday Umesh Lalit has asked senior advocates to donate time for legal aid work. He also added and asked law schools to adopt nearby districts/talukas to send students as paralegal volunteers. For senior lawyers he said that they should also encourage their juniors and come forward for this campaign. Only then people all over the country will be able to take advantage of this facility to get easy justice. With this, services of law schools and students will now be linked to accreditation of the law schools with the Bar Council of India.
Legal concerns raise by Uday Umesh Lalit, acting president of NALSA
This year NALSA is completing 25 years of legal services. We have taken large and very strong strides, but yet we have not reached every nook and corner. Just 1% of all cases are with legal services. Why? Are we lacking in reaching out to the people? Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, acting president of NALSA said. There is a chain of legal services at the Central, National, State, District, and Taluka levels. Legal service awareness programs should be organized in every village at least thrice a month. All the members of the bar should support at least three cases in a year with this NALSA for the poor and needy.
Reforms for legal machinery
Justice J. Lalit said, “the machinery must be strong, it must reach out to people, but the confidence in court-based legal aid will come if good quality legal assistance is available.” That will happen if good quality, senior advocates will take up legal aid to give back to society, pro bono work.
Two requests to all members of the Bar do three matters at least every year on Pro Bono basis.
1. We wanted to felicitate the senior advocates who have done legal aid work in the last 3 years- we found very few.
2. Please do pro bono work. This is the way we give back to society.
3. We have medical colleges where an internship is a matter of compulsion. Why not in law colleges? Let law college students give back as paralegal volunteers
If we have regular internships/ volunteers from law colleges there would perhaps be a stream of lawyers for legal aid. I am in touch with the Bar Council of India. Perhaps soon law colleges will adopt local districts for legal aid.
