Introduction
First of all, what is legal aid. Legal aid is the free legal assistance given to poor and vulnerable persons who cannot afford to engage an advocate to represent them in court. This help is often extended by government programs, non-profit organizations, or pro-bono services by private law firms. The main aim of legal aid is that everyone gets to access justice, regardless of their financial situation. In this research article we’ll discuss about history of legal aid in India, prominent cases, concerns in legal aid system, and lastly recommendations to refine legal aid system in India.
Law has a principle, that is, Audi Alteram Partem, that states that no one shall be left unheard, as justice is a fundamental right. But despite of this fact the poor people suffer a lot to afford justice and most of the times they tend to adjust to injustice. Working on providing legal aid is important for illiterate and vulnerable people, so that ignorance and poverty does not hinder them from seeking justice. Legal aid not only means representation of an advocate in court but also includes legal awareness and legal advices.
History of legal aid in India
In 1960’s, the government initially provided some parameters for legal aid schemes in India. Year 1976 saw the introduction of forty second amendment act, through which article 39-A was added to the constitution which imposes a duty on state to give free legal aid to ensure that everyone gets access to justice. In 1980 the committee for implementing legal aid schemes came into existence with the aim to supervise and manage legal aid projects in India. These legal aid schemes required formal framework and standardizations, so this led to establishment of The Legal Services Authority Act,1987.
Then there was a need of a statutory body to make policies and guidelines according to the provisions of the act. So, National Legal Service Authority was established in 1995, to develop cost effective legal services schemes and work as a statutory body to provide legal assistance.
Prominent cases in legal aid system
1. Hussainara Khatoon V. Home Secretary, State Of Bihar
In this case many convicted persons could not hire an advocate to defend them. This case looked into the undertrials that were forced in jails and many of the accused were convicted forcefully and received a harsher penalty than what they actually deserved. The judiciary prevailed that any person who is accused of any offence has a right to free legal aid under article 39-A of constitution.
2. Khatri V. State Of Bihar
This case is better known as Bhagalpur blinding case. Police officers of Bhagalpur central jail blinded 31 undertrials prisoners by pouring acid into their eyes. Supreme court granted here in this case one of the issue raised was that “whether the state of Bihar was bound to make provisions for free legal services for the indigent accused persons or not.” The court asked the state to provide accused person a lawyer if they can’t afford and thus right to free legal aid is a fundamental right under article 21.
Thus judiciary has always been a strong supporter of free legal aid in India. Several judges have contributed significantly towards legal aid system of India. Several statues govern the legal aid mechanism that are, Legal Services Authority Act, National Legal Services Authority, state and district legal services authorities and lok adalats. Different decisions made by courts have worked well to promote the legal aid system.
Concerns in legal aid system
- Lack of legal awareness and accessibility to legal services
A person can opt for legal aid only when he/she knows about it. The main aim of legal aid services is to cater the poor and vulnerable people but the main problem is that they are not legally aware. Many individuals especially in rural areas are unaware of their rights and many a times face barriers in accessing these services so there are accessibility issues too. Urban cities have good legal aid infrastructure leaving, leaving rural areas undeserved.
- Lack of funds
The Indian legal aid system has insufficient resources for providing quality legal assistance. This mainly impacts the advocates and lawyers who are the legal aid providers. As most of them do not want to work for free and even if they do, good quality representation is absent. Very less legal specialists participate in pro bono work.
- Unorganized and lack of coordination
Inadequate infrastructure leads to reduced capacity to handle the workload of pending cases. For managing workloads of courts and to give speedy redressal to cases, lok adalats were formed, but they lack proper procedures. Main issue in the coordination of legal aid mechanism is despite having the potential policies and strategies, the implementation of those policies is a main dilemma.
Recommendations to refine legal aid system
- Ingenious provisions need to be implemented. Like the provision for corporate social responsibility which bound companies to allocate a percentage of their profits towards csr activities which ultimately helps NGOs to fund their campaigns and projects and helps companies in getting tax deductions. So such system can be applied for legal aid too. Which can help in filling the vacuums in the system by involvement of private legal firms.
- The legal aid mechanism kind off ignores the people who are slightly above the poverty line and make them undeserved. There are people who live in urban digital world but still struggle in legal aid accessibility, for them online portals should be made so that they can easily access the legal aid facility by posting it on the portal or e-mailing it to NALSA’s website.
- For illiterate people living in rural areas, para legal volunteers are appointed in the villages who fill up the forms on behalf of them. But due to lack of training and monitoring of such volunteers the task is not accomplished effectively. So there arises a need for proper training and monitoring of such para legal volunteers.
- There is a need for spreading information regarding the services offered by legal service organisations. As most of the people are unaware of the facilities and rights they have.
- Law students should be taught the importance of offering legal aid services and promote pro bono environment in law schools. Establishing legal aid cells in law colleges will encourage legal aid and also help law students to get grounded knowledge.
- NGOs act significantly in coordinating with all levels of legal service institutions. So, increasing the involvement of NGOs is important to improve legal aid system. As NGOs help by providing free legal aid to marginalized people and spreading awareness about rights of people.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Indian government and judiciary has taken various steps to improve legal aid mechanism, i.e., para legal volunteers appointed at various places, legal aid cells in law colleges, online portals for seeking legal help and many more. But there is a prominent need to address the obstacles in these steps. If these problems are not dealt sincerely then the legal aid system might face backlash in the coming future.