Karnataka - Dharwad   

Legal aid scheme being reviewed

By Our Special Correspondent

DHARWAD, JAN. 25. The Union Ministry of Law and Justice is planning to review the legal aid scheme to remove flaws, if any, and determine the changes required to fulfil the mandate of Article 39 A of the Constitution (Equal Justice and Free Legal Aid).

The Union Law Ministry is of the view that the time has come to review the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 under which statutory status has been given to legal services, and legal services authorities have been created at the national, State, district and taluk levels, according to official sources.

Committee formed

The Ministry has constituted a Committee for the Review of Legal Aid Schemes (CRLAS) to review legal aid schemes under the chairmanship of R.N. Mishra.

The committee has framed as many as 53 questions in a bid to seek responses from the people concerned.

These questions fall in ten categories, starting from the philosophy of legal aid schemes, to the composition and manning of legal service authorities and committees, legal aid counsel, functions of the central authority, entitlement criteria, payment of grants, lok adalats, permanent lok adalats and implementation of legal aid programmes.

An important question that has been raised is whether the objective of ensuring social justice has been realised and whether the present legal aid schemes and programmes are "free" in the real sense, effective and adequate.

For non-citizens

An interesting point on which opinion has been sought is whether non-citizens are entitled to legal aid, since the Act states that the opportunity to secure justice should not be denied to "any person" by reason of economic or other disabilities and "every person" who falls under the different categories enumerated shall be entitled to the service.

Another point is that when two parties fail to arrive at a compromise or settlement, should permanent lok adalats be empowered to decide the case on merit?

Remitting the case back to the courts, as is being done now, leads to unnecessary delay in the dispensation of justice, sources say.

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