Role Of Free Legal Aid In Upholding Justice

1. Presentation By:
Sanjeev Saurav

2. INTRODUCTION.
 Justice is the concept of morality based on the ethics, rationality, law,
natural law, fairness, religion and equality. Justice is the result of the fair
and proper administration of law. Upholding justice means to uphold
the justice of a cause.
 Equal access to justice is a right that is based on human right obligation.
By accesses to justice means that people are capable of claiming their
right to protect their livelihood, income, assets and seek a remedy
against exploitation. Access to justice has the biggest hindrance on the
poor people in the developing country.
Legal Aid means granting free legal service to the people who are
economically below poverty line who cannot afford the services of a
lawyer for their justice. According to Article 39A of the Constitution of
India.

3. Legal aid
MEANING OF UPHOLDING
JUSTICE
 Justice is the concept of morality
based on the ethics, rationality,
law, natural law, fairness.
Upholding justice means to
maintain justice in the society.
Access to justice has the biggest
hindrance on the poor people in
the developing countries.
WHAT IS LEGAL AID ?
 Legal Aid means granting free
legal service to the people who are
economically below poverty line
who cannot afford the services of a
lawyer for their justice. According
to Article 39A of the Constitution
of India, The State shall secure
that the operation of the legal
system promotes justice, on the
basis of equal opportunity.

4. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
 It involves the following Era:
 a) Vedic Era
 b) Islamic Era
c) Vikramaditya Era
d) British Era
e) Post-independence Era
f) Post –Constitution Era
 g) Reports of several committees on legal aid
 h) 42nd Amendment of the Indian Constitution, 1976 and
 i) Criminal Procedure Amendment Act, 2005

5. Who is entitled to free legal aid?
a member of the scheduled castes or tribes;
poor( with an annual income of not more than Rs. 50,000 for cases in the
Supreme Court and Rs. 25000 in other courts);
a victim of trafficking in human beings or beggar;
mentally disabled person;
woman or child;
a victim of mass disaster, caste atrocity, flood, drought, ethnic violence,
industrial disaster, earthquake and other cases of undeserved want;
an industrial workman;
protective custody;
charge which may convert in to imprisonment ;-( Khatri II vs. State of
Bihar, (1981) 1SCC); and
unable to hire a lawyer for their services due to poverty, destitution and
incommunicative situation

6. Cases for which legal aid is not available
 Cases in respect of malicious prosecution, defamation
contempt of court, perjury etc.
Proceedings relating to election
 Cases where the fine imposed is not more than Rs.50/-
 Offences against social laws & economic offences.
Cases where the person seeking legal aid is not directly
concerned with the proceedings and whose interests will not
be affected, if not represented properly.

7. The legal services Authority Act, 1987
 This Act was welcomed by the Supreme Court which has
encouraged other authorities to follow this model and set up
adalat on same lines. This Act grants a person to provide
legal aid if he has to defend or file a suit and belongs to the
category of Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, or if he/
she is a victim of human trafficking or a natural disaster or
beggar, or if it is a woman or child, or a person suffering
from any disability including mental disability or if it is a
case related to public importance.

8. Lok Adalats
 Lok Adalats are judicial
bodies that set up for the
purpose of facilitating
peaceful resolution of
disputes between the
litigating parties. They have
the powers of an ordinary civil
court, like summoning,
examining evidence etc. Lok
Adalat can solve all matters
like
 Summoning, examining
evidence etc
The Indian
constitution and
different legal
committees:
The Taluka Legal aid Committee.-
The District Legal aid Committee. -
The State Legal Aid Committee. –

9. Free Legal Aid in India : The positive
Contribution of Judiciary
Hussainara Khatoon v. State of Bihar, (1980) 1 SCC 98.
Khatri v. State of Bihar, AIR 1981 SC 262
Suk Das v. Union Territory of Arunachal Pradesh
State of Haryana v. Darshana Devi

10. ARTICLE 39A READ ALONG WITH ARTICLE 14
AND ARTICLE 21
 According to Article 39A of the Constitution of India, The State shall secure that
the operation of the legal system promotes justice, on the basis of equal
opportunity, and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid.
 Section 304 of Criminal Procedure Code deals with right to legal aid. According
to section 304 of CrPC,” It is the duty of the court to provide a lawyer for the
accused who does not have a sufficient means to hire it.
 Article 14 provides equality before law and equal protection of law. Article 21 of
the Constitution says that, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal
liberty except according to procedure established by law Art 14, THE
CONSTITUTION OF INDIA, 1950.

11. Indira Gandhi v. Raj Narain
AIR 1977 SC 69
 It has been observed that since upholding
the rule of law is of utmost importance as it
is a part of the basic structure, so no one
should be condemned unheard and trial
without legal representation would be
vitiated.

12. ISSUES RELATING TO LEGAL AID
 The right of legal aid comes with reasonable regulation and
restrictions. In State NCT of Delhi v. Navjot Sandhu, it was held
that when on a non-evidential basis a party to the dispute keeps
insisting that the amicus curiae hasn’t performed his role properly,
the court should not merely disband the counsel and look for
another one that pleases the party without adequately investigating
into the performance of the counsel against whom the complaint has
been made and the court must also keep in mind that an
unfavourable verdict at the trial may cause the party to make a claim
about his counsel but this should not entertained without proper
judicial scrutiny. (2005) 11 SCC 600

13. TELE - LAW SCHEME
(NALSA) launched Tele -Law scheme in Bihar. This
Scheme aims to provide Legal aid services to the
criticized communities and citizens living in rural areas
through digital technology. It is continuation to access to
justice Project to criticized persons enacted by United
Nations Development Programme.

14. CHRI
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) is an international
and independent non- profit organization. Its headquarter is in India. The
objectives of CHRI are:-
It promotes the practical knowledge of human rights in the
Commonwealth
 It educates the people about human rights issues
It advocates for greater attachment to human rights standards.

15. Suggestions to implement legal aid in Indian
society
 NGO’s and some organizations for spreading legal awareness they make
a skit group and with the help of that group they aware the people about
their rights.
The lower level of Indian society is not aware about their rights so we
need to aware them by the help of advertisement.
Our government should make such scheme which smoothen the justice
procedure.
We should promote basic legal awareness in primary school.

16. CONCLUSION
 Justice is the concept of morality based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law,
fairness, religion and equality. Justice is the result of the fair and proper
administration of law. Upholding justice means to maintain justice in society.
Legal Aid means granting free legal service to the people who are
economically below poverty line who cannot afford the services of a lawyer
for their justice. We can analyze the legal aid Philosophy even in ancient
India. The Legal Services Authority Act, 1987 provides for setting up of Lok
Adalat that serves as an alternate dispute resolution system. Even legal
institutions have taken up the liability for spreading legal awareness in all
around the Indian society. Creating bodies, finding out the ones in need and
helping them by providing them legal aid service, funds and guiding them
about their rights are the important tasks of these legal aid cells in legal
institutions

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