The Awakening Dawn : Legal Aid

Source: The LawZ magazine

Link to the article: https://lawzmag.com/2020/06/18/the-awakening-dawn-legal-aid/

Despite the fact that our legal system functions on the premise that ignorance of law is no excuse, still the achievement of ‘legal literacy’ in its absolute terms remains a myth. Everyone is ‘equal before law’, but beneath this surface there remains a profound inequality in the actual working of the legal system by reason of the indifference of the law to the ‘inequality between the rich and poor’.

Legal aid as Human Right is implicit and also clearly all pervasive. In a developing country like ours, ‘ legal aid’ acts as a catalyst for achieving standards of social and economic development. The aid and assistance of the community in an unequal member have an access to justice on equal footing with the powerful and the privileged is called legal aid, but the concept of legal aid and its content changes as per the needs of every society, as asserted in Maneka Gandhi’s case

By incorporating Art 39(a) into the Constitution on the basis of 42^nd Amendment the concept of legal aid has been brought  within the Constitutional framework and subsequently the Legal Service Authorities Act,1987 has been enacted. Section 12 of this Act prescribes the criteria for giving legal services to eligible persons. In the case of Khatri vs State of Bihar, the Hon’ble Apex court has held that free legal aid to poor under Article 39(a) applies even to granting of bail . The court opined in another leading case of Hussainara Khatoon vs State of Bihar that legal aid is a constitutional right .

It is necessary that people not only be aware of their rights and remedies, they must believe that the enforcement of such rights is possible and that they will get adequate remedies within a reasonable time, on a reasonable expense or no expense. The whole perception must change as  there is a direct relationship between the faith  the people have in an institution and the success of that institution.

The concept of legal aid embraces both the Preventive and Remedial aspects.  A country where over 70 per cent of the population still lives in villages ensuring effective legal literacy must entail that, essential legal provisions which guarantee basic  rights must be simplified and translated into the language of the common man.

In India there are places so remote and underprivileged that local people have no financial capacity to pay the legal fees. Their poverty and illiteracy leads them to believe that they are born with no rights and this very perception makes the notion of imparting 100 percent legal aid a myth.

These harsh realities convince us that proper dissemination of legal aid can only be done  when the ‘conception of rights’ reaches the mass at the grass root level.

• To make justice real, affordable and physically accessible, larger and closer associations of the primary institutions becomes essential. Thereby, the role of Nyaya Panchayat gains prominence. In order to bring about a positive change in the imparting of legal aid, judges must be sensitized to the problems of the poor, they can then assist the Nyaya Panchayat to render speedy justice at the doorsteps.
• A formal tie-up of the Bar Council with the law colleges throughout the country must also be institutionalized to disseminate information to the masses.
• The functions of the Central authority also extends to allocating funds to voluntary associations working at the grass root level for this cause. Here the role of voluntary organizations must be crystallised.

Scrutinizing the authenticity of the organization and the cause of its working and how effective it is must be well assessed by the responsible authorities prior to making them a part of this scheme.

On a number of occasions it has been observed that a NGO after being allotted the project and the necessary funds stops working on the proposed lines and is of no use to the cause. In order to eliminate such encumbrances, the concept of ‘social auditing’ must be introduced whereby the ‘accountability of their work’ is established and  they are made to realise that they are responsible to the people and not for the statistics.

Another important means of streamlining the system would be the inclusion of legal luminaries and educationalists with the NGO’s by the government itself in order to keep a check on the functioning of these voluntary organisations.

• The use of popular medium and traditional media platforms and the tactical use of local language in the hoardings, banners , posters and brochures etc can be employed as a means to an end.
• Innovative means of promoting the concept of legal aid shall be employed by setting up:

Roadside legal aid booths and other stalls in local melas(fairs) and exhibitions while setting up legal aid kiosks around petrol pumps, railway platforms , bus stands, local hospitals and other such places, mostly frequented by the masses.

Anganwadi workers have gained much prominence in the recent past over their contribution for the promotion of the cause of rural women, so their popularity must be tapped to bring about effective legal literacy amongst women.

If the seeds of legal education be sowed in the primary years of upbringing of a child, then it makes a very withstanding impact. Thus we shall propose the introduction of  ‘legal literacy or the need to incorporate knowledge of the basic rights’ as a part of the school curriculum. The appropriate course material and the content of the information must be discussed thoroughly keeping in mind the intake capability and level of interpretation , of a budding child.

The achievement of Legal literacy is not an easy task nor can it be accomplished by one or two institutions alone, however it can be made a reality if all the three organs of the state merge with the contribution of  NGO’s, law schools, international organisations, the media etc and every right spirited individual with the belief in ensuring the ‘Rule of law’.