Like doctors, law students to do rural service: Nalsa chief

Like doctors, law students to do rural service: Nalsa chief

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:4.10.2021

In a radical change in approach to provide free legal aid to people residing in every nook and cranny, Nalsa chairman Justice U U Lalit announced that like MBBS students hands-on internship, final year law students would be persuaded to act as paralegal volunteers in the hinterland and help in making the poor and the needy aware of their right to free legal assistance.

This novel approach to make the poor and needy, women facing sexual assault, harassment or domestic violence, physically challenged, acid attack survivors and destitutes aware about availability of completely free quality legal assistance is a milestone decision in the 25-year existence of National Legal Services Authority (Nalsa).

Justice Lalit said that Nalsa has held talks with Bar Council of India (BCI), which grants recognition to law colleges and prescribes the curriculum for law courses, and that BCI has agreed to make changes in the curriculum that would enable the final year law students to act as paralegal volunteers for at least six months.

There are as many as 530 law colleges across the country recognised by the BCI. If each law college has 50 seats in the final year course, then the 530 colleges would provide a healthy paralegal force of over 26,000 students, who can fan out to the hinterland and educate almost the entire rural population in a matter of months about their right to get free legal aid.

Justice Lalit said that Nalsa, in collaboration with state, district, taluk legal aid services authorities, paralegal volunteers and NGOs, would try to reach out each of the 6.65 lakh villages at least three times during the 45-day-long campaign, which would end on the birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru on November 14.

The Nalsa chairman also said that the quality of legal aid has been a sore point for the last 25 years and promised a substantial improvement in the next few years.

Full report on www.toi.in