INTRODUCTION

Legal Aid which means giving free legal services to the poor and needy who are unable to
afford the services of an advocate for the conduct of a case or a legal proceeding in any court,
tribunal or before an Judicial authority.

The Indian Constitution is the ultimate rule-book in our country. It has articles and clauses for
every activity of the country. Article 39 A of the Constitution of India says that the State shall
secure that the legal system promotes justice on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall
provide free legal aid, in any way, to ensure that every individual is provided justice
irrespective of the economic or social differences. Articles 14 and 22(1) also make it
obligatory for the State to ensure equality before law and a legal system which gives justice
to all its subjects. Legal aid strives to ensure that constitutional pledge is fulfilled in its letter
and spirit and equal justice is made available to the poor, downtrodden and weaker sections
of the society1.

The evolution of the idea of legal aid came up in France during the year 1851 when the
government there introduced an act to provide legal help to the needy. In India, the concept of
legal aid started in 1952 when the Government asked for the legal help to the poor in various
Law Conferences. In 1980, a Committee was formed to supervise legal aid programs
throughout the country under the Chairmanship of Hon. Mr. Justice P.N. Bhagwati, then a
Judge of the Supreme Court of India. It came to be known as CILAS -Committee for
Implementing Legal Aid Schemes and it started working to provide legal help to the ones in
need throughout the country. The setting up of Lok adalats was another achievement in the
field of legal aid for the citizens of India. These courts speeded up the trial process in our
country and thus justice was given faster.

In 1987, Legal Services Authority Act was enacted so that the concept of legal aid cells gain
a statutory base and uniformity. Being not so perfect, this act was finally enforced in 1995 by
Hon. Mr. Justice R.N. Mishra mainly and came into use. The National Legal Services
Authority was constituted in 1995 and Hon. Dr. Justice A.S. Anand, Judge, Supreme Court of
India took over as the Executive Chairman. A nationwide network was set up and the apex
body being the National Legal Services Authority. They mainly promoted that every
individual should get justice and for that, it laid down principles and policies so that as per
the Constitution, legal service is available to all.

1
Introduction and history of NALSA, available at- http://nalsa.gov.in, last seen on 27/02/2019

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NEED FOR LEGAL AID

There has been a great change in the minds of the people of the nation towards the concept of
legal aid from a responsibility of the accused to find a lawyer and seek help to a fundamental
right of an accused to seek free legal aid. Even after all the efforts of the statute to make the
concept of legal aid flourish in our state, the set goals have not yet been achieved. There are
many obstacles to the successful application of legal aid in the country.

People are still not aware of their basic rights due to which the legal aid movement has not
achieved its goal yet. It is the absence of legal awareness which leads to exploitation and
deprivation of rights and benefits of the poor. Thus it is the need of the hour that the poor
illiterate people should be imparted with legal knowledge and should be educated on their
basic rights which should be done from the grass root level of the country2.

The poor people, who are not that fit socially and economically do not know about their legal
rights and the legal procedures to solve disputes. They either just give up on their rights or
end up solving them on the streets or to worsen the situation, they use their muscle power.
This kills the legal system of the country and the citizens lose faith in the administration of
the law of the country.

Thus legal aid to the poor and weak person is compulsory for the preservation of the rule of
law which is necessary for the existence of the society. The poor and the unaware people
being kept in the dark and not given justice are equal to the law and rights being unfair to all
the citizens. As per the Legal Services Authority Act, anyone who fits into the following
criteria is entitled to free legal aid3.

 A member of the scheduled class or tribes

 A poor person- one whose annual income is not more than 50000 for cases in the
Supreme Court and 25000 for other courts
 A victim of human trafficking or a beggar
 Mentally or physically disabled people
 A woman or a child

2
Legal aid in India, available at http://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l340-Legal-Aid-In-India.html, last
seen on 27/02/2019
3
Human Rights Initiative, available at-http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/publications/police/legal.pdf, last
seen on 28/02/2019

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  A victim of any disaster or unwanted accident
 An industrial workman
 One in custody, including protective custody
 A person facing a charge which may result in imprisonment
 Anyone who is not able to hire a lawyer for reasons like poverty
 Even today, there are many people who suffer injustice just because they are
unaware of their rights. It is not only in the rural parts of the country but also in
the urban. There are many educated people who are either too last to start the legal
procedures or are simply unaware of their legal rights and thus suffer. In some
cases, the fault lies on the individual who doesn’t take up any action even after
knowing his legal rights and how he can be rewarded justice but in some cases,
there are people who are totally unaware of their legal rights. They have no idea
that there are rules framed in their country for every injustice or violence of their
rights. These are the people who are in real need of awakening and need to be
enlightened.

 Thus the need of the hour is that we need to focus on effective and proper
implementation of the laws which we already possess instead of passing new
legislations to make legal aid in the country a reality instead of just a myth in the
minds of the countrymen4.

ROLE OF LAW SCHOOLS

Legal schools are the major colleges where undergraduate law courses are offered. These
institutions are an exception in the field of education. They make the law makers and
counselors for the country; they make lawyers for the country, for the successful application
of the law in the country. In India, there are many legal schools. There are in total 14 national
law schools India. National law schools have a brand name in providing legal education in
India. These law schools have all taken up the initiative to spread awareness about the Indian
law and provide legal aid to the needy. These legal schools have taken up the duty of
spreading legal awareness all around the country. Creating bodies, finding out the ones in

4
Legal aid in India, available at http://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l340-Legal-Aid-In-India.html, last
seen on 28/02/2019

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need and helping them by providing them legal advice, funds and guiding them are the major
tasks of these legal aid cells in legal school.

The primary obligation to provide legal services to the poor resides with the government and
a little with the people practicing law as a profession. It is not much the work of law schools.
Nevertheless, law schools do have some obligation to contribute to the solution of the crisis
in access to justice, and it seems obvious that the obligation is best accomplished by the legal
aid clinics of the law schools by assisting low-income individuals and communities that are
unaware or have particular difficulty obtaining lawyers because of the nature of their legal
problems5.

The legal profession is expected to play a dynamic role in the administration of justice. Law
Schools being the recruiting grounds for the legal profession, there is a need to inject new
spirit into the content of legal education to make lawyers and legal professionals socially
relevant and professionally competent to secure the constitutional mandate of access to
justice6.

In 1997, the Bar Council of India has made the study of legal aid an important and
compulsory subject in the academic topics of the law schools in India. However, this measure
has not been implemented to a satisfactory level of performance even after more than 22
years of the introduction of the rule.

All the law schools are playing some or the other role to enhance the role of legal aid in India.
Though some are not at all satisfactory, there are some who if given a little more support,
may become a great help to the society. The law schools can be of a great help to the society.
Being students, they will gain experience and they will have all resources like time and a
nominal amount of money to invest in doing good deeds like this. Setting up seminars, going
to the masses, visiting the jails and doing other activities can help to bring a change in the

5
Jane H. Aiken and Stephen Wizner, Teaching and Doing: The Role of Law School Clinics in Enhancing
Access to Justice, available at
http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?Article=1296&context=facpub/ last seen on
28/02/2019

6
A study of law school based legal service clinic, available at-
http://www.undp.org/content/india/en/home/library/democratic_governance/a_study_of_law_schoolbasedlegals
ervicesclinics, last seen on 01/03/2019

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society. A very small number of universities have been taken into consideration for this
project.

LEGAL CLINIC

A legal clinic (also law clinic or law school clinic) is a law school program providing hands-
on-legal experience to law school students and services to various clients. Clinics are usually
directed by clinical professors.7 Legal clinics typically do pro bono work in a particular area,
providing free legal services to clients.

A legal clinic or law clinic is a nonprofit law practice serving the public interest. Legal clinics
originated as a method of practical teaching of law school students, but today they encompass
also free legal aid with no academic links.8 There are practice-based law clinics with no
academic link which provide hands-on skills to lawyers, judges and non-lawyers on practical
ethical dimensions of the law at the same time offer free public defence legal services.9

IMPORTANCE OF LEGAL AID CLINIC

Article 39A of the Indian Constitution states that “The State shall secure that the operation of
the legal system promotes justice, on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall, in particular,
provide free legal aid, by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that
opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other
disabilities.”

Justice is what we usually talk about whenever we come across Indian Judicial Process. The
purpose for which Judiciary has been established is to deliver justice to everyone irrespective
of his social and economic condition. Very often, it becomes quite difficult for a person to get
justice because of certain economic means or certain procedures which he is not aware of.
Usually, a person does not want to indulge himself in the litigation process because of delay
in justice. It has become a mindset of various people that if a person is entering into the
process of litigation, then it would become very difficult for him to get out of it. Various
Legal Aid Committees have been established by Central and State Government in order to

7
Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Edition, "clinical legal studies," (St. Paul, Minn: West Publishing Co., 1990), 254
8
M. Yakasai, "Meaning of a Legal Clinic',2016
9
International organizations, lextern web,2017(https://www.lexternweb.org/international-organizations) last
visited on 01/03/2019

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make sure that justice can be delivered to those persons who are not able to represent
themselves because of their economic condition. Indian Constitution envisages making the
state oblige to enact a suitable act in order to provide free legal Aid to those people who
cannot afford the litigation process.

Provision of Free Legal Aid has been envisaged under the Indian Constitution, but
government has not been able to implement it successfully barring few places. Lok Adalats
are held from time to time, and this is the only success which can be attributed to the
government in implementing The Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. But, it would not be
wrong to say that law schools have showed their commitment in providing legal aid to the
people who need it, and it can be implemented in a better way if all universities across the
country start implementing it diligently.10

SUGGESTIONS

Today, there are many law schools in India which are doing their part of their duty towards
the nation. Being law institutions, their responsibility increases manifold. However, the
research has not given the optimum satisfaction after knowing how seriously the law schools
are performing in providing legal help to the society. Though the policies and guidelines have
been laid down well, the required participation was not felt in all the law schools. Some of
the major problems which are being faced by the institutions can be summed up as follows:

 Lack of participation of the students. The students are failing to take up the
responsibility and the initiative to work for the good cause of providing legal help
to the ones who are in need of it. The students are unaware of the events
happening in their universities and even if they are aware, in some universities,
they are not allowed to participate much into the legal aid cell.
 The institutions, knowing the importance of the legal aid cells should play a great
role in motivating their students. This motivation lacks in many law schools. Lack
of appropriate funds, disinterest in guiding the students and helping the students
when required is a major problem in some institutions.
 Lack of importance given to the concept of legal aid cells. Legal aid is very
important for the development of a nation. The legal institutions can play a great

10
Role of Law Schools in the Legal Aid Movement, available at https://www.legallyindia.com/views/entry/role-
of-law-schools-in-the-legal-aid-movement, last seen on 01/03/2019

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 role in helping the ones who need legal help. However, they fail to realize the
change they can bring in the society.

These are some basic problems, which if dealt with care and responsibility can easily be
removed from the legal schools. They don’t need much effort but just a willing mindset
which would take up initiatives to work for the society. Where problems exist, there
definitely are some solutions which if followed correctly may bring out a better society in
which every individual will be given justice and will be aware of the legal rights. Some of the
solutions given could be:

 A great positive change in the approach to the legal aid cells can be seen if the
institutions decide to make “LEGAL AID” a compulsory subject for at least the
first two years in the 5 year integrated course of law. In the first two years, the
fresh law students have the resources like interest and time to work for such
organizations and being a subject with credits will make it mandatory for all to
participate. I feel that the participation of all the batches is necessary since every
year, the students learn something new which can be utilized well by the legal aid
cell. However, the ratio of participation by the first two year batches should be
more than that of the next three years. Within these two years, there will be some
students who will develop real interest in the legal aid clinic of their college and
thus they will be the ones working for it in the remaining three years of their
course willingly. Inclusion of the subject in the academic curriculum may help a
lot as the participation of the students will increase to a great extent.
 Motivation from the institution can be a great way to increase the participation of
the students in working for the legal aid cells. Rewarding the students, giving
them facilities like proper transportation and attendance on visits regarding the
legal aid cells will motivate the students. There should be a particular panel of
faculty as well who should be approachable by the students very easily. They
should motivate their students and even accompany them at times. The faculty
should have a nominal role to play and should not take the entire control into their
hands. Authority should be delegated to the students as with authority comes
responsibility and once the students feel that that they are working for their nation,
their institution and for themselves, their dedication will increase. The universities
should fund the society well as this is for a very great cause and it is mainly the

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 participation of the students which will help the cells to attain its goals. The
monetary help given by the institutions will bring life into the legal aid cells.
 Another new idea which may help in the better functioning of the legal aid cells is
that if all the national law schools work together in a single legal aid clinic in
which the participation of the institutions will be mandatory by the CLAT
committee, there will be a great change in the approach to the legal aid in India.
This will enhance the participation of the institutions as the cell will under the
CLAT committee and the fever of competition against the students of other law
schools will increase the activities of the cell, thus benefiting the nation as more
and more activities will take place on a regular basis. This will help attaining the
goals of the legal aid cells increasing the efficiency and effectiveness.

Therefore, these are the basic solutions to the basic problems as to why some of the legal aid
cells in the legal schools of India are not functioning up to the satisfaction level. If taken into
consideration, these solutions may help in the development of the legal aid cells in our
country. It will increase the access to the legal systems in India by the poor and the unaware
citizens who are not even aware of their rights.

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CONCLUSION

Legal aid is the simple concept of providing justice to all the citizens of a nation. It is meant
especially for the ones who cannot afford to hire lawyers and fight for justice or for them who
are not even aware of their legal rights. In our country, Legal Services Authority Act makes it
a compulsion for all the legal schools to participate in providing legal aid to the society.
There are several law schools in India which have their own legal aid clinics. Legal schools
are the major colleges where undergraduate law courses are offered. These institutions are an
exception in the field of education. They make the law makers and counselors for the
country; they make lawyers for the country, for the successful application of the law in the
country.

These law schools participate in the deliverance of legal aid to the citizens. These institutions
and the participation of the students can play a great role if their efforts are placed into the
right direction. All the law schools are playing some or the other role to enhance the role of
legal aid in India. Though some are not at all satisfactory, there are some who if given a little
more support may become a great help to the society. The law students can be of great help
to the society. Being students, they will gain experience and they will have all resources like
time and a nominal amount of money to invest in doing good deeds like this. Setting up
seminars, going to the masses, visiting the jails and doing other activities can help to bring a
change in the society.