Legal Aid In India And Judicial

Contribution
Table of Content
1) INTRODUCTION
2) LEGAL SERVICE AUTHORITY ACT 1987
INTRODUCTION

“The concept of seeking justice cannot be equated with

dollars. Money plays no role in seeking justice.”
Legal aid to the poor and weak is necessary for the preservation
of rule of law which is necessary for the existence of the orderly
society until and unless poor illiterate man is not legally assisted;
he is denied equality in the opportunity to seek justice. Therefore
as step towards making the legal service serve the poor and the
deprived the judiciary has taken active interests in providing legal
aid in the present scenario. The Indian Constitution provides for
an independent and impartial judiciary and the courts are given
power to protect the constitution and safeguard the rights of
people irrespective of their financial status since the aim of the
constitution is to provide justice to all and the directive principles
are in its integral part of the constitution, the constitution dictates
that the judiciary has the duty to protect rights of the poor as
society as whole. The judiciary through its significant judicial
intervention has compelled as well as guided the legislative to
come up with suitable legislation to bring justice to the doorstep
of the weakest sections of the society. Public interest litigation is
one of the examples of how Indian Judiciary has played the role
of the vanguard of the rights of Indian Citizens especially to the
poor.

Legal aid implies giving free legal service to the poor and the
needy who cannot afford the services of lawyer for the conduct of
a case or a legal proceeding in any court, tribunal or before an
authority. Legal aid is the method adopted to ensure that no one
is deprived of professional advice and help because of the lack of
funds. Therefore the main object is to provide equal justice to be
made available to the poor, downtrodden and weaker sections of
the society.
Justice P.N Bhagwati observed that

“The legal aid means providing an arrangement in the

society so that the missionary of the administration of
justice becomes easily accessible and is not out of
reach of those who have to resort to it for the
enforcement of its given to them by laws the poor and
illiterate should be able to approach the court and their
ignorance and poverty should not impediment in the
way of their obtaining justice from the courts. Legal aid
should be available to the poor and illiterate who don’t
have the access to the courts. One need not be a
litigant to seek aid by means of legal aid.”
Therefore legal aid is to be made available to the poor and the
needy by providing a system of government for those who cannot
afford the cost of litigation.

LEGAL SERVICE AUTHORITY ACT 1987

In 1987, the legal services authorities act was enacted by the

Parliament which came into force on 9th November 1995 to
establish nationwide network for providing free and competent
legal services to the weaker section of the society.

Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987 prescribes

the criteria for giving legal services to the eligible persons. If the
person is:

1. A member of Schedule Caste or Schedule Tribe

2. A victim of trafficking in human beings or beggar as
referred to in Article 23 of the Constitution.
3. A woman or child
4. A mentally ill or otherwise disabled person
5. A person who is a victim of earthquake or massive
disaster etc.
 6. An industrial workmen
7. In custody, including custody in protective homes
within the meaning of clause (g) of section 2
of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956
8. In a Juvenile home within the meaning of section 2 of
Juvenile Justice Act
9. In receipt of income less than Rs 50,000 or such other
higher amount as may be prescribed by state
government if the case is before the court other than
the Supreme Court or any other matter as may be
prescribed by the central Government in such behalf.
In the case of Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary, State
of Bihar[1] the Supreme Court held that the state cannot be
permitted to deny the constitutional right of the speedy trial to
the accused on the ground that the state has no adequate
financial resources to incur the necessary expenditure needed for
improving the administrative and judicial apparatus.

In the case of Indira Gandhi v. Raj Narain[2] it was held that rule
of law is the basic structure of the constitution of India. Every
individual is guaranteed the rights given to him under the
Constitution, equality of justice should be given to everyone.

CONCLUSION

Thus, legal aid strives to ensure that Constitutional pledge is

fulfilled in its better spirit and equal justice is made available to
the poor, downtrodden and the weaker section of the society. It is
worthy to mention that the Constitution of India provides that
state shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes
justice on the basis of equl opportunity and shall in particular
provides free legal aid by suitable legislation and schemes or in
any other way. Justice Krishna Iyer who is a crusader of social
justice in India had rightly said that Article 39 A emphasised that
free legal services is an inalienable element of reasonable, fair
and just procedure and that the right to free legal service was
implicit in the Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.