A Report

On
District (Gopalgonj) Legal Aid Office Visit

Course Title: Alternative Dispute Resolution and Legal Aid [sessional]

Course Code: LJ 3212

Submitted to:
Punam Chakrabarty
Assistant Professor
Law Discipline Submitted by:
Khulna University Sarada Biswas
S. M. Hayat Mahmud Student Id: 192830
Assistant professor 3rd Year, 2nd Term
Law Discipline Law Discipline
Khulna University Khulna University

Date of Submission: 30 October, 2022

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 Index
No Content name Page no

1 Acknowledgement 3

2 Particulars of the visit 4

3 Purpose of the visit 4

3 Introduction 5

4 Observation 5-7

I. Structure of District Legal Aid Office,Gopalgonj

II. Who gets legal aid services from Gopalganj Legal Aid Office and
how many are they?
III. The number of women who accepted legal aid service during
pandemic time from the DLAO
5 Conversation Part 8

I. Conversation with the District Legal Aid Officer

II. Conversation with Mukta Begum

6 Conclusion 9

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 I am Sarada Biswas, student of LL. B. 3rd year of Khulna University, have a sessional course
on the Alternative Dispute Resolution and Legal Aid, would like to pay my sincere gratitude
towards our course teacher Punam Chakrabarty, for arranging my visit to District Legal Aid
Office, Gopalgonj for the purpose of understanding the role of district legal aid office for provide
legal aid service to the litigant and there functioning .

I am thankful to mam, for the opportunity to make a report focusing on " How many women went
to the District Legal Aid office, Gopalgong to seek legal aid service during the period of Corona
(April 2020 - September 2021) , who gets the legal aid service , how the DLAO play role to
ensure access to justice through legal aid service , the number of successful case resolving by
DLAO, Gopalgonj etc."

I am also thankful to Mr. Neaz Mahmud, District Legal Aid Officer,District legal Aid
office, Gopalgonj to make me understand the Role of DLAO, Gopalgonj to ensure legal aid sevice.

Sarada Biswas

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 Particulars Of Visit

Date of Visit: 6th October 2022

Time of Visit: 11:00am Thursday

Location : District Legal Aid Office, Gopalgonj

Name of District Legal Aid Officer: Mr. Neaz Mahmud

Purpose of visit

Generally, the purpose of the visit was to understand the role of district legal aid office to provide
legal aid for all eligiable person. The visit was to help on understanding the role of Gopalgonj
District legal aid office during COVID-19 Lockdown to provide legal aid for the women who are
victim of domestic violence. This has given an opportunity to understand the number of application
for legal aid, the numder of rejection of application , the number of women and child applicants,
the number of mediation by legal aid office , number of succesful case in a year etc.

As i went to visit District Legal Aid Office under Sessional course the Alternative Dispute
Resolution and Legal Aid , I had main focus on how to legal aid service was given and taken and
who could be litigants, on which area legal could be given and the procedure of mediation and the
ADR mechanism in DLAO, Gopalgonj. The aim was to evaluate the resources.

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 INTRODUCTION

The Government established the District Legal Aid Office in every District Judge Court of the
country and appointed a Judge of Senior Assistant Judge or Assistant Judge as its officer. In 2013,
the Government empowered the District Legal Aid Officer to give legal opinion and settle the
dispute through ADR by inserting section 21A in the Legal Aid Service Act-2000. The core
responsibilities of the District Legal Aid Officer (DLAO) is to mediate the dispute through
alternative dispute resolution (ADR) between the parties, appoint lawyers for accused and
complainant or victims, assist legal support in civil suits to privileged people and give legal
consultation and opinion to any kind of people without any cost. Building social awareness and
keeping role in extending access to justice in the society is also responsibility of Legal Aid Services
and Committees. In a nutshell Legal Aid Office is one of the key paths to extend and give access
to justice to the people.

For every law student to develop his practical knowledge, it is necessary to observe closely. On
last 6 october 2022, I have visited the District Legal Aid Office,Gopalgonj. I gained hands-on
experience in different areas legal aid service and ADR system including types of mediation by
the district legal aid office ( pre-case mediation and post case mediation) , legal aid provide by
district legal aid officer , how district legal aid officer deals with litigant , the criteria of getting
legal aid , district legal aid committee, legal advice provide by legal aid officer.

PERSONAL OBSERVATION

Structure of the court

The district legal aid office is running on the ground floor of the multi-storied modern Chief
Judicial Magistrate court building in Gopalganj. The district legal aid office has three large rooms.
Among them, one room is for Legal aid officer, another is for office assistant cum computer coder
and MLSS and the other is for Legal aid service candidates.

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 Who gets legal aid services from Gopalganj Legal Aid Office and how many are they?

Women: Legal Aid Offices basically support and work for giving women legal support and
assistance. Almost 70% of activities of legal aid offices are about the women rights and
empowerments. Family disputes, violence against women and dowry matters are seriously and
sincerely conducted by the DLAO. Most of the cases are solved at the settlements of the DLAO
as pre-case mediation. From April 2020 to September 2021, the number of women litigants was
70%. The percentage of applications relating to domestic violence was 75%, whereas the number
of cases involving dowry was 20%1. But before pandemic, this rate was only 30%.

Prisoner: The application of Prisoners, from April 2020 to September 2021 was near 200.

Child litigants: The number of child litigants was 7% in the time from April 2020 to September
2021.

Old age people: The number of old age litigants was 17% in the time from April 2020 to
September 2021.

1
NB: Approximated rates are used here for confidential purpose

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Freedom fighter who is incapable of earning: The number of freedom fighter was 5 % in the
time from April 2020 to September 2021.

Insolvent person: The number of insolvent person was 5 % in the time from April 2020 to
September 2021.

Acid burn women/child: This rate was 0 %.

The number of women who accepted legal aid service during pandemic time from the
DLAO

During the Covid-19 lockdown, victims of violence, particularly women, reached out to the office
via Facebook, Messenger, Imo, WhatsApp and hotline numbers. NGO helps them to access to
justice through legal aid office. The areas of legal aid service were family dispute, violence against
women, dower, maintenance, guardianship, dissolution of marriage, physical torture. The number
of rate given below:

Family Violence Dower% Maintenance% Dissolution Physical

dispute% against of torture%
women% marriage%
April 2020- 60 15 5 5 5 10
December
2020
January 2021- 55 10 10 10 10 5
September
2021

Table : Rate of women who accepted legal aid service from April 2020 to September 2021

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 Conversation Part

Conversation with the District Legal Aid Officer

Myself: How are you and your office reaching victims in the time of covid -19 lockdown?”

District Legal Aid Officer: During the Covid-19 lockdown, victims of violence, particularly
women, reached out to the office via Facebook, Messenger, Imo, WhatsApp and hotline numbers.
Poor internet connectivity, the lack of smartphones and internet literacy, the high price of mobile
data, the absence of proper guidelines, ignorance of the law, and the absence of upazila and union
legal aid offices were all serious barriers during this time.

Myself: What was the number of female applicants at the time of COVID -19?

District Legal Aid Officer: During the pandemic, the number of domestic violence applications
doubled. At this time, we received a large number of applications, of which 70 percent were from
women. The percentage of applications relating to domestic violence was 75%, whereas the
number of cases involving dowry was 20%."[Approximated rates are used here for confidential
purpose]. But before pandemic , this rate was only 30%.

Myself : Sir, how do you provide legal aid to jail inmates ?

District Legal Aid Officer: Applications of prisoner are received daily through jail superintendent.
We visit the jail once a week for the purpose of giving legal aid to the prisoner so that they can
defend themselves by the lawyer . We also give legal aid to the prisoners of other districts who are
detained in gopalgonj jail.

Myself : Sir, During COVID -19 time did any NGO help.

DLAO: Basiclly two NGO – BRAC & MLAA play role for proving legal aid service in this district.

Conversation with Mukta Begum

Mukta Begum who is a litigant, comes from Kotalipara upzilla. She has brought a case of dower.
District Legal Aid Officer heard all the information from her that day and saw her papers. Then
gave her the schedule of mediation on the next month.

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 Conclusion

The district legal aid office not only resolve the dispute but also provide legal advice to the
litigants. The district legal aid office, Gopalgonj provide legal aid service to person, regardless of
financial means, receiving legal information services, legal advice, or alternative dispute resolution
or mediation services for amicable disputes between disputing parties provided under the
government legal aid program; It also ensure to file and manage cases at public expense if
necessary to establish the rights of indigent and poor persons and payment of all relevant costs in
connection with the case. It also provide reimbursement of the cost of publication of notices in
criminal case newspapers and supply of power of attorney free of cost and payment of attorney's
fees and supply of copy of judgment or order free of charge. The district legal aid office also
provide payment of all costs of DNA test. It appointing lawyers to handle cases and arbitrating
cases referred from courts the In the covid situation, I think the performance of the legal aid
service was better. The district legal aid office provide legal aid service through virtual process
and NGO helps the DLAO to reach out the litigants in COVID-19 time.

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