Role of Free Legal aid in India: A legal perspective

Abstract

Access to Justice’ is a basic human right, yet it is a distant dream for the poor and deprived section of the country. Free legal aid is an initiative to provide protection of law to the weak, poor and illiterate and ensure them equal justice. Legal aid is meant for those people who cannot bear the expenses of lawyers’ fees and expenses (Singh R , 2017). The concept of legal aid coincides with the Preamble of the constitution of India that secures to all its citizens Social, Economic and political Justice (Constituent Assembly, n.d.). The importance of this concept can be gauged from the fact that 30% of Indian population is living below the poverty line. As per international poverty line, India has the largest number of people living under poverty line (PTI, 2016). Due to the poor implementation of the welfare schemes, more than 90% workforce in India falls under unorganised sector (Express News Service, 2015). There is a need to revamp the socio-economic structure for the people, in need of justice, to be empowered. Establishment and development of effective legal aid system is required to eradicate the inequality between the poor and the rich in serving justice (Pathak). The concept of legal aid cannot be undermined when we see the holistic picture of the Indian population deprived of even the basic needs of their lives. Setting up of legal services authorities and committees at national, state and district levels with the objective to improve the quality of legal services and make justice approachable to the deprived section of the society (Multiple Action Research Group, 2012). But the lack of legal awareness among people is one of the major reasons to get people deprived of the justice. For this, not only legal fraternity, but society also needs to come forward and take the responsibility to take care of its vulnerable population (Vardhan, 2015). This paper focuses on the purpose and functioning of legal services authorities. The aim of the paper is to study the extent to which the legal services authorities are working towards providing free legal aid to the poor and promote justice on a basis of equal opportunity.