JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA

UNIVERSITY
NEW DELHI

LAW & POVERTY

CONCEPT OF LEGAL AID

Submitted by:- Submitted to :-

Priyam (46) S/F Rasheed Sir
IVth semester B.A LL.B(H) Asst. Prof.
(Law&Poverty)
 DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the assignment entitled “Concept of Legal Aid” submitted to the
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi is a record of an original work done by me under the
guidance of Rashid Sir, Assistant Professor, Law&Poverty, Jamia Millia Islamia and this
project work is submitted in the partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the
degree of B.A.LL.B(Hons). This results embodied in this assignment have not been
submitted to any other university or institute for the award or degree.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I express my gratitude and deep regards to my teacher for the subject Law&Poverty for
giving me such a challenging topic and also for his exemplary guidance, monitoring and
constant encouragement throughout the course of this assignment.

Lastly, I thank friends for their constant encouragement without which this assignment
would not have been possible.

I know that despite my best efforts some discrepancies might have crept in which I believe
my humble Professor would forgive.

Thanking You All.

Priyam
INTRODUCTION
“A person is not in prison because he is guilty. He is not in prison because he

has been punished. He is not in prison because there was apprehension that he

would escape before release. The only reason why he is in prison is that he is

poor.”

-Lyndon B.
Johnson

Since independence, the percentage of people in India who can afford a good

lifestyle has been increasing steadily, while the percentage of people under the poverty

line has decreased considerably. This change can undeniably be linked as a direct or

indirect consequence of the policies of the government for upliftment of the poor

people. Yet many people still have not been able to reap the benefits of these policies

and provisions and the associated economic growth. This has resulted in the widening of

the gap between the rich and the poor. As such, the poorer sections of the society feels

Ostracized and face various social injustices. Compounding their problems, it is seen

that they don`t have anyone to represent them before the court to face judicial

proceedings and thus, are deprived of justice. When the literate, affluent and urban

Sections of our population tend to escape and avoid taking the help of the law due to

Complexity of judicial proceedings, how can one expect the rural and backward masses

to see the system of courts and judges as a tool of providing justice? Although all

problems cannot be solved to the core, nonetheless our Constitution as well as

legislations provides a solution for the poorer and needy sections of the society, who do

not have the means to avail legal services, by providing them with free legal assistance.

This free legal assistance is called legal aid. Justice is a

cardinal principle of the Constitution of India and Constitution, being the

supreme law of the land, subordinate law cannot afford to ignore this principle.
Therefore, one of the biggest challenges to the legal profession in India is to

provide the constitutional mandate of access to justice to the poor. In the

expensive adversarial legal system, access to justice is a luxury to the people

living below poverty line. In a liberal economy where market forces decide

everything, offering free legal aid to the poor is often given the least priority

Human society, governed by Rule of Law must provide in its legal systern the

facilities for a poor litigant to avail freely or at a token cost, the legal assistance

in vindicating his rights. . In the case of Centre for Legal

Research v State of Kerala1, the Court observed that to ensure legal justice, legal aid

programmes are successful. Law, like any other discipline of Technology, is an art

as well as science to serve its master. Man cannot live by bread only. He/she

prefers dignity, honour and justice to starvation, dishonour and even death.

Justice is the substantive nourishment not for stomach but for human soul.

Justice must not only be done, it must appear to have been done2.

The absence of the legal awareness among masses is a prime factor that is responsible for
the exploitation and deprivation of rights and benefits to the poor people. Their ignorance
prevents them from forestalling legal troubles and consulting a lawyer for consultation and
taking legal advice in time. Their poverty multiplies the impact of legal problems and
difficulties. Legal Aid to the needy is an instrument of social justice. Social justice implies

that each citizen or section of the society must be treated equally and justly

Irrespective of his/her caste, creed, descent race, religion, sex, wealth or status.

The eternal yearning for equality of justice was enshrined in the Magna Carta

in 1215 A.D. thus: “To no man shall we deny, justice and to no man shall we

delay it”.

1
AIR 1986 SC 2195
2
Mulcherjee D.V, "Legal Education for Service to the Pooe', AIR, Nagpur (1982) 65
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Independence of Judiciary is very important for protecting the

legal, fundamental rights of citizens and everyone. However

unless judicial system is easily accessible to all no country can

develop and grow in effective manner. The haves can approach

Court of law easily but indigent and poor should be given equal

opportunity to get their rights enforced. It is duty and

obligation of state to provide compulsory legal aid to everyone

who cannot afford due to economic or any other reason.

In India where basic rights has been enforced as fundamental

by Constitution Article 14, 21, 22 then at same time by Article

39A Constitution makers put obligation on state to help the

poor and needy, emphasis on legal poverty i.e. incapacity of

people in making full use of laws and its institution, it has been

now accepted as function of ‘Welfare State’. Article 39A

provides that state shall promote legal system which provides

justice on basis of equal opportunity and provide legal aid by

suitable legislative enactments or schemes or in any other way,

to ensure opportunity for securing justice is not denied. As

right to legal aid is Directive Principles, one might question

that whether Constitution makers and government just

provided a lip service to public and made it toothless tiger.

However this view is not valid as Article 39A has been made

mandate by statutory enactment of Legal Service Authorities

Act 1987 and also setting up of Permanent Lok Adalats and

hence Article 39 A is enforced.

The first step regarding legal aid was prior to independence in

1945 when a society named Bombay Aid Society was set, post

-Independence State Legal Aid Committees were formed, 14th

Law Commission Report and Central government scheme

1960, National Conference on Legal Aid 1970 also came into

existence.

MEANING OF LEGAL AID

“There can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of
money he has.”

The literal meaning of the Legal Aid is to give free legal services to the poor and the needy
who are unable to afford the services of a lawyer for the conduct of a case or a legal
proceeding in any court, tribunal or before a Judicial authority.

According to Cambridge Advanced Learners‟ Dictionary „Legal Aid‟ means a

system of providing free advice about the law and practical help with legal matters for

people who are too poor to pay for it3. The concept of Right to Legal Aid in India is
mentioned in the Article 39A of the

Constitution of India4. Legal Services Authorities which came into the existence through

implementation of Legal Services Authorities Act in 1995 has a key role to play in
promoting

the concept of legal aid in the contemporary society of India. Right to legal aid is a tool to

fight against the social evil of our country i.e. Poverty. In Contemporary time, Legal Aid is

one of the effective ways for the emancipation of poor and underprivileged people who does

not get any opportunity to present their case and are deprived of the basic rights which they

3
http://dictionary.Cambridge.org/dictionary/british/legal-aid accessed on 10-06-2014
4
Art.39A, THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA,1950
are legally entitled. In the traditional sense legal aid is understood as financial assistance to a
person who wishes to assert or defend his rights in a court of law and who would not be able
to do so without such assistance in view of his financial means 5. Legal aid as human right is
implicit in Articles 7, 8 & 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is also clearly
provided in Clause 3 of Article 14 of the International Convention on Civil and Political
Rights. In order to ensure equality of justice, it is not only sufficient that law treats rich and
poor equally, but it is also necessary that the poor must be in a position to get their rights
enforced and should put up proper and adequate defence when they are sued for any
liability. If this is not done, the law despite of its equality will become discriminatory against
the poor. This brings into existence the question of legal aid to poor6.

LEGAL SERVICE AUTHORITY IN INDIA

Legal Services Authorities are promoting Legal Aid Clinic Schemes which was introduced
in

2010.7

. Legal Aid Clinics are intended to provide legal relief easily accessible to the indigent

and backward sections of the society. Legal Aid Clinics are almost on the lines of the
primary

health centres. A lawyer manning the legal aid clinic will also have to try to resolve the

disputes of the people in locality, preventing the disputes from maturing into litigation.

Objectives of Legal Aid Clinic are to provide legal assistance to the marginalised people,

helping society as well as courts to reduce litigation, bring suppressed issues to light, making

the concept of access of justice meaningful and provide legal awareness. Duties of the

institution of the Legal Aid Clinics are to provide honorarium for the lawyers and para-legal

volunteers, maintenance of records and registers, lawyers in the legal aid clinic shall attempt

to resolve disputes locally and effective use of mobile Lok Adalat vehicles 8. Today, Legal
Services Authorities are the torchbearers in promoting legal assistance to the

marginalised sections of society. Marginalised sections are sect of people or certain persons
5
Narain, Jagat, Legal Aid-Litigational or Educational:An Indian Experiment, Journal of the Indian
Law Institution, Volume 25, 1983.
6
Tripathi, B. N, Jurisprudence (Legal Theory), Allahabad Law Agency, 18th Edition 2008, pp 400-401.
7
nalsa.gov.in (Last visited on October 15th,2019)
8
bslsa.gov.in (Last visited on October 15th,2019)
who are made to feel of less important by those people who are in power9

. This in turn steals

them the opportunities which they are entitled. Article -14 of the Indian Constitution talks

about equality before law or equal protection of laws within the territory of India10 . But the

reality is slightly different than what is reflected in our Indian Constitution. There are few

sections of our society that have definitely been marginalised by us. Legal Services
Authorities are working on the Centre, State, District and Taluka level. At the Centre-
National Legal Service Authority (NALSA), at the State level- State Legal Services
Authority (SLSA), at District level- District Legal Services Authority and at Taluka level
Taluka Legal Services Committee is spreading legal awareness among people 11. However, it
is unfortunate that after seventy two years of Independence, we are still not in a situation to
provide legal aid to all persons. We are still fighting with the issues of poverty which become an
obstacle

in providing legal aid. As a result, many people are still unaware of their right to legal aid.

But After establishing National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) under the Legal Services

Authorities Act, 1987, the situation is changing gradually. NALSA is trying to promote legal

awareness through launching different schemes which can help us in trying to fulfil the aim

mentioned in the Preamble.

CONCLUSION
Justice P.N. Bhagwati rightly states the poor and the illiterate should be able to

approach the courts and their ignorance and poverty should not be an impediment in the

way of their obtaining justice from the courts. 12O. n deeply analyzing the problem we
realize, the major obstacle to legal aid is the illiteracy. More than 70% of the population
living in rural areas are illiterate and are not aware of the rights provided to them by the law.
The actual reason behind the exploitation and deprivation of rights and benefits of the poor
is the lack of legal awareness. As already discussed in this area we have a large number of
laws not only in the form of the philanthropic judgments and legislations, but they all have
proved to be myth because of their ineffective implementation for those who need them
utmost. Thus effective and proper implementation of the laws is the need of the hour, instead

9
https;//dictionary.cambridge.org (Last visited on October 15th,2019)
10
Art.14, THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA,1950
11
THE LEGAL SERVICES AUTHORITY ACT,1987
12
Report of Legal Aid Committee 1971, Published by Gujrat Government, p.5, Para.III
of enacting any new legislation. Only implementation of present laws can pave a way to
legal aid in the country as a reality rather than just a myth in the minds of the countrymen.
Summing up the general importance of legal aid in the modern societies, it can

be safely said that the Goddess of Justice can now dispense justice blind-folded only if

the administrators, dispensers and practitioners of justice keep their eyes wide open and

the poor and destitute in the society are being helped to stand equal to their dominating

and prosperous adversaries. And this can be ensured only by way of effective provisions

of legal aid in all societies; developed, developing or the under developed

ection 303 states that, “Any

person accused of an offence
before a Criminal Court, or
against whom proceedings
are instituted
under this Code, may of right
be defended by a pleader of
his choice.”

ection 303 states that, “Any

person accused of an offence
before a Criminal Court, or
against whom proceedings
are instituted
under this Code, may of right
be defended by a pleader of
his choice.”
ection 303 states that, “Any
person accused of an offence
before a Criminal Court, or
against whom proceedings
are instituted
under this Code, may of right
be defended by a pleader of
his choice.”
ection 303 states that, “Any
person accused of an offence
before a Criminal Court, or
against whom proceedings
are instituted
under this Code, may of right
be defended by a pleader of
his choice.”
Section 303 states that, “Any person accused of an offence before a Criminal Court, or
against whom proceedings are instituted
under this Code, may of right be defended by a pleader of his choice.”