Legal Aid — Dispensation of Justice in a Democracy

Legal aid is undoubtedly meant to support those in need for a dispensation of justice in a democracy. Its purpose lies in ensuring equal justice to all, especially those belonging to the socio-economic vulnerable communities. Several systemic establishments have been created so that the application of these services occur smoothly. However, the implementation of free legal aid involves a lot of challenges, which makes the process seem very cumbersome.

The application of laws in India is a very tedious process in itself, with a myriad of complications. Lack of social and legal awareness on the citizens’ part, and the lack of incentive to create an appropriate monitoring mechanism on the state’s part, largely contribute to a negligent legal aid system. According to the Legal Services Authorities Act, the people belonging to Scheduled Castes and Tribes, a woman or child at a socially or economically disadvantaged position, individuals who have been victims of human trafficking or natural disasters, physically and mentally disabled persons, undertrials and the like, are entitled to ask for legal aid.

These beneficiaries are not legally aware about their own rights and liberties, and are subjugated to frequent harassment and violence, on the basis of their gender, culture, ethnicity, religion, caste, ability, etc. Without legal awareness, they inevitably do not possess legal literacy and are unaware as to what steps should be taken in the situation of violations of their basic rights. Even if they do possess legal awareness, they often don’t have the resources to access legal aid.

Furthermore, the authorities and stakeholders involved in dispensing legal aid seem to be socially insensitive, i.e., they are not aware as to how to handle sensitive matters of certain communities or cannot comprehend the gravity of their matters; discriminatory behavior against marginalized communities is often normalized. Due to the lack of incentive on the side of the authorities as well as the tedious process involved, it becomes a challenge for a victim to seek free legal aid. A recent research report states, “About 75% of beneficiaries would never have approached for the legal aid services if they had the resources to engage private legal practitioners.”

For instance, when women set out to seek legal aid, especially in cases of sexual violence, they face numerous obstacles. As per IndiaSpend’s visits to Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and the real-life cases of sexual abuse and exploitation they came across, reveal these said obstacles — avoidance and inefficiency in filing FIRs, discriminatory behavior based on caste and class (especially in case of Dalits), lack of paralegal volunteers (especially female volunteers), lack of awareness around rights and legal aid, difficulty in finding lawyers and, lack of incentive and motivation on the lawyers’ end. (one major example of such obstacles being the Badaun rape case of UP).

Due to the low honorarium paid to the lawyers of the DLSAs, uneducated marginalized victims are also asked for payments by some lawyers, which completely go against the objective of LSAs. Under-representation of women as paralegal volunteers (36%) and lawyers in DLSAs (18%) result in hesitation and humiliation faced by the victims while seeking legal aid.

“60% of women, who were aware of the free legal aid services, chose to opt for private legal practitioner because they could have better control over their lawyer.”

In case of Lok Adalats, there are several limitations that prevent them from achieving their prime objective of providing justice to all. More often than not, instead of focusing on ensuring justice, some courts aim at reducing the number of cases, which then lead to the parties being forced to compromise. Decisions are taken without the participation of the people involved in the cases, resulting in dissatisfaction among the parties.

The main objective of Legal Aid is undoubtedly to support those in need for dispensation of justice. The schemes and policies formulated to ensure the same are indeed comprehensive and focus on maximizing legal aid to the weaker sections as much as possible, through various initiatives such as legal awareness and legal literacy campaigns. Several attempts have been made to simplify the process of seeking aid through digitalization, One Stop Centers (especially during the pandemic), and helpline numbers.

However, behavioral and systemic changes are required to increase the efficiency of implementation and monitoring of the legal aid services of the country. Authorities have to be duly sensitized to handle severe criminal cases effectively, participation of women and genders other than men have to be encouraged in the LSAs, appropriate measures should be taken to increase the incentive for the lawyers and combat corruption, and legal awareness should be actively propagated in rural and marginalized areas of the country.

“It is imperative to bridge the gap of accessibility to justice between the highly privileged and the most vulnerable.” — N.V. Ramana, the Chief Justice of India

References:

• Aithala, S. P. D. S. V. (2018). Can Technology Finally Deliver on India’s Legal Aid Promise? (SSIR). Standford Social Innovation Review. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/can_technology_finally_deliver_on_indias_legal_aid_pr omise#
• Bhattacharya, M. Access to Courts and Enforcement of Rights — Legal Services Authorities Act: Free Legal Aid and ADR systems.
• How well do India’s free legal aid services work? Not nearly well enough. Scroll.In. https://scroll.in/article/877225/how-well-do-indias-freelegal-aid-services-work-not-nearly-well-enough
• Indira Gandhi National Open University School of Law. (2009, November) Introduction to the Indian Legal System. Block 4.
• Law, O. S. P. U. |. M. U. C. S. (2020, May 14). Legal Aid in India Amid the COVID19 Lockdown. JURIST — Commentary — Legal News & Commentary. https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2020/05/agrawal-mishra-india-legalaid/
• Legal Awareness. An article shared by Prof. Mehdi Hussain.
• Ministry of Law and Justice. (2021, August 8). It is imperative to bridge the gap of accessibility to justice between the highly privileged and the most vulnerable: Chief Justice of India [Press release]. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1743856
• Mishra, M. C., & Sharma, S. (2020). India’s Legal Aid System Needs More Female Paralegals, Monitoring. IndiaSpend. https://www.indiaspend.com/indias-legal-aidsystem-needs-more-female-paralegals-monitoring/
• P. (2021, January 28). Rs 1.05 per capita spend by Centre on legal aid in 2019–20: Report. The Economic Times. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politicsand-nation/rs-1-05-per-capita-spend-by-centre-on-legal-aid-in-2019-20- report/articleshow/80512108.cms?from=mdr
• Project 39A — Legal Aid. (n.d.). Project 39A. https://www.project39a.com/legal-aid
• Singh, S. R. (2019, June 30). Most see free legal aid as last-ditch option: report. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/most-see-free-legal-aid-as-lastditch-option-report/article28237300.ece
• Staff, F. P. (2019, July 22). Free legal aid is crucial right granted by Constitut..omen among categories of people eligible for provision. Firstpost. https://www.firstpost.com/india/free-legal-aid-is-crucial-right-granted-byconstitution-scs-sts-women-among-categories-of-people-eligible-for-provision7034801.htm