(a) the details of achievement made by the Government to make affordable and easy justice available to the common man in the country;
(b) whether Government has evolved any scheme in this regard; and
(c) if so, the details thereof?
(a) the details of achievement made by the Government to make affordable and easy justice available to the common man in the country;
(b) whether Government has evolved any scheme in this regard; and
(c) if so, the details thereof?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF LAW, COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS
& INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)
(a) to (c): The Government has undertaken a number of measures to make available affordable and easy justice to the common man in the country. The Government has implemented Access to Justice Project since 2012 in 8 States of the North East namely, Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim and the State of Jammu & Kashmir in partnership with State Legal Services Authorities and State Governments. Under the project a number of legal aid and literacy programme are being implemented in these States. The Government in partnership with UNDP also implemented another project on Access to Justice in 8 States namely, UP, Bihar, M.P, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Odisha and Maharashtra from 2009 to 2017. Under the project training and capacity building of panel lawyers, para legal volunteers, elected representatives of gram panchayats and anganwadi workers have been undertaken.
In April, 2017, the Government has launched three new legal empowerment initiatives, namely, Tele-law, Pro Bono legal services and Nyaya Mitra. Tele-law scheme has been launched in 1800 gram panchayats in 11 States of the country for providing free legal aid to marginalised persons as mentioned in section 12 of the Legal Services Authority Act, 1987. Till June, 2019, out of 72,167 cases registered under the scheme, legal advice has been provided in 70,423 cases. Under Nyaya Bandhu (Pro Bono Legal Services) scheme, 551 advocates have been registered for providing pro bono legal services and 444 cases have been registered under the Nyaya Bandhu Programme. Under the Nyaya Mitra scheme, Nyaya Mitras have been engaged in 6 States namely, UP, Bihar, West Bengal, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tripura.
In addition to the aforesaid initiatives, Government has released Rs. 6,986 crore, to various states and UT governments till date, since the inception of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Judiciary in 1993-94. Out of this, Rs. 3,542 crore (which is 50.70% of the total amount released till date) has been released to the States and UTs since April, 2014. As per information available, the number of court halls has increased from 15,818 as on 30.06.2014 to 19,101 as on date and number of residential units has increased from 10,211 as on 30.06.2014 to 16,790 as on date under this scheme. In addition, 2,833 court halls and 1896 residential units are under construction. The Government has approved continuation of the Scheme beyond the 12th Five Year Plan period i.e. from 01.04.2017 to 31.03.2020 with an estimated additional outlay of Rs.3,320 crore.
Further, the number of computerised District & Subordinate courts has increased from 13,672 to 16,845 registering an increase of 3,173 during 2014 till date. National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) has been launched which provides citizens with online information about case filings, case status and electronic copies of orders and judgments from district and subordinate courts that have already been computerized. Information regarding 11.67 crore cases is available on this portal. eCourts services such as details of case registration, cause list, case status, daily orders & final judgments are available to litigants and advocates through eCourts web portal, Judicial Service Centres (JSC) in all computerised courts, eCourts Mobile App with facility of QR Code (more than 20 lakh downloads), email service, SMS push & pull services. eCourts Project has been consistently amongst the top 5 Mission Mode Projects of country with a total number of electronic transactions at 262.26 crore.
National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, has also undertaken number of measures to make available affordable and speedy justice to the common man in the country. Under the Act, legal services institutions have been set up at state, district and taluka level. Apart from the legal services institutions, High Court Legal Services Committees are constituted at all High Courts level and the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee at the Supreme Court level to provide free legal services to the persons eligible under section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act. Free legal services include payment of court fees, providing advocate and preparation of paper book etc.
Legal aid clinics set up in jails, observation homes, juvenile justice boards and law schools are manned by panel lawyers and para legal volunteers of legal services authorities. NALSA has also developed schemes and programmes to ensure equitable access to justice for specific categories of people who are excluded from the formal legal system due to political, cultural, social or environmental conditions. During 2018-19, more than 14.72 lakh persons have benefited through legal services provided by them.