CHAPTER – I

INTRODUCTION
 CHAPTER – I
INTRODUCTION
“Whatever standards a man chooses to set for himself, be they
religious, moral social or purely rational in origin, it is he law which
prescribes and governs his rights and duties towards the other members
of the community. This somewhat arbitrary collection of principles he has
very largely to take as he finds and in modern society it tends to be so
divers and complex that the help of an expert is often essential not merely
to enforce defend legal rights but to recognise, identify and define
them.” - Mathews and Outton 1

India is a modern state that has accepted the concept of Welfare

State. Hence it has to work for the welfare of the general public. It is the
function of the state to establish a just social order by enacting just laws
and by providing equal opportunity to all to grow. Every Government is
constituted to respond the needs and aspirations of the people and to
remove social inequalities among its citizens. This promotes social justice
among poor and downtrodden. The concept of social justice must be
underlying principle in the administration of justice in the country.
Due to the multiple factors such like illiteracy, destitution, absence
of knowledge of own rights and corruption, the disadvantaged groups
remain ignorant and invisible to the formal legal system and therefore,
continue to suffer the substantive inequalities that plague their lives.
The Indian Constitution has placed a legal system which protects
the rights of everyone. The Constitution has defined and declared the
common goal for its citizens in tits Preamble. As per the Preamble of the
constitution, the people of India has given themselves a Constitution

1
Mathews and Otton, Legal Aid & Advice, London, Butterworths, 1971 cited in Mamta
Rao, Public Interest Litigation, Eastern Book Company, 2010, p.340

1
which constitutes India a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic
republic which secures to all its citizens justice – social, economic and
political, liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
equality of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all
fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity
of the nation.
Article 39A of the Constitution provides that the state shall secure
that the operation of a legal system promotes justice on a basis of equal
opportunity and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid by suitable
legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities
for securing justice are not denied to any citizen of economic and other
disabilities. To achieve the goal of equal justice to all Government
provides free legal aid to the needy. Legal aid implies giving fr ee legal
services to the poor and needy who cannot afford the services of a lawyer
for the conduct of a case or a legal proceeding in any court, tribunal or
before any authority. However, in a country with population more than a
billion, it becomes very difficult to provide free legal aid to everyone.
The earliest movement in Legal Aid was in the year 1851 when an
enactment was introduced in France for providing free legal assistance to
the indigents. In 42nd Amendment Act of 1976, a new directive contained
in Article 39A, has been inserted to enjoin the state to provide the free
legal aid to the poor and particular categories and to take other suitable
steps to ensure equal justice to all.
Article 14 and 22(1) also make it obligatory for the State to ensure
equality before law and a legal system which promotes justice on a basis
of equal opportunity to all. Legal aid strives to ensure that constitutional
pledge is fulfilled in its letter and spirit and equal justice is made
available to the poor, downtrodden and weaker section of the society.
Legal aid programs are wide spread and spreading wider. They are part

2
 and parcel of the rule of law, and where the rule of law is, or is being
developed, so legal aid programs are, or are being developed.
LEGAL AID : CONCEPT, DEFINITION AND LEGALITY:
Legal aid may be taken to mean free legal assistance to the poor
persons in any judicial proceeding before the court, tribunal or any
authority. It intends to provide free legal assistance to the poor persons
who are not able to enforce the rights given by law to them. Justice P.N.
Bhagwati clearly stated that legal aid means providing an arrangement to
the society which makes the machinery of administration of justice easily
accessible and in reach of those who have to resort to it for enforcement
of rights given to them by law. He has rightly said that the poor and
illiterate should be able to approach the courts and their ignorance and
poverty should not be an implement in the way of justice from the courts.
The Constitution of India give much importance to rule of law In India it
is regarded as a part of the basic structure of the Constitution and also of
natural justice. Free legal aid to the poor and weak persons has been held
to necessary adjunct of the rule of law.
According to Oxford dictionary, legal aid is the provision of
assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and
access to the court system. Legal aid provides access to justice by
ensuring equality before law, the right to counsel and the trial. A number
of delivery models for legal aid have emerged, including duty lawyers,
community legal clinics and payments of lawyers to deal with cases for
individuals who are entitled to legal aid.
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines legal aid as professional
legal assistance given, either at no charge or for a nominal sum to the
person of limited means, to represent them in the court in civil and
criminal matters. Inability to consult or to be represented by a lawyer may
amount to the same thing as being deprived of the security of law. ―Rawls

3
first principle of justice is that each person is to have an equal right to the
most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a
similar system of liberties for all. 2‖ Legal is the method adopted to ensure
that no one is debarred from professional advice and help because of lack
funds. ―Thus, the provisions of legal aid to the poor are based
on humanitarian considerations and the main aim of these provisions is to
help the poverty-stricken people who are socially and economically
backward.3‖
Conventionally, ‗legal aid‘ has been taken in to mean the
organised efforts of the bar council, the community and the government to
provide the services of lawyers free, or for a token charge, to the persons
who cannot afford the usual exorbitant fees. Inability to consult or to be
represented by a lawyer may amount to the same thing as being deprived of
the security of law. Rawls first principle of justice is that each person is to
have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic
liberties compatible with similar system of liberties for all. In the context
of constitutional demands and state obligations, legal aid has assumed a
more positive and dynamic role which must include strategic and
preventive services. Relieving ‗legal poverty‘, i.e. the incapacity of many
people to make full use of law and its institutions has now been accepted as
a function of a ‗Welfare State.‘
Apart from the social, economic and political requirements on
which the claim of legal aid rests, it is now recently recognised as a
constitutional imperative arising from Article 14 4 , 215, 226(1) and

2
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Universal Law Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd. Delhi, 2000 p. 5
3
C.H. Scott, Legal Aid Past and Present, A Brief Picture, pp. 4-5. cited in Mamta Rao,
Public Interest Litigation, Eastern Book Company, 2010 p. 341
4
Constitution of India: Article 14 Equality before law- The State shall not deny to any
person equality before the law or the equal protection of laws within the territory of India.
5
Article 21 Protection of life and personal liberty- No person shall be deprived of his life or
personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law.

4
39-A7 of the constitution of India as well as under the different statutes
and legislations which also derive their powers from the constitution.
Legal Aid is a movement that envisages that the poor have easy access to
courts and other governmental agencies and authorities. The purpose of
legal aid is to provide ‗access to justice for all‘ so that justice is not
denied to citizens by the reason of economic or other disabilities. To
effectuate the constitutional mandate enshrined under Articles 14 and 39 -
A of the Constitution, The Legal Service Authorities Act, 1987 was
enacted. However, in order to enable the citizens to avail the
opportunities under the Act in respect of grant of free legal aid etc, it is
necessary that firstly they are made aware of their rights. Legal aid is an
essential part of administration of justice and must be so implemented.
About 70% people living in rural areas are illiterate and are not
aware of their rights conferred upon them by law. Even literate people do
not know about their rights and entitlements under the law. It is the
absence of legal awareness which is responsible for the deception,
exploitation and deprivation of rights and benefits of the poor and
downtrodden. Their legal needs always stand to become crisis oriented
because their ignorance prevents them from anticipating legal troubles
and approaching a lawyer for consultation and advice in time. They are
unable to avail the legal service programs for winning their rights and
putting an end to their exploitation due to the lack of legal awareness
which results to make them total helpless. That is why it has always been
recognised as one of the principal items of the program of the legal aid

6
Article 22 Protection against arrest and detention in certain cases – (1) No person who is
arrested shall be detained in custody without being informed of grounds , as soon as may
be, for such arrest nor shall he be denied the right to consult, and to be defended by, a
legal practitioner of his choice.
7
Article 39A- Equal Justice and Free Legal Aid – The State shall secure that the operation
of legal system promotes justice, on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall, in particular,
provide free legal aid, by suitable legislations or schemes or in any other way, to ensure
that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic
or other disabilities.

5
movement in the country is to promote legal literacy. It would be in these
circumstances made a mockery of legal aid if it were to be left to a poor,
ignorant and illiterate accused to ask for free legal service, legal aid
would become merely a paper promise and it would fail of its purpose.
HISTORY OF LEGAL AID IN INDIA:
The idea of legal aid originated in medieval period. In modern
society, if law has to play a purposeful and significant role for the socio
economic reconstruction of the society, legal aid must give meaningful
and substantive education to the poor about law and their rights and
provide solution to their problems.
After coming into force of Constitution of India, in order to
implement the basic fundamental rights of the citizens and to give effect
to the constitution mandate of the right of life and liberty especially in
case of poor and down trodden people of the country, government started
doing ground work for providing free legal aid to deserving persons and
in this regard some discussions took place in various conferences of Law
Ministers and Law Commissions but no effective proposal could come
forward. In different states legal aid schemes were floated through Legal
Aid Boards, Societies and Law Departments.
History of legal services can be traced back to 1944 in England,
when a committee under the Chairmanship of Lord Rushcliffe was
appointed to ascertain the facilities provided for giving legal advice and
assistance to poor and neglected citizens in England. After extensive
discussion the committee proposed certain measures for providing legal
advice to the poor and also to expedient the existing system whereby
legal aid is available to persons. The committee submitted its report in
1945 and after being accepted by the British Parliament, The Legal Aid
and Advice Act, 1949 came in existence.
In light of the above recommendations and its noble and realistic

6
 approach, in India also the Bombay Legal Aid Society proposed that a
committee by set up in India to examine the question of legal aid to the
poor. In 1949, under the Chairmanship of Justice N.H. Bhagvati, 'The
Committee on Legal Aid and Legal Advice in Bombay' was set up to
consider the question of grant of legal aid to certain category of people.
The Committee submitted its report in October, 1949. The same year, a
Committee under the Chairmanship of Sir Arthur Trevol Harries, then the
Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, was constituted in West Bengal to
examine the question and the said committee also recommended legal aid
to the poor litigants.
The Bombay Committee:
The first major step taken in this regard prior to independence of
the country was in the year 1945 when in the State of Bombay, a soci ety
named as Bombay Legal Aid Society was set up which invited the
intention of the government of India towards Lord Rushcliffe‘s report
regarding legal aid and advice in England and Wales. The post-
independence legal aid development was initiated by formation of
Bombay Committee in 1949 under the chairmanship of Mr. N.H.
Bhagwati. The Bombay Committee made the following recommendations.
(a) The system of legal aid delivery would comprise a hierarchy of
committees at the Tulak, District, High Court and state levels.
(b) Legal aid was to cover the court fees, process fees, cost of witnesses,
cost for obtaining certified copies and fees of pleaders.
(c) Legal aid was to be available at the trial and appellate stages.
(d) The formation of panels of lawyers for legal aid work was to be left
to the bar associations. Lawyers with at least five years experience
should be empanelled. They would be paid fees, and were to be on
par with the government pleaders.
(e) The major sources of funds for legal aid committee would be

7
 government grants, donation from trade associations, legal bodies
and cost recovered in civil litigations.
(f) Adequate publicity had to be given about the availability of legal
aid.
Although the recommendations were not implemented because in
the beginning, the government was of the view that making provisions of
the legal aid to the poor was the entire responsibilities of the state and
states have to make budgetary provisions in this regard. Some private
societies tried to take initiative in this regard but could not do much due
to lack of funds.
Law Commission Report (1958):
Government of India set up 14 th Law Commission under the
chairmanship of Mr. M.C. Setalvad, the then Attorney General of India on 5-8-
1955. The Commission consisted of other 10 members also which included
two serving chief justices of High Courts, two retired High Court judge,
advocates general of two different states and prominent advocates besides co-
opted members.
In its 14th report, Law Commission dealt with the issue of legal aid.
Commission was conscious of the fact that unless provisions are made for
assisting the poor person for providing court fees, lawyers fees and other
incidental charges of litigation, he is denied equal opportunity of seeking
justice. Legal aid to poor is not a minor procedural law problem but is a
question of fundamental character.
Commission further held that it is the obligation of the state to
provide legal aid and rejected the plea that providing of legal aid would
make people more litigious, would increase li tigation, put extra financial
burden on budget and would invite dishonest and unscrupulous persons to
misuse this facility. Commission further requested the lawyers and legal
fraternity to take some moral and social responsibilities for implementing

8
 the scheme of providing free legal aid to poor as they have to conduct
their cases in the court of law but totally opposed the putting force and
compulsion of doing this work. It was suggested that some scale should
be made for providing fee structure, though comparatively at lesser rate
than normal fee for lawyers who offers to do such service for poor
persons. Making of provision of substantial budgetary provision was also
recommended for providing legal aid to poor. It was also recommended
that N.H. Bhagwati Committee‘s report given in context of state of
Bombay with some modifications be made applicable to each state.
Commission recommended for immediate setting up legal aid committees
by every bar associations in each state, making some changes in High
Court rules etc.
P.N. Bhagwati Committee Report (1971) :
The another major step towards providing free legal aid took place
when government constituted a committee under the chairmanship of
Justice P.N. Bhagwati, Judge Supreme Court of India. The focus of the
committee was the indigent person seeking to access justice. The report
clearly stated that there can be no rule of law unless the common man
irrespective of the fact whether he is rich or poor is able to assert and
vindicate to the rights given to him by the law. The machinery of law
should be readily accessible to all. The poor must be placed in the same
position as the rich by means of adequate legal service programme. It
stated that the inequality between the rich and the poor in administration
of the justice can be removed by establishing and developing effective
system of the legal aid programme. Legal aid and advice should be
regarded not as a matter of charity but as a matter of right. Responsibility
of the state was fixed for providing legal assistance to the poor and
indigent by stating that this obligation is not merely, socio-economic or
political but is constitutional by reason of Articles 14 and 22(1).

9
 It also emphasized that legal aid programmes must be responsive to
the poor in giving legal service and must not be mechanical in its
approach and even after introduction of such programmes, there must be
continues examination of its utility and its responsiveness to the poor.
The report also in detail stated the constitution and the working of
different legal committees such as: (a) The Taluka Legal Aid Committee,
(b) The District Legal Aid Committee, (c) The State Legal Aid
Committee. It is recommended that legal service programme be
implemented in its entirety but in phased manner at three stages.
Committee also suggested for implementation of the preventive legal
services programme such as legal research and innovation, institutional
changes and organization of the poor etc. may be postponed but there
should not be delay in implementation of the items of the legal service
and education.
Krishna Iyer Committee Report (1973) :
Justice Krishna Iyer presided over another similar committee set up
on 22 October, 1972 and dealt with the question of nexus between law and
poverty. He, in his 275 pages report submitted on 27th May, 1973 spoke
highly in favour of concept of public interest litigation and emphasized the
need for active and widespread legal aid system that enables law to reach
the people, rather than requiring people to reach the law.8
Juridicare Committee Report (1977) :
Another committee of two judges Justice P.N. Bhagwati and
Justice Krishna Iyer was set up for providing adequate legal service
programme in all the states on uniform basis. This committee in its final
report popularly known as ‗Report on National Juridicare: Equal Justice-
Social Justice‖ submitted in the year 1977 stressed upon the need for a
new philosophy of legal service programme to be framed in the light of

8
Committee on Legal Aid titled as ―processional justice to poor‖ set up in the year 1972

10
socio-economic conditions prevailing in the country. It also opined that
the traditional legal service programme which is essentially a court or
litigation oriented, cannot meet the specific needs and the peculiar
problems of the poor in our country. The committee in its report also
included draft legislation for legal services in the name of National Legal
Services Bill, 1977 and gave it the name of Social Action Litigation. It
also recommended that legal service organization should not be a
department of the government but an autonomous institution headed by
the Judge of the Supreme Court having representations from Bar
Associations. The contents of this report clearly point out that it was in
continuation of the 1973 report with an extensive revision, updating,
revaluating and adding. The various suggestions made by him can be
summarized as under:
A national legal service authority accountable to
the parliament but protected from official control
was recommended. Simplification of the legal
procedure and an emphasis on conciliated
settlement outside court has to be the policy of
legal aid schemes.
The committee was in favour of regular arrangement for aid and
advice to the undertrials. A liberalized bail policy, extension of legal
services during investigation as well as post-conviction stage including
providing rehabilitative services, compensation to victims of crimes,
making provisions of salaried lawyers was also favoured by the
committee. Committee also recommended that the family courts should
be established for women and children with women judges specially in
slum areas and rural villages besides setting up public defence council in
children‘s court, legal advice bureau in backward areas. The report
encourages the involvement of law students in legal aid schemes
particularly for preventive legal services. It also favored the setting up of

11
Nagrik Salah Kendra at each legal aid office to provide counselling
service for all kinds of problems for which assistance may be needed.
This report focused on the orientation of the different actors who would
be the participants in the program which included members of judiciary,
law universities, law students, voluntary agencies and social workers.
There was also an emphasis on the university law clinics and their
functions included preventive and positive service at pre-litigation stage
by negotiation and conciliation disputes outside the courts, giving postal
advice in respect of legal problems of individuals, seeking administrative
and legislative remedies against wrongs done and so on. The report
clearly stated that the funding of the legal aid programme was the state
responsibility and for this identified sources such as court fees collected
from the litigants, legal aid steps, levy of special cases, donations and
many more for the purpose of funding the legal aid programme.
Committee for Implementing Legal Aid Scheme :
To augment the justice delivery mechanism, the Central
Government on 26 September, 1980 constituted another high-powered
Committee for implementing legal aid schemes, to monitor and implement
comprehensive legal aid programme and to work out mechanism which
could operate and workout satisfactorily at all levels i.e., National, State
and District as well as Taluk levels on uniform basis. The said Committee
was christened as ‗Committee for Implementing Legal Aid Schemes‘
(CILAS) and the same was constituted under the Chairmanship of Mr.
Justice P. N. Bhagwati, committee was assigned the task to monitor the
implementation of legal aid programmes on uniform basis in all the states
and union territories and to fulfill the objective of providing free legal aid.
The CILAS was totally funded by grants from the central government and
the Government was very much concerned with the programme of legal
aid as its implementation was the Constitution mandate.

12
Legal Services Authorities Act :
In the year 1987, the ―Legal Services Authorities Act‖ was
enacted to give a statutory base to legal aid programs throughout the country in
a uniform pattern. The said Act provides for the setting up of the National
Legal Services Authority, the State Legal Services Authorities in different
States, the District Legal Services Authorities at different district levels as
well as creation of setting up of Permanent Lok Adalats. The Act also
provides for a mechanism whereby supervision can be done regarding the
functioning of the State Legal Services Authorities by the National Legal
Services Authority and of the District level Services Authorities by the
State Legal Services Authorities.
The Legal Services Authorities have thus far provided free and
competent legal services to the weaker section of the society to ensure that
opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason
of economic or other disabilities and have thus been performing their
onerous duty and discharging their constitutional responsibility to ensure
that justice is available to all concerned whosoever is in need of the same.
Thought some minor issues such as increase of limit of income ceiling of
a person who can seek legal services, qualifications and service conditions
of the presiding officers of permanent Lok Adalats etc. arose but those
were resolved by making rules and regulations under the Act different
states according to their requirements and needs of the people.
NEED FOR THE STUDY:
The reason behind the study is to evaluate the legal services in the
light of established legal norms. Poor and rural people are unable to avail
the facilities of legal aid services. They are also unaware of the schemes
of the Legal Services Authorities, welfare Schemes of the Government,
which would enable the people to avail themselves the benefits.
The inability of the poor to access the justice system is attributed to

13
illiteracy, destitution, economic and social bondages, cultural inhibitions
and corruption resultantly, the poor were denied equal justice. The need
for providing legal aid to the poor is to keep the balance steady among the
rich and the poor. About 70% of the Indian population live in villages.
Poverty is the bitter truth of Indian life. ―Poverty‖ is not only
the deprivation of economic or material recourse but is violation of human
dignity too. In India poverty is a minimum level of living. Poverty as a
social phenomenon and it is velnerability to injustice. Though poverty is
widespread in Asia and Africa, yet our country is really a land of poor
masses. It is so horrifying that the economists talk not about poverty but
of ―below poverty‖.
It must be recognized that poverty is itself the greatest disease and
it is the source of many other diseases such as illiteracy, helplessness,
weakness and ignorance etc. which in their turn give birth to many kinds
of injustices to the poor. The injustices from which the poor suffer are
many and exhaustive. The poor are unable to participate in the political
processes at various levels due to their poverty and due this it is difficult
to get legislation which can get rid of their poverty and give equal
opportunity to their development. Even when the poor people approach the
courts, they do not always succeed in securing redress of their grievances.
The main reason is that they are not able to afford the services of good
and competent lawyers because of their poor economic condition.
Justice is the fundamental goal of every civilized nation. The chief
purpose of law is to provide justice in equal manner to the society. The
preamble of Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 enshrine the
concept of socio-economic justice. The Declaration forbids discrimination
and guarantees the right to life, equality, liberty and security of a person,
fair trial, social security etc. Legal aid concept is not expressly but
implicitly enumerated in the Declaration to protect the dignity of human

14
beings. Legal aid as a Human Right is envisaged in Articles 7,8, and10 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it flows clearly and inevitably
from clause (3) of Article 14 of International Convention of Civil and
Political Rights which reads as under: ―Everyone has the right to an
effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the
fundamental rightsgranted by the Constitution or by law.‖ 9
The earliest Legal Aid movement appears to be in the year 1851
when some enactment was introduced in France for providing legal
assistance to the indigents. Since 1952, the Govt. of India also started
addressing to the question of legal aid for the poor in various conferences
of Law Ministers and Law Commissions. In 1960, some guide lines were
drawn by the Govt. for legal aid schemes. In different states legal aid
schemes were floated through Legal Aid Boards, Societies and Law
Departments.
The Govt. of India constituted a committee known as ―The
Committee for Implementing Legal Aid Scheme (CILAS), under the
Chairmanship of Hon‘ble Justice P.N. Bhagwati to prepare a model
scheme of Legal Aid for the states and union territories of India in the
year 1980. Initially, legal aid included appointment of a lawyer at the
expenses of state, exemption of court fee, process fee and other payable
fee. Later on, the scope of the legal aid was expanded and pre-litigation
aid has been covered under it. In wider sense, legal aid also includes
public interest litigation, Lok Adalats, Legal Literacy; which are
important parts of legal aid. In India, Legal Aid is not a mere
constitutional obligation, it is a social imperative. The chief purpose of a
law aims at justice which reflects in the happy and order advancement of a
given society. The constitution of India guarantees ‗Right to
Constitutional Remedies‘ as a Fundamental Right. The Government

9
J.N Bhatt: Legal Aid As A human right, Nyayadeep,

15
provides free legal aid to the needy. It is very difficult to provide free
legal aid to everyone in the country with population more than one billion.
Effective access to justice is the basic requirement of a system which
purports to guarantee legal rights to the people at large.
In pursuance of Article 39-A of Constitution of India, Legal Service
Authority Act, 1987 has been enacted. The object of the Act is
revolutionary in theme and modern in concept. It is to provide free and
competent legal services to the weaker sections of the society and to
ensure that they are not deprived of it by reason of economic and other
disabilities. It envisages organization of Lok Adalat with a view to ensure
speedy justice on the basis of equal opportunity. The State of Andhra
Pradesh is leading in implementing Legal Aid and Lok Adalat on streets,
in the entire country. The Act comprises Authority of legal services,
administrative machinery, functioning of Legal Services Authorities from
National to Mandal Level, it also includes Lok Adalats. The definition of
―legal services,‖ under section 2(1) (c) of the Act, includes the
rendering of any services in the conduct of any case or other legal proceeding
be fore any court or tribunal and the giving of advice on any legal matter. This
definition is wide enough to encompass Justice Bhagwati‘s aspiration of
effective legal services i.e. strategic legal aid programmes, like promotion
of legal literacy and creation of legal awareness amongst the weaker
section of the community. It also provides for the organization of legal aid
camps and encouraging the settlement of disputes through Lok Adalats.
The Act imposed a duty on Central Authority to take necessary steps b y
way of social action litigation for the cause of weaker section and give
training to social workers in legal skills. It provides for clinical legal
education programme and legal aid clinics in Universities, law colleges
and other institutions. The Central Authority, State Authority and the
District Authority will act in co-ordination with other government and

16
non-governmental agencies, universities etc. The Act also made provision
for the grants in aid to social welfare institutions for specific schemes. 10
In Centre of Legal Research vs State of Kerala 11
, the Apex Court
directed that voluntary organizations and social action groups engaged in
legal aid programmes must be encouraged and supported by the State.
Legal aid is an essential part of the Administration of justice.
‗Access to Justice‘ for all is the motto of the Legal Services Authority.
The goal is to secure justice to the weaker sections of the society,
particularly to the poor, downtrodden, socially backward, women,
children, handicapped etc., but steps are needed to be ensure that nobody
is deprived of an opportunity to seek justice merely for want of funds or
lack of knowledge. To imliment effectively all the central and state
legislations among other things, a functional legal system as well as
facilities for legal education and legal aid in support of deserving persons
is required.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY:
The study is very significant because it is related to welfare of the
poor people. In India, legal system is not equally accessible to all. High
cost justice prevents the poor man from making the use of machinery of
justice for claim of his rights or readressal of his grievances.
Consequently, the poor and weaker section of the society continue to
suffer. They have no alternative but to bear with injustice because they
cannot pay the price for justice within the framework of the judicial
administration. The result is that poor people are not able to secure the
protection of laws and they convinced that the legal system is only for the
benefit of rich people. This trend certainly pose danger to the rule of law
and grave threat to constitutional democracy. Therefore right to legal aid

10
Bisnu Prasad Diwedi: Justice Bhagwati and Legal Aid, Cochin University Law Review
[1990] p.396
11
AIR 1986 SC 1322

17
is essential part of administration of justice is designed to protect the
individual rights and also simultaneously meet the demand for social
justice by protecting the new social rights of citizens, to ensure them
economical and social equality.
‗Law‘ is an enterprise that seeks to rule the people. The citizens are
to supposed to know the law made by the State. The entire justice
delivery system is based on the presumption that all people are aware of
their rights and are able to approach the concerned institutions. The
ignorance of law is not only an excuse but also visits one with dreadful
consequences. Illiteracy is a wide spread and deeply rooted problem in
India. Illiteracy constitutes constant vulnerability to exploitation and
other forms of violent domination and social exclusion. Today legislative
enactments, statutory rules and regulations, and judicial procedure of
courts are maze not only to the poor but also a large number of persons
who may not be poor financially but on account of lack of knowledge of
the relevant laws and of the procedure for obtaining benefit thereof. The
idea of equal application of law has a rich pedigree. As Cappelletti and
Growth observe ―The possession of rights is meaningless without
mechanism for effective vindication‖ 12 It was rightly observed by Y.K.
Sabharwal that ‗access to justice will come by spreading awareness both
about the rights and remedies; it has to be accessible to all. 13
THE STATEMENT OF PROBLEM AND LIMITATION:
In the year 1977, the Constitution was amended to provide a
system of free legal aid. This was to ensure that opportunities for
securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or
other disability. To fulfill this purpose Government enacted the Legal Aid
Act.

12
Kamla Sakaran, Ujjwal Kumar Singh: Towards Legal Literacy an Introduction to Law in
India.
13
The Hindu Legal Education, November, 15, 2006.

18
 Under the Act various legal aid programmes and schemes are
provided by which poor people and disadvantaged group may access the
justice free or at affordable cost. The problems is in utilization of legal
aid programmes and schemes by poor people and disadvantaged groups
because they are not aware of such programmes and schemes. The
problem also lies in the implementation of the Legal Aid Act. and various
programmes and schemes under the Act.
Due to the multiple factors such as illiteracy, destitution, and
corruption, disadvantaged groups remain unaware to the formal legal
system and legal aid programmes and schemes, therefore, they continue to
suffer and unable to seek remedy.
Now it is evident that the right to legal aid is an enforceable right
in Indian jurisprudence and at least in theory, has appropriate schemes
and means of implementation. However, one of the most crucial
deficiencies which emerge in the current scenario is that unawareness of
this right of legal aid. For this purpose an organized infrastructure and
good lawyers is the needed but is unfortunately not available. The good
lawyers in the profession are often unavailable to devote time and effort
to legal aid because of the low remuneration involved and organized
infrastructure is not available due to the lack of funds. There is
inadequate awareness both regarding the substantive legal provisions (the
rights guaranteed to persons) as well as regarding the legal institutions
which can render necessary help to them for enforcement of these rights.
The poor and the deprived people often remain so and are unable to seek
redress simply because they are not at all aware of the rights guaranteed
to them and the remedies that are available and which forum is to be
approached. This problem is further enhanced by the fact that those who
require the help of the laws, mostly are illiterate or are not so much
educated and hence unable to understand the legal system because of the

19
reason that the language of the legal system in India is mostly English. So
it cannot be expected that those who are unable to understand or speak
English, to be aware of their rights. This is why special additional efforts
must be made to increase awareness amongst such deprived class. The
Legal Aid Act has already emphasized the need to increase awareness
amongst people. In addition, assistance of organizations that work at the
grassroots level should be taken by not only the courts but by other
institutions as well. Further, the effort must not end at only making good
laws for the weaker sections of society – it must continue until news of it
reaches the every citizen of the country, specially those for whom it is
meant to help. The reasons for not reaching the news are due to—
(i) Lack of coordination between the enforcing agencies.
(ii) Lack of awareness about the existence of such authorities.
(iii) Lack of funds
One of the main problems that always held out in implementing the
schemes of legal aid is lack of funds. The state should by itself provide
the sufficient funds to fulfill the assurance of legal service to each
citizen by the state. The legal aid clinics involving law students, law
teachers and others have not evinced proper interest of the prospective
consumers of such apparatus for several other factors as well. The active
& meaningful participation by the lawyers can achieve the additional
purpose of commanding the confidence of both sides to a given dispute
thereby ensuring their cooperation. Further, the engagement of young law
students in legal aid clinics or legal literacy campaigns is bound to bring
fruitful results. Young lawyers and young law students would also stand
to gain by getting the opportunity to examine the legal concepts
juxtaposed against real life problems. They would also get opportunity to
have first hand experience of seeing the plight of those receiving the
wrong end of the law or its action. In the process, they are bound to get

20
proper orientation for dealing with issues of social and economic justice
and get inculcated in the ethos of peace, harmony and common welfare
shifting their mindset from adversarial system of justice to one craving
for amicable settlement through mediation or conciliation. The big
challenge for the judiciary is to act to the realization that there is little
value in a progressive judicial will that despite being decisive is not
prevailing.
RATIONALE:
In every society there is a wide gap between the people and the
justice delivery system. The need of the hour is to attach importance on
causes of the poor and down trodden. Legal Assistance is a necessary sine
qua non for justice and where it is not provided injustice is likely to
result. To achieve the constitutional goal of equal justice to all, a new
directive, Article 39-A has been inserted in 1976 to enjoin the state to
provide free legal aid to the poor and to take other suitable steps to ensure
equal justice to all. In 1987 to fulfill the constitutional obligation and to
give a statutory base to legal aid programs, Legal Aid Act was enacted.
This Act was finally enforced on 9 November 1995.
Under Legal Aid Act, free legal services are being provided which
includes the rendering of any service in the conduct of any case or other
legal proceeding before any court or other authority or tribunal and the
giving of advice on any legal matter. Court means a civil, criminal or
revenue court.
Legal services under the Act are effective only in limited
jurisdiction and it is practically not available in revenue courts. In most
of the cases studied for this report legal aid is provided and further all
persons in villages are not aware of the provision of legal aid.
In spite of statutory and constitutional provisions guaranteeing free
legal services to the poor and needy, access to justice still remained as a

21
dream for millions of Indians. The realization and enforcement of the
right to legal aid is still a challenge.
After studying the work, function and performance of various

Legal Services Authorities as well legal aid service providers, it is found

that the intention of the legislature behind framing the Legal Aid Act has
been fulfilled to a great extent though some more things still can be done.
The legal aid is required to reach to all the needy, downtrodden and poor
persons in every hook and corner of the country including of remote areas
and this can happen only when extensive awareness programmes are
organized and conducted in every village, slum areas and remote area of
the country. While conducting research, it is also found that i f some more
actions are done at different levels as suggested at the end of the thesis,
then the spirit behind the framing of the Legal Aid Act can be also
fulfilled upto maximum and can achieve its upper heights. I have also
come to the tentative conclusion after completing my research that my
perception that legal aid and service is being reached to majority of needy
and poor persons is correct.
REVIEW OF LITRATURE:
As the present study is a doctrinal one, Literature in connection
with the present problem is reviewed from Various sources. The
Secondary source material in the nature of law text books, commentaries,
articles in the journals relating to Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 is
referred. Standard text books on legal services, legal aid and public
interest litigation are collected. Relevant materials also downloaded from
Internet, www.nalsa.gov.in., www.aplsa.ap.nic.in. www.legalservices.com,
www.barcouncilofindia.org., www.lawmin.nic.in, used as starting point for
the present research. The researcher for understanding contemporaneous
thinking on the subject has hunted for historical development of legal aid
from various sources. In order to have firsthand information on legal
services, litigants, are consulted to understand their reactions and their
22
opinion on the available provisions of legal aid programmes. They are
found to be the basis for the present research on which the superstructure built
upon through the researchers evaluation analysis. The researcher has referred the
works by the noted jurists, Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, Justice P.N. Bhagawati,
Dr. N.R. Madhva Menon and others. The Expert Committee Report V.R.
Krishna Iyer & P.N. Bhagwati, Processual justice to the people :,
Report on National Juridicare Equal justice : Social justice, Delhi, India
Ministry of Law Justice and Company Affairs, Report of the Preparatory
Committee for legal aid scheme, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, Report of the
Legal Aid committee, Gujarat‘s proved to be very valuable source material
for the research. Articles written by many Academicians, Members of Legal
Services Authorities are much preferred because they deal with specific
areas in depth. On the whole , the researcher tried to follow the ―Best
Evidence Rule‖ but sometimes owing to non-accessibility to original
materials, extracts from others works are collected and made use of and are
duly acknowledged. The present research is justified in attempting analysis of
Legal Aid under the Legal Services Authority Act 1987. The present study
tries to assess the legal services rendered by the Governmental Agencies and
also legal Aid provisions under Other Legal Enactments.
During this research, number of books, magazines, articles, reports
and material available on websites are consulted. Numbers of judgments
delivered by Supreme Court as well as various High Courts have been
gone through by consulting law journals which have direct bearing and
effect upon this topic. The relevant and material data and information has
been incorporated at the appropriate place and level.
The personal experience gained by me while working as member of
Bar Association District Court Kurukshetra has provided much help to me
to conclude this thesis to its conclusion end. The book ‗Law, Poverty and
Legal Aid‘ written by Justice S. Muralidhar, Judge, Delhi High Court has
provided much help and material in completing this thesis.

23
 The magazines ‗Nyaya Deep‘ published by NALSA and ‗Nyaya
Kiran‘ published by Delhi Legal Services Authority along with various
annual reports and some other magazines published by different state
authorities were also very helpful in providing lot of data and information
about activities and steps taken for implementing the various provisions
of Legal Aid Act.
The websites of different departments and legal aid institutions in
different countries which have been referred to at the relevant places in
the thesis when compared with the activities and functions of the legal aid
providers in India leads to the inference that in our country the work of
providing legal aid and services to poor and needy persons is much better
then in any other country is done here.
MODES OF PROVIDING LEGAL AID SERVICES:
Free legal service may be obtained in any court of law up to the
Supreme Court and in any Tribunal, Revenue Court as well as
departments of government and other bodies discharging quasi -judicial
functions. The legal service is available in all civil, criminal, revenue and
administrative matters.
Free legal service can be given in all, or any one, or more, of the
following modes, namely: -
i) By payment of court fee, process fee, expenses of witnesses,
preparation of the paper book, lawyer‘s fee and all other charges
payable or incurred in connection with any legal proceedings;
ii) Through representation by a legal practitioner in legal proceedings;
iii) By supplying certified copies of judgments, orders, notes or evidence
and other documents in legal proceedings;
iv) By preparation of appeal paper book, including printing, typing and
translation of documents; and
v) By drafting of legal documents.

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 Legal aid simply does not include the providing of services of an
advocate to poor persons in various litigations but it also includes
payment of every expense required while conducting the case in court as
well as court fees. Legal aid also can be provided to the needy persons
even in those disputes which are at pre-litigative stage. The holding of
lok adalats of pending and pre-litigative stage in order to provide quick
and cheap justice to the parties and to reduce the burden of the courts is
also a major duty of every state legal authority. The holding of permanent
and continuous lok adalats in various fields and public utility services is
also a major step towards achieving the targets as set up in the Legal Aid
Act. Central and state legal aid authorities are also empowered to
institute, interfere and pursue the public interest litigations which effects
public at large and are raising important issues of public importance.
Matters on which legal services are admissible:
(i) Free Legal Aid may be obtained in any court of law up to the
Supreme Court and in any Tribunal, Revenue Court as well as all
departments of Government and other bodies discharging quasi-
judicial functions.
(ii) The Legal Aid is available in all civil, criminal, revenue and
administrative matters.

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