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LEGAL SERVICE
AUTHORITIES ACT 1987
SUBMITTED BY: ADITI CHOWDHARY

16LLB002
INTRODUCTION
• Legal Aid scheme was first introduced by Justice P.N. Bhagwati under the Legal Aid
Committee formed in 1971.
• Legal aid as defined, deals with legal aid to poor, illiterate, who don't have access to
courts.
• Article 39A of the Constitution of India provides that State shall secure that the
operation of the 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 by
reason of economic or other disability.
• Articles 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.
• The earliest Legal Aid movement appears to be of the year 1851 when some enactment
was introduced in France for providing legal assistance to the indigent.
• 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
guidelines were drawn by the Govt. for legal aid schemes.
• National Legal Services Authority was constituted on 5th December, 1995. His
Lordship Hon. Dr. Justice A.S. Anand, Judge, Supreme Court of India took over as the
Executive Chairman of National Legal Services Authority on 17the July, 1997. Soon
after assuming the office, His Lordship initiated steps for making the National Legal
Services Authority functional.
• By February, 1998 the office of National Legal Services Authority became properly
functional for the first time.
CRITERION FOR PROVIDING LEGAL AID
• Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 prescribes the criteria for giving
legal services to the eligible persons. Section 12 of the Act reads as under:-
• (a) a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe;

(b) a victim of trafficking in human beings or begar as referred to in Article 23 of the
Constitution;
(c) a woman or a child;
(d) a mentally ill or otherwise disabled person;
(e) a person under circumstances of undeserved want such as being a victim of a mass
disaster, ethnic violence, caste atrocity, flood, drought, earthquake or industrial disaster;
or
(f) an industrial workman
LOK ADALAT
• Lok Adalat is one of the Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in India, it is a

forum where cases pending or at pre litigation stage in a court of law are settled.
• They have been given statutory status under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.
Under this Act, the award (decision) made by the Lok Adalat is deemed to be a decree
of a civil court and is final and binding on all parties and no appeal against such an
award lies before any court of law.
• If the parties are not satisfied with the award of the Lok Adalat (though there is no
provision for an appeal against such an award), they are free to initiate litigation by
approaching the court of appropriate jurisdiction
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
• There are four main reasons why the National Legal Services Authorities has not been
able to deliver real legal aid:
• There is a general lack of awareness of the availability of legal aid;

there is a perception that free service is incompatible with quality service;
there are not enough lawyers delivered by the legal services authorities; And lawyers
generally are uninterested in providing competent legal assistance because of financial
constraints.
• lawyers assigned to provide legal aid and paid with public funds do not faithfully
represent their clients, casting serious doubt on the credibility of the scheme of legal aid
provided to weaker sections of society.
• These lawyers compel their clients, many innocent, to pay additional amounts of money
to them, even though they are supposed to obtain their fee from the legal aid committee.
• One factor that mat be contributing to this is that the remuneration paid to lawyers by
the legal aid committee is very low and does not even meet the lawyer’s incidental
expenses.
• The legal aid movement cannot achieve its goal so long as people are not aware of their
basic rights. When the poor are not aware of their legal rights, they are subject to
exploitation and ultimately deprived of the rights and benefits provided to them under
law.
• Successful legal aid delivery in India requires the government to embark on a campaign
to inform and educate the public of its right to free legal aid
• The LEGAL SERVICE AUTHORITIES ACT 1987 WAS AMENDED IN 2002 and
in exercise of the powers conferred by section 27 of the Legal Services Authorities Act,
1987 (39 of 1987), the Central government made the following rules further to amend
the National Legal Services Authorities Rules, 1995, namely:—
• 1. (1) These rules may be called the National Legal Service Authorities (Amendment)
Rules, 2017.
• (2) They shall be deemed to have come into force on the 12th August, 2015.
Khatri & Others v. St. of Bihar & others Bhagmati J.
"Right to free legal aid, just, fail and reasonable procedures is a fundamental right
(Khatoon's Case). It is elementary that the jeopardy to his personal liberty arises as soon as
the person is arrested and is produced before a magistrate for it is at this stage that he gets
the 1st opportunity to apply for bail and obtain his release as also to resist remain to police
or jail custody. This is the stage at which and accused person needs competent legal advice
and representation. No procedure can be said to be just, fair and reasonable which denies
legal advice representation to the accused at this stage. Thus, state is under a constitutional
obligation to provide free to aid to the accused not only at the stage of... Every individual of
the society are entitled as a matter of prerogative."

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LEGAL SERVICE

AUTHORITIES ACT 1987

SUBMITTED BY: ADITI CHOWDHARY

• (a) a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe;

• Lok Adalat is one of the Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in India, it is a

• There is a general lack of awareness of the availability of legal aid;

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