Union Minister of Law & Justice Kiren Rijiju said tele-law services will be made available free of cost for all citizens. The ministry in a statement said that Tele–Law is aimed at providing legal aid to the marginalised sections seeking legal help, by connecting aid seekers with panel lawyers through the audio,video-conferencing infrastructure available at Common Service Centers (CSCs) across 1 lakh Gram Panchayats.
For easy and direct access Tele-Law Mobile Application (both Android and IoS) has also been launched in 2021 and it is presently available in 22 scheduled languages. Benefitting from this digital revolution, Tele-Law has widened the outreach of legal services to over 20 lakh beneficiaries in just five years.
During the event, the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law & Justice and National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) exchanged a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Integrated Delivery of Legal Services. Under the provision of the agreement, NALSA would provide the services of 700 lawyers, in each district exclusively for the Tele-Law program. These empanelled lawyers would also act as referral lawyers and also assist in strengthening the mechanism for dispute avoidance and dispute resolution at the pre-litigation stage.
Rijiju expressed confidence that the association will help in reaching out to 1 crore beneficiaries in no time.
The minister also underscored the need of decongestion of jails through release of undertrials. NALSA through its SLSAs and DLSAs is already working in this regard through Under Trial Review Committee (UTRCs) by making available free legal aid/legal counsel to the under-trials.
During last year a total of 21,148 meetings of UTRCs were held resulting in release of 31,605 under-trial inmates. The Minister appealed the State Legal Services Authorities to further intensify their efforts to provide legal counsel, aid to the under-trial prisoners so that in co-ordination with the Under Trial review Committee maximum number of under-trial prisoners are released.
