About the Author
V.M Manukrishna is a student of 3rd sem student of five year LLB from GLCT.He is a member of Munsiff Magistrate Exam training program.
What are the criteria for giving legal services under Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987? Who are the persons entitled to legal services under this Act?
The Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 is a piece of legislation that governs legal services authorities. It mandates that they offer free legal services to the most vulnerable members of society, guaranteeing that no one is denied access to justice because of their financial situation or other disadvantages, and that they set up Lok Adalats to make sure the legal system functions in a way that guarantees justice for all. The informal conflict settlement mechanism was abolished when the British brought their adversarial system to India. The usage of this new, more complex system requires prior understanding. The Indian government has been discussing legal assistance for the underprivileged at conventions of Law Commissions and Law Ministers since 1952. In 1960, the government set down some regulations for legal assistance programmes. Legal assistance Boards, Societies, and Law Departments operated legal assistance programmes in a number of states. In 1980, a national committee headed by Hon. Mr. Justice P.N. Bhagwati was established to monitor and regulate legal aid initiatives across the nation. The Committee for Implementing Legal Aid Schemes, or CILAS, was established to supervise legal aid globally. The Committee has been in charge of putting legal assistance programmes into place.
The requirements for providing legal assistance to qualified individuals are outlined in Section 12 of the Legal assistance Authorities Act, 1987. According to Section 12 of the Act, every individual who must bring or defend a matter is entitled to legal representation under
this Act if they are:
(a) an individual of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe;
(b) a beggar or victimised sufferer of human trafficking as defined in Article 23 of the
Constitution;
(c) a girl or a young child;
d) a person who is mentally sick or otherwise impaired;
e) an individual who is experiencing unforeseeable want due to a mass calamity, ethnic
conflict, caste atrocities, flood, drought, earthquake, or industrial disaster; or
(f) a worker in the industrial sector;
(g) in custody, including in a protective home as defined by clause (g) of section 2 of the
Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (104 of 1956); or
(h) in a juvenile home as defined by clause (j) of section 2 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986
(53 of 1986); or
(i) in a mental health facility as defined by clause (g) of section 2 of the Mental Health Act,
1987
(h) receiving an annual income of less than Rs. 9,000 or any higher amount that the State
Government may prescribe, if the matter is before a court other than the Supreme Court, and
less than Rs. 12,000 or any higher amount that the Central Government may prescribe, if the
case is before the Supreme Court.
Someone who is in need of legal assistance for free can contact the relevant authority or committee by submitting an application, which can be done verbally with the help of a paralegal volunteer or an officer of the relevant legal services authority, or it can be done in writing by sending the appropriate form and briefly stating the reason for the request for legal aid. By filling out the online Legal Aid Application form accessible at NALSA’s website by clicking on the “Online Application,” a person can also apply for legal aid to any Legal Services Institution in the nation. On their websites, a number of SLSAs, DLSAs, SCLSCs, HCLSCs, and TLSCs also provide application forms. The Supreme Court decided in M.H. Hoskot v. State of Maharashtra 1978 AIR 1548 that the power of lawyers is necessary to steer the wheels of equal justice under the law since our judicial system is primarily reliant on legal technology and is founded on Anglo-American models. Legal Aid’s integration into the Constitution became essential for the fair and reasonable administration of justice due to the complexity of law, the increase of solicitors, and the ensuing costs under the adversarial framework. Kerala State v. Centre for Legal Research AIR 1986 SC 1322, It has been suggested that the state should encourage and foster nonprofit organisations and social action groups to join in running the legal aid programme in order to fulfil the purpose of Article 39A. The Court held that the social duties of equitable treatment and free legal aid must be upheld by suitable legislation or the establishment of a free legal aid programme, and that it was not authorised to issue a writ of mandamus to enforce Article 39A. In reaction to this proposal, Parliament approved the Legal Services Authorities Act of 1987. Also, according to the ruling in P.N.B. v. Laxmichand RaiAIR 2000 MP 301 , the Lok Adalat’s decision rendered in accordance with the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, was definitive and could not be appealed to any other court. The Supreme Court held in Sukh Das v. State of Arunachal Pradesh 1986 AIR 991 that the conviction of an accused person at a trial where he was not provided with legal counsel ought to be reversed due to a breach of Article 21 of the Constitution. It was decided, therefore, that if the accused enters a guilty plea through the legal aid programme without legal representation and is found guilty by the magistrate, the trial and conviction will not be tainted because the magistrate was fully convinced that the plea was genuine, voluntary, and legitimate.
(Question from Munsiff Magistrate Exam Main 2022)
