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Tele-Law service is being made free of cost for citizens from this year- Minister of Law and Justice

GS Paper 2

Syllabus: Laws, institutions and bodies for betterment and protection of vulnerable sections of society, Tele-Law etc

 

Source: PIB

Context:

  • From this year, Tele-Law service is being made free of cost for citizens in the country,” Minister of Law and Justice at the 18th All India Legal Services Meet at Jaipur.
  • 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.
  • During last year a total of 21,148 meetings of the UnderTrial Review Committee(UTRCs) were held resulting in the release of 31,605 undertrial inmates.

 

Key Highlights:

  • Legal aid to marginalized: Tele–Law mainstreams legal aid to the marginalized seeking legal help by connecting them with the Panel Lawyers through the tele/video-conferencing infrastructure available at Common Service Centers (CSCs) across 1 lakh Gram Panchayats.
  • Tele Law application: 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.
  • Widening of service to beneficiaries: Benefitting from this digital revolution, Tele-Law has widened the outreach of legal services to 20 Lakh + beneficiaries in just five years.
  • NALSA to provide lawyers: Under the provision of the MoU, NALSA would provide the services of 700 lawyers, in each district exclusively for the Tele-Law program.
    • These empanelled lawyers would now also act as referral lawyers and also assist in strengthening the mechanism for dispute avoidance and dispute resolution at the pre-litigation stage.

Insta Links:

NALSA

CSCs

 

Practice Questions:

Q. Performance of welfare schemes that are implemented for vulnerable sections is not so effective due to the absence of their awareness and active involvement at all stages of the policy process – Discuss. (UPSC 2019)

 

Which of the following visions of the Digital India programme is/are enabled by Common service centres (CSCs)?

    1. Digital infrastructure is a core utility to every citizen.
    2. Governance and services on demand.
    3. Digital empowerment of citizens.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

    1. 1 and 3 only
    2. 2 and 3 only
    3. 2 only
    4. 1, 2 and 3

Ans: (d)

Justification:

CSCs enable the three vision areas of the Digital India programme:

  • Digital infrastructure is a core utility to every citizen.
  • Governance and services on demand.
  • Digital empowerment of citizens