New Delhi, June 05, 2020: The Senior most Supreme Court Judge and the Executive chairman of the NALSA Justice N V Ramana said the Coronovirus pandemic has presented before everyone multiple emerging issues and called for a persistent and target orientation action plan, which everyone will have to work out together in order to overcome the Coronovirus pandemic and lockdown.

In his keynote address at a webinar where he released the ‘Handbook of Formats: Ensuring Effective Legal Services’ in the presence of Executive Chairpersons of State Legal Services Authorities, Chairpersons of High Court Legal Services Committees and Member Secretaries of all State Legal Services Authorities, Chairpersons and Secretaries of District Legal Services Authorities, Justice N V Ramana said “The Future Is Going To Be Challenging- Let’s Stay Committed”.

Justice Ramana said COVID19 has also affected rights of women, children and senior citizen like never before. Unfortunately, even though three months have passed, the situation is still not under control. Pursuant to the lockdown, thousands of people have lost their lives and livelihood, large scale migration has taken place.

The lockdown has itself creative psychological issues and violence within the family. Women have been burdened with more work; children have unable to go to schools. Adding, to that working of home has also had it impact on the family life. Identifying the issues that needed most attention, he said most predominant one is that of reverse migration. Massive reverse migration will invariably lead to increase in poverty, inequity and discrimination, he said.

Justice Ramana said the constraints were many with the trial courts to begin functioning and the High Court and the Supreme Court working through videoconferencing. But in spite of the same, the Legal Services Authorities have done tremendous activities during the prevailing pandemic by adopting the latest technology.

It is equally imperative that legal aid providers are able to document and report their interventions which is essential to effectuate the various NALSA schemes and frameworks. This Handbook is the first crucial step towards standardizing and bringing in uniformity in the use of formats. This handbook is an effective tool for management of human resources and in future will prove as a small but significant step in realizing justice for all.

Justice Ramana noted that as many as 58,797 undertrial prisoners and 20,972 convicts on parole etc. have been released with the assistance of the Legal Services Institutions and legal representation has been provided to 9,558 persons at the remand stage. Legal aid and assistance have also been provided in 1,559 domestic violence cases to women; 16,391 convicts; 1,882 labourers; 310 tenants amongst others. It is also being ensured that Toll free National Legal Helpline 15100 remains fully functional so that no person in need of justice is denied the same. Legal Services Authorities have organised hundreds of webinars across various states and are utilising cost effective tools such as social media, community radio stations, local cable television channels and other digital platforms to increase outreach.

He concluded advised the audience that- “Let these challenging times not paralyse you, like all dark nights this too shall pass…”

The online release programme included a welcome address by Mr Ashok Kumar Jain, Member Secretary, NALSA. Mr Alok Agarwal, Former Member Secretary, NALSA and Mr Sunil Chauhan, Director, NALSA were also present on the occasion.

The Handbook, prepared by NALSA in collaboration with Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), consists of two sections. The first section contains formats for legal aid providers i.e. panel lawyers, retainer lawyers, remand lawyers, jail visiting lawyers and lawyers attached to police stations and for community and convict paralegal volunteers. The second section includes formats for Legal Services Institutions including registers for the Front Office, attendance registers, clinics and for the Monitoring and Mentoring Committees. This handbook contains formats that will enhance data collection, enabling NALSA to analyse trends and patterns emanating from data, and identification of issues at the micro level.

News Courtesy:PIB | Hindu| DC | LE | LI | LO | IE | LL | PTI |ht | ET | UNI | DNA | FP | Jurist |IndToday|

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