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Tele Law: An Initiative of the Legal World to Reach Out to The Poverty-Stricken

TELE LAW: AN INITIATIVE OF THE LEGAL WORLD TO REACH OUT TO THE POVERTY-STRICKEN
- Saumya Badigineni, Student of Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad

My husband tortures me every day. He beats me ruthlessly and treats me like an animal. Is there any one to help me? Is there anything to stop this inhumanity? These are the unresolved questions of a poor women living in a rural who has no idea of the laws. In another situation a person illegally acquired the agricultural land of a farmer from the suburb who is in vain as he is not advised about the necessary steps that should be taken against the acquirer. It is understood that the legal fraternity has the responsibility to spread awareness among the society especially people belonging to the rural areas and the lower strata of the social order. According to the Legal Service Authorities Act, 1987 it is mandatory for free legal aid to be provided to every citizen of India including women, children, industrial workers, beggars, marginalized groups, people with disabilities and any person who is subjected to disasters.[1]It is well known fact that 70% of the people in India are illiterate and even more worse is the percentage of the people who are not aware about the rights conferred to the citizens by law.[2] Even the literate strata are not aware of the rules and regulations imposed by law. In such a scenario where there is lack of legal awareness, the poor and the underprivileged are an easy pray to exploitation, deprivation and deception of the rights and incentives that they incur from law. Associating the concept of legal aid to jurisprudential theories the author SK Sharma has quoted in his book that

"Legal Aid should be appreciated as a dynamic concept of distributive justice and rule of law."[3]

As a class of lawyers belonging to the legal fraternity it is our responsibility to guarantee the poor with equal access to justice to curb the feeling of helplessness experienced by these classes. 

Nyaya Mitra Scheme: a structure of Tele law which brings justice to the people
“Justice delayed is Justice denied”[4]
-William Ewart Galdstone

The National Judicial Data Grid has put forward some statistics on April 29, 2019 that there are 3.03 crore case pending in the subordinate courts which indicates the scenario of delayed justice in India as specified through the maxim.[5] The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Ministry of Law & Justice have drafted several strategies to curb this issue of delayed justice to the people one of which directed to the introduction of the Nyaya Mitra Scheme. It is a tele law initiative which is organised by the government of India to provide Probono legal services to the deprived rural areas especially across the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The cases which have been pending in the court of law for more than 10 years and specifically gained focus under this scheme. With an incentive of alleviation in their positions for the future appointments, this scheme encourages the legal fraternity to take up Pro Bono legal services which will assist the destitute in free access to justice with the help of digital technology. This scheme is in continuation of the program for access of justice to the Marginalized Persons initiated in 2008 by the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP).[6]

To implement this scheme the Ministry of Justice has collaborated with NALSA and CSC e-Governance Services in the year 2017. Successfully launching the Tele Law Scheme on April, 20, 2017 the Common Service centres (CSC) spread its bases all across the country at the Panchayat level.[7]

Working structure of Tele Law 
The advancement in the technology has led to the interaction of the legal service authorities with the marginalized population of the country with the help of Common Service Centres. This acts as an effective platform to deliver justice to the people at any time and place. These legal advices are sought by the use of video conferencing which is provided at the CSCs. Not only can the legal advisors be contacted through it but NGOs, legal aid centres of law school and District Legal Service Authorities also have the advantage of providing legal awareness and knowledge to the destitute and the marginalized communities. The board of lawyers who are appointed by the National Legal Services Authorities (NALSA) play a significant role in delivering legal advice and counselling to the claimants through the CSCs. To monitor the functioning and the efficiency of these panel of lawyers, there is a monitoring system which is also being operated to ensure that the maximum number of applicants are benefited from it and the objective of strengthening justice in the nation is achieved.[8]

Now the problem is of the rural people is not solved unless there is proper implementation of the advice given by the lawyers which is rightly done by the paralegal volunteer (PLV). If there are is any further step that is to be taken towards the case after obtaining legal advice, the PLVs assist the people with the legal procedures and understanding the legal intricacies of the case in the court of law. For the effective functioning of the PLVs they are given training to fulfil all their responsibilities. The training of the PLVs may extend up to 10 days which will be given to them in the CSCs. The cases thatare dealt by the lawyers and their services are recorded and monitored by the PLVs apart from assisting them in CSCs in the process of video conferencing. Every week the progress in the cases and the cases handles will be submitted to the District Legal Service Authorities by the PLVs. This scheme was also supported by mobile apps for better implementation. There is a Village Level Entrepreneur(VLE) stationed at the CSC who acts as a bridge between the applicants who pre-register their case and the lawyers who are appointed during the prescribed date and time.[9]

Benefits of Tele Law as a legal aid to the rural and marginalised population 
Legal Awareness Regarding the rights and duties conferred upon the citizens by law
The population which resides in the rural and remote areas is often subjected to exploitation, deprivation and deception due to lack of knowledge about the legal rights and laws guarantees to them. Giving proper legal assistance to the villagers through the medium of tele law will lead to improvement of scenario of legal literacy and can show positive results in following statutory measures by the society. 

Effective solution to curb delayed justice 
Through the data compiled by the National Judicial Data Grid, there are some target litigants who are identified whose cases have been pending before the court of law for the past 10 years along with people whose cases are struck in the court of law due to the social and economic barriers. Tele Law is used as a medium to speedy justice to reduce the long waiting for the cases to be heard before the court. Both the time and expenditure are cut down by the usage of virtual means and assists in regaining the faith of people in the judicial system. 
Focussing on the current scenario of the advancement of Tele Law in India, the Government of India by the next financial year plans to initiate the Tele Law facility covering most of the rural areas all over India with the help of the CSCs. After examining the successful functioning of this facility in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and the North-Eastern states, the services are made available to 117 districts through almost 30,000 CSCs in India.[10]The Tele Law initiative therefore has been a successful programme for a lot of citizens who belonged to the backward community and the rural areas. This not only offers the lawyers a platform to assist the people with their cases but also creates job opportunities to a lot of people in the form of PLVs and VLEs which especially includes women in such posts. This scheme has hence proven to be one of the most successful schemes initiated by the Government of India in mitigating the delay in cases in conventional courts and spreading legal awareness. 

REFERENCES

1. Legal Services Authorities Act 1987, s. 12
2. Anoop Kumar, Legal Literacy: Cornerstone of a True Democracy (GRIN Verlag 2013)
3.S.K. Sharma, Jurisprudence of Legal Aid: A Constitutional Juridical Perspective (13th Ed, The Academy Law Review 1989) 168.
4. James H Billington, Respectfully Quoted: A dictionary of Quotations (Dover Publications Inc. Mineola New York 1992)
5. NJDG, Information Management < https://njdg.ecourts.gov.in/njdgnew/index.php> accessed on 8 April 2020
6. ‘How can Tele -Law driven legal assistance benefit the rural population’, (People Link) <https://www.peoplelinkvc.com/blog/how-can-tele-law-driven-legal-assistance-benefit-the-rural-population/>accessed on 10 April 2020
7. Vijayalakshmi Raju, ‘Tele Law Facility in India’ (Into Legal World, 13 January 2020) <https://intolegalworld.com/LegalArticles.aspx?title=tele-law-facility-in-india> accessed on 8 April 2020
8. Department of Justice’s Team, ‘Nyaya Mitra Scheme’ (Ministry of Law and Justice) <https://doj.gov.in/page/nyaya-mitra-scheme>accessed on 11 April 2020
9. Saba, ‘Government launches Tele Law through Common Services Centres to mainstream legal aid in rural India’ (SCC Online June 12 2017) <https://www.scconline.com/blog/post/2017/06/12/govt-launches-tele-law-through-common-service-centres-to-mainstream-legal-aid-in-rural-india/> 13 April 2020
10. Priyanka Mittal, ‘Department of Justice launches Tele-Law mobile app, Nyaya Bandhu’(LiveMint 19 Feb 2019)<https://www.livemint.com/technology/apps/department-of-justice-launches-tele-law-mobile-app-nyaya-bandhu-1550578205250.html>