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| ACJ operationalizes legal aid defense counsel system in J&K | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 2: Jammu: At present, Assigned Counsel System of delivery of Legal Aid is being followed in India. Under the said system, cases are assigned to panel lawyers by Legal Services Institutions.
Panel lawyers to whom cases are assigned by the Legal Services Authorities also have private practices, and hence, they donot exclusively devote their time to the legal aided matters. Many a times their accessibility and availability remains an issue for timely client consultation and updating legal aid seekers about the progress of their cases. In this view of the matter, only a small percentage of those entitled under Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 get the benefit of legal aid. In an effort to address the shortcomings in the assigned counsel system, National Legal Services Authority conceived and implemented as pilot project provision of legal services in Sessions Courts through Legal Aid Defense Counsel System. Success of the pilot project led to extension of the LADCS to other districts and magisterial courts including Executive Magistrates throughout the country. The objectives of the Legal Aid Defense Counsel System is to provide qualitative and competent legal services in criminal matters to eligible persons and to manage and implement legal aid system in a professional manner.
With the launch of this scheme, LADCS has been operationalized in 10, out of 20 districts in the UT of J&K. In the remaining 10 districts, the same shall be established in the coming months.
Acting Chief Justice Tashi Rabstan while delivering the inaugural address congratulated the selected Legal Aid Defense Counsels and impressed upon them to work hard to make this system a success. He further stated that the Court based legal services need to be strengthened for providing effective and efficient legal services to weaker and marginalized sections of society. To achieve the same, several steps have been taken such as capacity building of lawyers, enhancing the structure and effective functioning of monitoring & mentoring committees and upgradation of Front Offices etc. Earlier, M. K. Sharma, Member Secretary, J&K LSA in his welcome address gave an overview of the scheme and highlighted as to how the Legal Aid Defense Counsel System is better than the other Legal Aid Delivery Systems.
The programme was attended by Sh. Sanjeev Gupta, Registrar General, Sh. Aijaz Ahmad Khan, Principal Secretary, Sh. Sobha Ram Gandhi, Registrar Judicial, Sh. ParveenPandoh, Joint Registrar Judicial, Pr. District & Sessions Judges who are also Ex- Officio Chairpersons of DLSAs and Secretaries DLSAs of the concerned districts and the Legal Aid Defense Counsels across the UT of J&K.JNF |
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