Inter-generational equity should also be applied in providing legal aid services: Justice Lalit

New Delhi [India], July 31 : Supreme Court Judge Justice UU Lalit on Sunday said that Inter-generational Equity Environmental Jurisprudence proposes that whatsoever we have inherited from our forefathers should be given to the next generation.
Justice Lalit's remark came while addressing the first All India District Legal Services Authorities Meet organized by NALSA.
Justice UU Lalit, who is also Executive Chairman of NALSA, said, "Inter-generational Equity Environmental Jurisprudence proposes that whatsoever we have inherited from our forefathers should be given to next generation. He stressed the need to give it back in a better condition and this idea can be realized only if we channel our resources."
Justice Lalit impressed upon the fact that the District Legal Services Authorities work at the grass root level which is why they know the pulse of the people, what the problems are and how to tackle them.
He also shared his travelling experiences during the 42-day Pan India Campaign and how he met a lot of people and gained quite a lot of information from that interaction. Justice Lalit informed that based upon those interactions a strategy has been devised.
The valedictory session of the first All India District Legal Services Authorities Meet was organized in an unconventional manner under the guidance of Justice UU Lalit, Executive Chairman, NALSA.
Justice Lalit while commencing his address enlightened the participants about the purpose of the conference and shared his view to set the vision for the future i.e, vision Legal_Services @2047.
Justice Lalit mentioned that four tough sessions were conducted during this two-day conference where a lot of ideas and suggestions were thrown.
"This is the first conference of its kind, wherein the officers of the legal services authorities from all over the country were present. He applauded the active participation coming from all the directions of our country," Justice Lalit said.
Justice Lalit was happy to express the fact of his association with the institution for the last 15 months as the Executive Chairman of NALSA.
He went on to express his thoughts on the future of the legal aid system. The first is the clarity in the matter, the second is the devising of a strategy for the matter and lastly, pondering over the means and measures to implement that strategy.
Justice Lalit expressed that "The legal services institutions have the requisite ability since we reached 9.5 lakh villages to create awareness to dispense legal aid services and suggested that this entire body has a tremendous amount of strength, power and efforts which have to be channelized."
The outreach programme has been successful in reaching every soul of the country and we are the facilitator of legal aid. Justice Lalit said that the required awareness has been created now and the next step is to dispense legal aid by ensuring the quality of the legal aid services is intact.
He highlighted that the trust deficit that still persists needs to be bridged.
To bridge this gap, the Legal Aid Defence Counsel System is formulated wherein the lawyers engaged will deal only with the matter of legal aid and thus would be dedicated solely to this noble cause.
He has suggested that for this, young and talented advocates should be pooled so that this office can become the backbone of the system and will function as a nodal point.
He further applauded the collaborative effort between NALSA and the Ministry of Law wherein the two will work on Tele-Law and Nyaya Bandhu App which will help in constant monitoring of the services provided by the legal aid counsels and solve the problem of implementation. His Lordship informed that an E-library facility will be given to the advocates working in the Legal Aid Defense Counsel System.
According to Justice Lalit, every citizen should necessarily be provided three essential services.
First is Good Quality Education, the second is Medical Services in Primary Health Care Centers and lastly quality legal aid services.
The service of legal aid should be in such a manner that the person who opts for the same reposes confidence in the system that his matter will be dealt with with utmost dedication and confidence and for this youngsters should be engaged as they need exposure.
Further, he suggested that every law college should adopt at least three talukas and employ penultimate and final year students which will encourage them to join as para-legal volunteers.
He also impressed that there should be mandatory training of law students just like medical students.
The Justice mentioned the two reports prepared by Justice Bhagwati and Justice Krishna Iyer which summed up what legal aid ought to be but that report was prepared somewhere in 1972-73 wherein we were virtually dependent upon the expertise of the individual and now, we have travelled miles beyond that as an institution.
Justice Lalit emphasized tapping the potential of Lok Adalats as one of the modes of disposal.
He said that in the last 15 months, 3 crore cases have been disposed of out of which 2 crores were pre-litigation cases and 1 crore post-litigation.
Justice Lalit suggested that the district authorities must be vigilant and that the concerned DLSA/SLSA should initiate the process to correct the courses if gone wrong.
As a legal aid institution, it is our duty to see man must not be deprived of legal aid, as this part is within our command.
Another Supreme Court Judge, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud commenced his address by posing the question that why we need technology and stated that most of the beneficiaries are illiterate and this is compounded by lack of resources.
These beneficiaries are marginalized due to various factors such as gender, sexual orientation, and geographical and socio-economic opportunities.
Justice DY Chandrachud said that there are two ends which have to be met-- one is the might of the State and the other is the beneficiaries.
This could be achieved by virtue of technological interventions because technology does what the wings of the State could not.
Another Supreme Court Judge, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul commenced his address by urging everyone to utilize the tools available within the system to the best of their potential.
Justice Kaul suggested that the entire judicial system needs a bypass and that this should be an endeavour to close litigation at the first stage itself.
Lastly, he stated that the judges and defence system must consciously make available plea bargaining.