CJI inaugurates 2,648 village legal services clinics

In a significant step to bring legal services to the doorsteps of people, nearly 2648 legal clinics were opened today in villages across the country to ensure that no citizen "starves from hunger of justice".
The Chief Justice of India Justice P Sathasivam today inaugurated the village legal services clinics which will provide not only legal advice but would also assist villagers in getting BPL card, Election ID, Aadhaar Card, Gas connection and government welfare schemes.
The clinics is to be manned by two para-legal volunteers and one lawyer.
Speaking on the occasion, Justice R M Lodha, who is also Executive Chairman of NALSA, said that like health centres in villages, these will provide legal care to villagers who are not aware about laws and their rights.

"Our efforts are to ensure that no citizens starves from hunger of justice and everyone, who deserves justice, gets the justice," Justice Lodha said.
Every village or cluster of villages must have a Legal Clinics and not a single person be deprives for getting access to legal assistance, he said.

He, however, admitted that the system at present is not perfect and of good quality as the focus is primarily to reach out to people but in coming time the system would improve.
National Legal Services Authority, a statutory body, launched the national wide programme for setting up of village legal services clinics in one village in each Taluk of the country.

As per the regulation, the authority is to set up clinics in each village or cluster of villages.