Legal aid officers to be appointed in 200 districts: RS Prasad

The government would appoint facilitation officers in 200 districts of the country where cases older than 10 years are pending in court, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today.
These officers would help the poor people coordinate with the government and the courts and work towards getting their cases heard in fast-track courts, he said.
Addressing a function to mark 150 years of the Allahabad High Court, Prasad said there are around 2.5 lakh common service centres (CSCs) in the country which are run by women and youth where PAN cards, Aadhaar cards are made and other digital services are provided.

"We will train people and attach them with CSC. There are poor people who need justice and they should get proper legal advice before the hearing of a case.
"We are working towards that and begin with 200 common service centres in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh as pilot projects," he said.
The minister said in the phase-II of e-computing, the district law service authorities would be computerised.

Prasad exhorted those involved in the legal profession to help the government in achieving its objectives by devoting their time and energy in cases "that may be pro bono and may not bring publicity".

"We will soon launch a web portal and request registered lawyers, who want to work for those in need of justice, to volunteer in the project.
"Working with NALSAR (A Hyderbad-based premier Law University), we will create a database of the people who are in need of justice. And, I am happy to inform you all that UNDP has accepted to work as interface between those seeking justice and those providing legal help," Prasad said.
There are nearly 5,000 vacancies in the subordinate judiciary. There are as many as 2.7 crore cases pending in subordinate courts, and 38.7 lakh cases pending in the high courts.

While the appointments in the higher judiciary have been delayed over the tussle between the Centre and the Supreme Court collegium over Memorandum of Procedure, the Centre has often faulted the judiciary over the vacancies in lower courts.