Access To Justice And Legal Aid In India: A Socio- Legal Study
- IJLLR Journal
- 54 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Danny Varghese, LLM, Amity University
Uthara J, LLM, Amity University
ABSTRACT
The rule of law includes access to justice as one of its pillars but in India this has proven to be elusive to many of the marginalized citizens. This socio- legal research provides an analysis of how the legal aid system in India supports the delivery of justice concentrating on publicity of legal aid and efficacy of legal aid services. The paper puts the problem within the constitutional imperative of the free legal aid and tracks the development of the legal aid institutions. It is a mixed approach, based on a doctrinal and empirical method: the statutes, case law, and scholarly literature analysis, as well as recent statistics on the use of legal aid. The results show that there is still a gap between what was promised of justice to all and the realities on the ground. In many areas, the extent of legal aid schemes is threatened by the low publicity on the issue of free legal aid. Simultaneously, access to legal aid is limited in effect in regions where it is availed, due to systemic issues - such as insufficient funding, overworked legal advice attorneys, and disproportionate quality services. However, this has not been the case because the legal aid system has grown vastly and has served millions of cases with both Legal Services Authorities and Lok Adalats. As the paper ends, the legal aid in India is being strengthened by legal advocacy, and the operational and financial means of legal aid reform such that access to justice can become a factual experience of every citizen in India.
Keywords: Access to Justice; Legal Aid; India; Awareness; Effectiveness.
