Tele-Law Scheme to facilitate free legal consultation at 1000 rural CSCs
June 12, 2017The government in India on Sunday launched a tele-law scheme to assist rural India in obtaining legal help. As part of the scheme, 1,000 common service centers will be established for free legal consultation in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
As a pilot project, Ministry of Law and Justice has partnered with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to provide legal aid services through its common service centers at Panchayat level.
Through tele-law people will be able to seek legal advice from legal experts and lawyers via video conferencing available at CSCs. Currently, there are an over 2.5 lakhs CSCs across rural areas to provide internet-based government service to people.
This scheme is targeted to achieve access to justice and empowerment of poor. An official said, “In its efforts to make legal aid easily accessible to the marginalized communities and citizens living in rural areas.”
This initiative will also serve as an opportunity to build the capacity of 1,000 women as Para Legal Volunteers. In its first phase, tele-law will be tested across 500 CSCs in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to understand the procedural challenges and take corrective actions in the scheme before it is scaled up and rolled out across the country. Further, law school clinics, District Legal Service Authorities, non-government organizations working on legal-aid and empowerment can also be connected through CSCs anytime and anywhere.
The Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “I am extremely happy to have launched the Tele Law, the legal aid to the poor through which will be made available through the CSCs. Tele Law fulfils our commitment to ensure access to justice and empowerment of the poor. The common services center and Para Legal Volunteers will offer easy legal advice to litigants in rural India making them digitally and financially inclusive.”
This scheme will bring about a change as to how legal advice is given in our country. By receiving free legal consultations, rural India will be more empowered to take informed decisions.