Friday, January 24, 2014

Legal Aid Clinics to be established in all subdivisions

GANGTOK, 23 Jan: Sikkim State Legal Services Authority [Sikkim SLSA] convened a meeting of Para-Legal Volunteers and Retainer/Panel Lawyers on 22 January 2014 at High Court of Sikkim, Conference Hall, Gangtok. The meeting was chaired by Justice, SP Wangdi, Judge, High Court of Sikkim and Executive Chairman, Sikkim SLSA and was attended by the Judicial Officers.
A press release informs that the meeting was held to work out the modalities of establishing “Legal Aid Clinics” in all the sub-divisions of the State. Member secretary, KW Bhutia welcomed all the participants and informed them about the purpose of the meeting.
Justice Wangdi informed that legal aid clinics would be established in all the sub-divisions of the State manned by the para-legal volunteers and retainer/ panel lawyers.
Explaining the meaning of legal aid clinic, he said that the facility established by District Legal Services Authority will provide basic legal services to the villagers with the assistance of Para-Legal Volunteers or Lawyers, on the lines of primary health centre providing basic legal services to the people in the locality. It includes the legal aid clinic run by the law colleges and law universities, he added.
He urged the para-legal volunteers to work tirelessly for the benefit of the people particularly disadvantaged people to solve their legal problems, whenever needed. He encouraged those willing to enroll themselves as para-legal volunteers.
During the course of the meeting, the para-legal volunteers were informed about their functions in running the legal aid clinics, the hurdles they could face and the means to overcome them. A short film on ‘Mediation’ [in Nepali] produced by the Sikkim SLSA was shown to the participants to demonstrate their role as para-legal volunteers, the release mentions.
The meeting was called in pursuance with the proposal of Justice, RM Lodha, Judge Supreme Court of India and Executive Chairman, NALSA to launch a program for setting up of one legal aid clinic in each taluk/sub-division throughout the country. The inaugural program would be held on 24 January, 2014 at 4:15 pm at the Supreme Court of India through video conferencing/webcast, it is added.



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