Why in the News?
The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has launched the ‘Veer Parivar Sahayata Yojana’, aimed at improving legal aid for defence personnel and their families.
Back2Basics: National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)
|
About Veer Parivar Sahayata Yojana:
- Launched by: National Legal Services Authority (NALSA).
- Objective: Provide legal assistance to defence personnel, ex-servicemen, and their families.
- Key Features:
-
- Legal Clinics: Set up at Zilla, Rajya, and Kendra Sainik Boards
- Welfare–Legal Integration: Sainik Boards become legal service hubs
- Paralegal Volunteers: Defence families encouraged to participate, enhancing local legal access
- Legal Assistance includes:
-
- Land and property disputes
- Matrimonial and family matters
- Service-related entitlements
- Utility/civil grievances (e.g., billing disputes)
- Support for personnel in remote/conflict zones
Free Legal Aid in India:
- Constitutional Backing
-
- Article 21 (FR): Access to justice as part of the right to life
- Article 39A (DPSP): Legal aid and equal justice, added via 42nd Amendment Act, 1976
- Legal Framework:
-
- Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987: Four-tier system—National, State, District, Taluka
- Section 341, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023: Legal aid for indigent accused persons
- Eligibility Criteria:
-
- Women and children
- Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes
- Persons with disabilities
- Industrial workmen
- Victims of disasters (natural or human-made)
- Persons in custody or shelter homes
- Economically weak (annual income:
- Below ₹1 lakh generally
- Below ₹5 lakh for Supreme Court cases)
| [UPSC 2020] In India, Legal Services Authorities provide free legal services to which of the following type of citizens?
1. Person with an annual income of less than Rs 1,00,000 2. Transgender with an annual income of less than Rs 2,00,000 3. Member of Other Backward Classes (OBC) with an annual income of less than ₹ 3,00,000 4. All Senior Citizens Select the correct answer using the code given below: Options: (a) 1 and 2 only * (b) 3 and 4 only (c) 2 and 3 only (d) 1 and 4 only |
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
