A legal aid defence counsel system will soon be put into place in at least 350 districts across the nation, according to Justice UU Lalit, a Supreme Court judge and the Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority, who released a statement on Saturday.
There will be a dedicated office that will handle all dedicated legal aid work on the criminal side in a district under the legal aid defence counsel system, similar to the Public Prosecutor’s office in a district, he noted. Addressing at the All India Legal Services Authorities Meeting in Jaipur was Justice Lalit, who is the next in line to become Chief Justice of India.
According to him, a trial project was started at 13 different locations before the system was put into action. ‘A pilot project was started at 13 places in the country and barring one or two exceptions, the experience has taught that perhaps we are in the right course. We had extensive meetings and we are now geared to accept that and implement it in at least 350 districts in the country,’ Justice Lalit said.
The short list of those districts and the exact next actions, according to Justice Lalit, have already been determined.
Out of those 350 districts, Justice Lalit stated that care was taken to include 112 districts that are on the list of Ministries and are referred to as ‘aspirational districts.’ These are the areas where possibly the connections, opportunities, and infrastructure are not of the highest order.
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