Para-Legal Training, Legal Literacy and Legal Services Clinics

Section 4(g) covers research in the field of legal services, and section 4(m) the enlisting of voluntary social welfare institutions working at the grass-root level.

At the levels below, section 7(2)(c) lets a State Authority undertake preventive and strategic legal aid programmes, and sections 7(2)(b) and 10(2)(b) give the power to conduct and organise Lok Adalats, which is where a camp usually ends.

The detail is in regulations, made under section 29. Two matter here: the NALSA (Legal Services Clinics) Regulations 2011, amended in 2014, and the NALSA (Free and Competent Legal Services) Regulations 2010, which define a para-legal volunteer as one trained under the NALSA Scheme for Para Legal Volunteers and empanelled by a legal services institution.

The legal services clinic

What it is. Regulation 2(c) of the 2011 Regulations defines a legal services clinic as the facility established by the District Legal Services Authority to provide basic legal services to the people with the assistance of para-legal volunteers or lawyers, as the point of first contact for help and advice.

Point of first contact is the phrase to remember. A clinic is not a court and not a law office. It is the place where a problem is first recognised as a legal one.

Where they must be. Regulation 3 requires the District Legal Services Authority, subject to available financial resources, to establish clinics in:

• (a) all villages, or clusters of villages depending on their size, called the Village Legal Care and Support Centre; and
• (b) jails, educational institutions, community centres, protection homes, courts, juvenile justice boards and other areas, especially where people face geographical, social and other barriers to reaching the legal services institutions.

Who staffs them. Regulation 5 requires at least two para-legal volunteers available during working hours, and the legal services institution with territorial jurisdiction, or the District Authority, may depute trained volunteers.

Who may use them. Regulation 4: every person who fulfils the criteria in section 12 is eligible for free legal services in a clinic, which ties this back to chapter 70.

A related institution worth knowing. Regulation 2(b) defines a District ADR Centre as the District Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre established under the Thirteenth Finance Commission, including similar facilities such as Nyaya Seva Sadans, where facilities for counselling, mediation, Lok Adalat and legal services are provided under a single roof. That is the whole of this subject in one building, and it is a good illustration of how Modules I and III meet in practice.

Mobile Lok Adalats. Regulation 21 lets the lawyers or para-legal volunteers in a clinic request the District Authority to send the mobile Lok Adalat van, with members of the Lok Adalat bench, to the clinic for settlement of the disputes they have identified. The van, fitted for conducting proceedings, may also be used at a place near the clinic or even at village congregations such as melas and other festive occasions.

The part that is about you: law students

Regulations 22 to 26 of the 2011 Regulations are addressed to law colleges and law universities. They were read here from the scan itself.

Regulation 22: the regulations apply mutatis mutandis to student legal services clinics set up by law colleges and law universities. A proviso lets students of law colleges and universities make use of the clinics established under these regulations with the permission of the District Legal Services Authority.

Mutatis mutandis means with the necessary changes made: the same rules apply, adjusted for the different setting.

Regulation 23: law students may adopt a village for legal aid camps.

• (1) Law students of law colleges or universities may adopt a village, especially in remote rural areas, and organise legal aid camps in association with the legal services clinic or Village Legal Care and Support Centre.
• (2) They may, with the assistance of the para-legal volunteers engaged in the clinics, conduct surveys to identify the legal problems of local people.
• (3) Those surveys may include gathering information about existing litigation and unresolved pre-litigation disputes.
• (4) They may also focus on grievances that would enable NALSA to take steps by way of social justice litigation as provided in section 4(d).
• (5) Students conducting surveys shall send reports to the State Legal Services Authority, with copies to the legal services institution having territorial jurisdiction and to the District Legal Services Authority.

Regulation 24: clinics attached to law colleges and universities.

• (1) Law colleges, law universities and other institutions may set up legal services clinics, as envisaged in section 4(k), attached to their institutions as a part of clinical legal education.
• (2) They shall inform the State Legal Services Authority of the establishment of such a clinic.
• (3) The State Authority shall render the required technical assistance and take measures to promote the clinic's activities.
• (4) Law students in the final year classes may render legal services in such clinics under the supervision of a faculty member of their institution.
• (5) The State Authority may organise alternative dispute resolution camps, including Lok Adalats, to resolve the problems of people who seek legal aid in such clinics.
• (6) The District Legal Services Authority may issue certificates to students who complete their assignment in such clinics.

Regulation 25: trained para-legal volunteers may be deputed to clinics established under regulation 24, to assist people seeking free legal services and to interact with the students and members of the faculty.

Regulation 26: the State Legal Services Authority shall collect monthly reports from District Authorities, law colleges and law universities on the functioning of clinics, shall review their working at least once in three months, may issue directions for improvement, and shall send quarterly reports to NALSA.

Read regulation 24(4) and 24(6) together and the shape of a clinical course appears: a final-year student renders legal services under faculty supervision, and the District Authority may certify the completed assignment. That is what a Practical Training paper is for.

A worked example

A law college in Thane sets up a legal services clinic and four final-year students adopt a village forty kilometres away.

What must the college do first? Under regulation 24(2), inform the State Legal Services Authority that the clinic has been established. Under regulation 24(3) the State Authority is then to render technical assistance.

What can the students actually do? Under regulation 24(4) they may render legal services in the clinic under the supervision of a faculty member. Under regulation 23(1) they may adopt the village and organise legal aid camps in association with the Village Legal Care and Support Centre, and under regulation 23(2) they may conduct surveys with the help of para-legal volunteers.

They find nineteen households whose widow pension applications have been pending for two years. Under regulation 23(3) and (4) the survey may record unresolved pre-litigation disputes and grievances that would let NALSA consider social justice litigation under section 4(d). Under regulation 23(5) they send their report to the State Authority, with copies to the local legal services institution and the District Authority.

Eleven of the nineteen are willing to settle with the department if it will process the applications. Under regulation 21 the students or the clinic's volunteers may request the District Authority to send the mobile Lok Adalat van with a bench, to the clinic or nearby, and those matters can be taken up as pre-litigation matters under section 20(2). If they settle, section 21 gives each settlement the force of a decree.

And for the students? Under regulation 24(6), the District Legal Services Authority may issue certificates on completion of the assignment.

What beginners get wrong

A para-legal volunteer is not an unqualified lawyer. The role is to identify problems, inform people of their rights and bring them to the system. Representation is done by panel lawyers.

Legal literacy is not the same as legal aid. Aid helps with a case; literacy tells people that a case is possible. Section 4(l) is about the second.

Clinics are not only in law colleges. Regulation 3 requires the District Authority to establish them in villages, jails, educational institutions, community centres, protection homes, courts and juvenile justice boards. The college clinic under regulation 24 is one kind.

A student clinic is not informal. It must be reported to the State Authority, work is done under faculty supervision, and there are monthly and quarterly reporting duties under regulation 26.

Quick revision

• Section 4(l): legal literacy and legal awareness, and educating weaker sections about their rights under social welfare legislation. Section 4(e): legal aid camps in rural areas, slums and labour colonies. Section 4(k): clinical legal education and legal services clinics in universities and law colleges, in consultation with the Bar Council of India. Section 4(d): training social workers in legal skills.
• NALSA (Legal Services Clinics) Regulations 2011, made under section 29. Regulation 2(c): a clinic is the point of first contact established by the District Authority. Regulation 3: clinics in all villages as Village Legal Care and Support Centres, and in jails, educational institutions, community centres, protection homes, courts and juvenile justice boards. Regulation 5: at least two para-legal volunteers during working hours. Regulation 4: eligibility is section 12.
• Regulation 2(b): a District ADR Centre, including a Nyaya Seva Sadan, houses counselling, mediation, Lok Adalat and legal services under one roof.
• Regulation 21: the mobile Lok Adalat van may be requested for a clinic, or used at village congregations such as melas.
• Regulation 23: law students may adopt a village, run camps, conduct surveys of legal problems including pre-litigation disputes, and send reports to the State Authority.
• Regulation 24: colleges may set up clinics as part of clinical legal education; the State Authority must be informed and must give technical assistance; final year students may render legal services under faculty supervision; the District Authority may issue certificates.
• Regulation 26: monthly reports, review at least once in three months, quarterly reports to NALSA.

Test yourself

1. What is a legal services clinic, and who establishes one? Under regulation 2(c) of the NALSA (Legal Services Clinics) Regulations 2011, it is the facility established by the District Legal Services Authority to provide basic legal services with the assistance of para-legal volunteers or lawyers, as the point of first contact for help and advice. Regulation 24 additionally allows law colleges, law universities and other institutions to set up clinics attached to themselves.

2. Which provision of the Act supports clinical legal education? Section 4(k), which requires NALSA to develop programmes for clinical legal education in consultation with the Bar Council of India and to promote, guide and supervise the establishment and working of legal services clinics in universities, law colleges and other institutions. Regulation 24(1) refers to it in terms.

3. What may law students do under regulation 23? Adopt a village, especially in a remote rural area, and organise legal aid camps in association with a legal services clinic or Village Legal Care and Support Centre; conduct surveys with the assistance of para-legal volunteers to identify legal problems, including existing litigation and unresolved pre-litigation disputes; and send reports to the State Legal Services Authority with copies to the local legal services institution and the District Authority.

4. Under what conditions may a final year student render legal services in a college clinic? Under regulation 24(4), under the supervision of a faculty member of the institution. The clinic itself must have been notified to the State Legal Services Authority under regulation 24(2).

5. Where must a District Legal Services Authority establish legal services clinics? Under regulation 3, subject to available financial resources, in all villages or clusters of villages, called Village Legal Care and Support Centres, and in jails, educational institutions, community centres, protection homes, courts, juvenile justice boards and other areas, especially where people face geographical, social and other barriers to reaching legal services institutions.