The Legal Services Authorities Act 1987: Its Shape, Its Commencement and Its Definitions

Two later Acts rebuilt this one, and their footnotes are all over the text you will read.

• Act 59 of 1994, in force 29 October 1994, was the larger of the two. It substituted whole sections, inserted the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee (section 3A), the High Court Legal Services Committee (section 8A) and the Taluk Legal Services Committee (sections 11A and 11B), and replaced sections 19 and 20 with the Lok Adalat provisions now in force.
• Act 37 of 2002, in force 11 June 2002, inserted Chapter VIA, which is the Permanent Lok Adalat, and changed the words "Lok Adalat" to "Lok Adalat or Permanent Lok Adalat" wherever that was needed.

Almost everything a student finds strange about the Act's numbering is explained by those two Acts. A section with a letter after it, 3A, 8A, 11A, 11B, 22A to 22E, 29A, was inserted later.

One more change is recent and easy to miss. Section 1(2) now reads simply that the Act extends to the whole of India. The words "except the State of Jammu and Kashmir" were omitted by Act 34 of 2019, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, with effect from 31 October 2019. Since then the Act has applied there too.

How the Act is laid out

Reading a statute is easier when you know its shape before you start. This one has seven chapters and thirty numbered sections, forty once the inserted ones are counted.

Chapter VIA carries the heading "Pre-litigation conciliation and settlement", not "Permanent Lok Adalat". That heading is a fair warning of what the chapter actually does, and chapter 150 of this book returns to it.

Section 2: the definitions the rest of the Act runs on

Section 2(1) defines fifteen expressions. Five of them decide real questions and are worth knowing exactly; the rest you can read once.

"Case" includes a suit or any proceeding before a court, in clause (a). It is an inclusive definition, so it is wider than the two things it names.

"Court" means a civil, criminal or revenue court and includes any tribunal or any other authority constituted under any law for the time being in force, to exercise judicial or quasi-judicial functions, in clause (aaa).

This is the most important definition in the Act and the one students never look at. It is deliberately wide. A consumer commission, a motor accidents claims tribunal and a rent authority are all "courts" for this Act, which is why a Lok Adalat can take up matters pending before them. The odd clause number, (aaa), is because Act 59 of 1994 inserted it between the existing (a) and (b).

"Legal service" includes the rendering of any service in the conduct of any case or other legal proceeding before any court or other authority or tribunal and the giving of advice on any legal matter, in clause (c).

Two halves, and the second is the one people forget. Legal service is not only fighting a case. Giving advice on any legal matter is legal service under this Act, so a person entitled under section 12 is entitled to be advised, whether or not there is a case at all.

"Lok Adalat" means a Lok Adalat organised under Chapter VI, in clause (d). Short, and it does real work: a settlement meeting that is not organised under Chapter VI is not a Lok Adalat and its outcome is not an award under section 21, whatever anybody calls it.

"Scheme" means any scheme framed by the Central Authority, a State Authority or a District Authority for the purpose of giving effect to any of the provisions of this Act, in clause (g). Much of what NALSA actually does is done through schemes, and this is where they get their statutory footing.

The remaining definitions are labels for the bodies the Act creates and are covered where those bodies are: Central Authority in clause (aa) is NALSA under section 3; State Authority in clause (h) is under section 6; District Authority in clause (b) is under section 9; High Court Legal Services Committee in clause (bb) is under section 8A; Supreme Court Legal Services Committee in clause (j) is under section 3A; and Taluk Legal Services Committee in clause (k) is under section 11A. Clauses (e), (f) and (ff) define notification, prescribed and regulations in the ordinary way, and clause (i) makes State Government include the administrator of a Union territory appointed under article 239 of the Constitution.

Note the difference between prescribed and regulations, because the Act uses both and they are not the same. Prescribed means prescribed by rules, which the Central Government makes under section 27 and a State Government under section 28. Regulations are made by the Central Authority under section 29 or a State Authority under section 29A. So when a section says a thing shall be "prescribed", look for a rule; when it leaves a matter to regulations, look for NALSA.

Section 2(2) is a machinery provision: a reference in this Act to another enactment is to be read, in an area where that enactment is not in force, as a reference to the corresponding law in force there.

A worked example on the definitions

Ramesh has a claim before the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority against a builder who did not hand over his flat. He wants it taken to a Lok Adalat, and the builder is willing.

Work through the definitions rather than guessing.

Is this a "case"? Clause (a) says case includes a suit or any proceeding before a court. It is a proceeding, so the question becomes whether the Authority is a court.

Is the Authority a "court"? Clause (aaa) includes any tribunal or any other authority constituted under any law for the time being in force to exercise judicial or quasi-judicial functions. The Authority is constituted under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 and decides disputes between allottees and promoters, which is a quasi-judicial function. So yes.

Does that get him to a Lok Adalat? It gets him past the definitions. Section 19(5)(i) gives a Lok Adalat jurisdiction over any case pending before a court for which the Lok Adalat is organised, and section 20(1) is the route by which the case is referred. Chapters 100 and 110 finish the analysis.

The point of the exercise is the method. In this Act, the definitions in section 2 are not preliminary throat-clearing; they are how you find out whether a section applies at all.

What beginners get wrong

The Act did not create legal aid in India. Legal aid schemes existed before it, and the Supreme Court had already held free legal aid to be part of the right under article 21, which chapter 20 works through. What the Act did was give the system a statutory structure, funding and permanence.

The Act is not only about Lok Adalats. Six of its seven chapters are about legal services. Students who meet it through the ADR syllabus often come away thinking the reverse.

"Weaker sections" in the long title is not the operative test. The long title states the purpose. Who actually gets legal services is decided by sections 12 and 13, which is chapter 70, and those sections name categories rather than a general standard of weakness.

Quick revision

• Legal Services Authorities Act 1987, Act 39 of 1987, assented 11 October 1987, in force 9 November 1995 by S.O. 893(E).
• Amended substantially by Act 59 of 1994 (w.e.f. 29 October 1994) and Act 37 of 2002 (w.e.f. 11 June 2002, which inserted Chapter VIA, the Permanent Lok Adalat).
• Extends to the whole of India; the Jammu and Kashmir exception was omitted by Act 34 of 2019 w.e.f. 31 October 2019.
• Seven chapters. II, III set up the authorities; IV says who qualifies; V is money; VI is Lok Adalats; VIA is Permanent Lok Adalats; VII is miscellaneous.
• Section 2(1)(aaa) defines court very widely, to include any tribunal or authority exercising judicial or quasi-judicial functions.
• Section 2(1)(c) defines legal service to include both conducting a case and giving advice on any legal matter.
• Prescribed means by rules (sections 27, 28); regulations are made by the Authorities (sections 29, 29A).

Test yourself

1. When did the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987 come into force, and how do you know? On 9 November 1995. Section 1(3) leaves commencement to a Central Government notification, and the notification is S.O. 893(E) of that date. The Act was assented to on 11 October 1987, which is a different thing.

2. Is a Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal a "court" for this Act? Yes. Section 2(1)(aaa) includes any tribunal or other authority constituted under any law in force to exercise judicial or quasi-judicial functions, and a Claims Tribunal is constituted under the Motor Vehicles Act to decide claims.

3. A person entitled under section 12 wants advice on whether to sue, but does not want to file anything. Is that legal service under the Act? Yes. Section 2(1)(c) expressly includes the giving of advice on any legal matter, which does not depend on there being a case.

4. Which chapter of the Act creates the Permanent Lok Adalat, and which amending Act inserted it? Chapter VIA, headed "Pre-litigation conciliation and settlement", sections 22A to 22E, inserted by Act 37 of 2002 with effect from 11 June 2002.

5. A section says a matter shall be "prescribed". Where do you look? In the rules: those made by the Central Government under section 27, or by the State Government under section 28. Regulations under sections 29 and 29A are a different source, made by the Central or State Authority.