The State Legal Services Authority and the High Court Legal Services Committee

Sections 6(4) to 6(6) deal with terms of office, and with appointing officers and employees and their salaries, all prescribed by the State Government in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court.

Section 6(7) makes the administrative expenses of the State Authority, including salaries, allowances and pensions of the Member-Secretary, officers and employees, payable out of the Consolidated Fund of the State.

Section 6(8) requires all orders and decisions to be authenticated by the Member-Secretary or another officer authorised by the Executive Chairman.

Section 6(9) is the standard saving: no act or proceeding of a State Authority is invalid merely because of a vacancy in it or a defect in its constitution.

Section 7: what a State Authority does

Section 7(1) is the sentence that defines the whole tier: it shall be the duty of the State Authority to give effect to the policy and directions of the Central Authority.

Read that against section 4, which gives NALSA the job of laying down policies and framing schemes. NALSA decides, the State Authority delivers. That single division explains why section 7's own list is so much shorter than section 4's.

Section 7(2), without prejudice to that duty, lists four functions:

• (a) give legal service to persons who satisfy the criteria laid down under this Act. The criteria are sections 12 and 13, chapter 70.
• (b) conduct Lok Adalats, including Lok Adalats for High Court cases. The words "including Lok Adalats for High Court cases" were substituted by Act 59 of 1994, and they matter: a Lok Adalat is not confined to the lower courts.
• (c) undertake preventive and strategic legal aid programmes. A programme is preventive when it stops a dispute arising at all, by getting entitlements paid or documents issued; it is strategic when one case is chosen because it will settle a question affecting many people.
• (d) perform such other functions as the State Authority may, in consultation with the Central Authority, fix by regulations.

Section 8: coordination, and being directed

Section 8 does two things in one sentence. In the discharge of its functions the State Authority shall act in coordination with other governmental agencies, non-governmental voluntary social service institutions, universities and other bodies engaged in promoting the cause of legal services to the poor; and it shall also be guided by such directions as the Central Authority may give to it in writing.

Note the words in writing. NALSA's control over a State Authority is exercised through written directions, not informally. Compare section 5, where NALSA "may issue such directions as it may think fit" to outside agencies: within the system the direction is mandatory and written, outside it is discretionary.

Section 8A: the High Court Legal Services Committee

Inserted by Act 59 of 1994, section 8A does for a High Court what section 3A does for the Supreme Court.

Section 8A(1): the State Authority shall constitute a Committee called the High Court Legal Services Committee for every High Court, exercising such powers and performing such functions as the State Authority determines by regulations.

Section 8A(2): the Committee consists of (a) a sitting Judge of the High Court, who shall be the Chairman, and (b) such number of other members with the experience and qualifications determined by regulations made by the State Authority, all nominated by the Chief Justice of the High Court.

Section 8A(3): the Chief Justice appoints the Secretary to the Committee.

Sections 8A(4) to 8A(6) cover terms of office, officers and employees and their salaries.

Two things students get wrong here. The Chairman is a sitting Judge, not a retired one, unlike the Executive Chairman of the State Authority who may be either. And the Committee is constituted by the State Authority, although its members are nominated by the Chief Justice: two different bodies doing two different things in the same section.

The Maharashtra picture, since that is where the reader is

For a student in Mumbai the names are worth knowing, because these are the offices they will actually deal with.

• The Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority is the section 6 body for this State. Its Patron-in-Chief is the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court and its Executive Chairman is a Judge of that Court.
• The High Court Legal Services Committee at the Bombay High Court is the section 8A body, chaired by a sitting Judge of that Court, and it is the body that handles legal services for matters in the High Court itself, including at the benches.
• Each district has a District Legal Services Authority under section 9, which is chapter 60.

Verify current office-holders and addresses from the Authority's own website before relying on them; they change, and this book does not print them for that reason.

A worked example

Fatima has been fighting a rent matter in the Small Causes Court at Mumbai. She has now lost, and wants to appeal. She is a widow earning about eight thousand rupees a month as a tailor.

Who helps her with the appeal? It depends on where the appeal lies. If it is to be filed in the High Court, the High Court Legal Services Committee under section 8A is the body, because its function is legal services for matters in that Court. If the appeal lies within the district judiciary, the District Legal Services Authority under section 9 is the body.

Who decides whether she qualifies? The concerned Authority, applying sections 12 and 13. Section 7(2)(a) is the source of the State Authority's power to give her legal service; it is not the test of whether she gets it.

Where does the money come from? The administrative expenses of the State Authority come from the Consolidated Fund of the State under section 6(7). The cost of her lawyer comes from the State Legal Aid Fund under section 16, which is chapter 90.

The exercise is worth doing slowly once, because the commonest mistake in an examination answer on this Module is to name the wrong tier.

What beginners get wrong

The State Authority is not a branch office of NALSA. It is a separate statutory body constituted by the State Government. It is bound by NALSA's written directions under section 8, which is a different thing from being part of it.

The Executive Chairman of a State Authority may be a serving or retired Judge; the Chairman of a High Court Legal Services Committee must be a sitting Judge. Section 6(2)(b) against section 8A(2)(a).

Section 7 is not a copy of section 4. A State Authority's first duty is to give effect to NALSA's policy. It does not lay down its own.

Lok Adalats are not only a district-level thing. Section 7(2)(b) expressly lets a State Authority conduct Lok Adalats including for High Court cases, and section 19(1) lists five different bodies that may organise them.

Quick revision

• Section 6: every State Government shall constitute a State Legal Services Authority. Chief Justice of the High Court is Patron-in-Chief; a serving or retired High Court Judge nominated by the Governor in consultation with the Chief Justice is Executive Chairman; the Member-Secretary comes from the State Higher Judicial Service, not below District Judge rank. Expenses from the Consolidated Fund of the State. Vacancy does not invalidate.
• Section 7(1): the duty is to give effect to the policy and directions of the Central Authority. Section 7(2): give legal service to those who qualify; conduct Lok Adalats, including for High Court cases; undertake preventive and strategic legal aid programmes; other functions fixed by regulations in consultation with NALSA.
• Section 8: coordinate with other agencies, and be guided by NALSA's directions in writing.
• Section 8A: the State Authority constitutes a High Court Legal Services Committee for every High Court; a sitting Judge of the High Court is Chairman; members and the Secretary are appointed by the Chief Justice.

Test yourself

1. Who nominates the Executive Chairman of a State Legal Services Authority? The Governor, in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court, under section 6(2)(b). The person must be a serving or retired Judge of the High Court.

2. What is the primary duty of a State Authority? Under section 7(1), to give effect to the policy and directions of the Central Authority. Its own functions in section 7(2) are stated to be without prejudice to that duty.

3. Who constitutes the High Court Legal Services Committee, and who appoints its members? The State Authority constitutes it under section 8A(1). Its Chairman, a sitting Judge of the High Court, and its other members are nominated by the Chief Justice of the High Court under section 8A(2), and the Chief Justice appoints its Secretary under section 8A(3).

4. From which fund are the administrative expenses of a State Authority met? The Consolidated Fund of the State, under section 6(7). Compare NALSA, whose expenses come from the Consolidated Fund of India under section 3(6).

5. A State Authority ignores a written direction from NALSA. Is it entitled to? No. Section 8 requires it to be guided by such directions as the Central Authority may give it in writing, and section 7(1) makes giving effect to NALSA's policy and directions its duty.