{"id":66469,"date":"2020-10-12T12:46:15","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T07:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=66469"},"modified":"2021-08-10T20:29:11","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T14:59:11","slug":"eligibility-for-free-legal-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/eligibility-for-free-legal-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Eligibility for Free Legal Services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has been constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 to provide free Legal Services to the weaker sections of the society and to organize Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes.<\/p>\n<p>In every State, State Legal Services Authority has been constituted to give effect to the policies and directions of the\u00a0<strong>NALSA\u00a0<\/strong>and to give free legal services to the people and conduct Lok Adalats in the State.\u00a0 The State Legal Services Authority is headed by Hon\u2019ble the Chief Justice of the respective High Court who is the Patron-in-Chief of the State Legal Services Authority.<\/p>\n<p>In every District, District Legal Services Authority has been constituted to implement Legal Services Programmes in the District. The District Legal Services Authority is situated in the District Courts Complex in every District and chaired by the District Judge of the respective district.<\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The sections of the society as enlisted under\u00a0<\/span><\/b><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act\u00a0<\/span><\/b><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">are entitled to free legal services, they <\/span><\/b><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">are:<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">&#8211;A member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe (<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Not OBC)<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">&#8211;A victim of trafficking in human beings or\u00a0begar\u00a0as referred to in Article 23 of the Constitution;<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">&#8211;A woman or a child;<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">&#8211;A mentally ill or otherwise disabled person;<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">&#8211;A person under circumstances of undeserved want such as being a victim of a mass disaster, ethnic violence, caste atrocity, flood, drought, earthquake or industrial disaster; or<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">&#8211;An industrial workman; or<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">&#8212;<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">A<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0person in receipt of\u00a0<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">annual income<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0less than the amount as may be prescribed by the State Government), if the case is before a Court other than the Supreme Court, and less than Rs 5 Lakh, if the case is before the Supreme Court. [NALSA website provides income eligibility list for various states and UTs with most of them providing services to<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0people<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0below 1 lac\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">annual income\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">threshold].\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">&#8212;<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Senior citizens\u2019<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0eligibility for free legal aid depends on the\u00a0<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Rules framed by the respective State Governments in this regard<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In Delhi for example, senior citizens are eligible for free legal aid subject to a prescribed ceiling of annual income. Any individual above the age of 60 can apply for free legal aid\/services.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has been constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 to provide free Legal Services to the weaker sections of the society and to organize Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes. In every State, State Legal Services Authority has been constituted to give effect to the policies and&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/eligibility-for-free-legal-services\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Eligibility for Free Legal Services<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-polity-governance","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":257,"cached_at":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}