Access to free legal aid is a fundamental right enshrined under Article 39A of the Indian Constitution and reinforced by Article 21, which guarantees the right to life and personal liberty. The Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 institutionalised this commitment by establishing NALSA and its associated bodies. However, challenges still persist.
Challenges in Legal Aid Delivery:
- Limited Reach: Legal aid services are concentrated around district courts, prisons, and juvenile boards, with limited outreach to rural and remote areas. For example, as per India Justice Report 2025, there is only 1 legal aid clinic for every 163 villages.
- Shrinking Para-Legal Volunteer Base: The number of para-legal volunteers declined by 38% from 2019 to 2024, falling to 3.1 per lakh population, with states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal having less than 1 per lakh.
- Inadequate Budgetary Allocation: Legal aid receives less than 1% of total justice expenditure. Although budget rose from ₹601 crore (2017–18) to ₹1,086 crore (2022–23), per capita spending remains low at ₹3–₹7.
- Wide inter-state disparities: While Kerala & Haryana spend ₹16 per capita on legal aid, West Bengal spends only ₹2.
- Restrictions on Fund Utilization: Post-2023 SC guidelines (50% legal aid & advice, 25% awareness, 25% ADR) bars use of NALSA funds for hiring staff, vehicles, or outreach-related expenses.
- Poor Incentives: Honorariums remain below minimum wages. Only Kerala pays ₹750/day while states like Gujarat, Meghalaya, Mizoram pay ₹250/day.
Initiatives to enhance legal aid:
Supreme Court Directives (2024):
- Strengthen Legal Aid Clinics in Prisons, ensuring periodic reviews, digital reporting, and awareness generation.
- Monitor work of Legal Aid Defence Counsels and use of local language materials.
NALSA’s LADC Scheme (2022): Public defender model for dedicated representation of undertrials. It is operational only in 610 out of 670 districts.
- Government schemes:
- DISHA Scheme offers Pre-litigation aid.
- Tele-Law promotes remote legal advice using digital platforms.
- Nyaya Bandhu & Nyaya Mitra offer Pro bono support & case disposal of long-pending cases.
- Lok Adalats ensure cost-free and alternate dispute resolution.
Way Forward
- Institutional Strengthening: Simplify eligibility and enhance funding.Build capacity of LSAs through training, digitisation and M&E.
- Promote Legal Literacy: Campaigns like “Haq Humara Bhi Toh Hai@75” can be scaled up for awareness in prisons and child care institutions.
- Leveraging Technology: Digitise prison records and legal aid databases and use AI-powered legal chatbots for basic support in regional languages.
- Ensure Quality Representation: Implement Supreme Court’s observation in Ramanand Nandlal Bharti v. State of U.P. (2022) to ensure competence and due diligence of defence counsels.
Conclusion:
Free legal aid is the cornerstone of substantive justice and democratic governance. A well-funded, people-centric, and tech-enabled legal aid system is essential to realise the constitutional vision of Article 39A and strengthen the rule of law in India.
‘+1’ Value addition:
- Despite an increase in budget from ₹601 crore (2017–18) to ₹1,086 crore (2022–23) per capita legal aid spending remains low at ₹3 -₹7.
- Para-legal volunteers dropped by nearly 38% (2019–2024) from 5.7 to 3.1 per lakh population.
- In rural/remote areas, village-level legal aid clinics exist, but only 1 clinic for every 163 villages (India Justice Report 2025).
- In 2023-24, of 53,000 registered volunteers, only 14,000 were active.
- Under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, the aim is to provide free legal aid to nearly 80% of the population
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