NALSA - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: NALSA

Explanation:
NALSA has launched a web application for free Legal Services to Prisoners at the conference held at Indian Law Institute, New Delhi.

The Conference saw the participation of Member Secretaries and administrative officers of 18 State Legal Services Authorities.

The Legal Services Management System has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

The State Legal Services Authorities and District Legal Services Authorities will feed into the web application the data for each individual prison inmate in the jails within their jurisdiction.

The feeds will have details regarding the representation of prisoners through a counsel in the court.

The software will also help in generating reports showing the total number of inmates, the number of inmates unrepresented, the number of inmates represented by legal services lawyers and the number of inmates represented by private lawyers.

All this information can be generated State wise, District wise and also with respect to each jail.

The software is also capable of generating information with regard to prisoners eligible for bail under Section 436-A Cr. P.C.

Importance of the App

• The web application will help in making the legal services system more transparent.
• It would be useful for all the concerned authorities to monitor the grant of legal aid to the prisoners to make sure that all prisoners are represented right from their first day in the court.

NALSA: Know More


• NALSA provides for free legal aid inter-alia to all persons in custody.
• It has been constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.
• It provides services of free legal aid in civil and criminal matters for the poor and marginalised people who cannot afford the services of a lawyer in any court or tribunal.
• Its aim is to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reasons of economic or other disabilities.
• NALSA also identifies specific categories of marginalised and excluded groups and formulates various schemes for implementation of legal service programmes.
• It also organises Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes.

ANSWER: National Legal Services Authority

Explanation:
The Union Government on 18th Nov 2016 announced the appointment of senior judge of the SC, Jagdish Singh Khehar as the Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority

• A judge of the SC, he will succeed Anil R. Dave
• The National Legal Services Authority of India was firmed on Dec 5, 1995
• It was instituted under the authority of the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987
• It seeks to provide free legal services to eligible candidates and organise Lok Adalats for speedy case resolution
• It aims to reduce the burden of the judiciary
• The CJI (currently Justice TS Thakur) is the patron-in-chief of NALSA while the second senior most judge is the Executive Chairman
• There is a provision for the same mechanism in state and district levels