Karnataka State Legal Services Authority, University Law College and Department of Studies in Law has conducted Zonal workshop on legal services activities on 18/06/2022 at H N Auditorium, Jnanabharathi Campus, Bangalore University, Bengaluru.
The following dignitaries were present in this workshop:
1. Hon’ble Justice Mr. B Veerappa, Judge, High Court of Karnataka & Executive Chairman, KSLSA, Bengaluru.
2. Dr. Cynthia Menezes, Vice Chancellor (Acting), Bangalore University.
3. Mr. Shashidhar Shetty, Member Secretary, KSLSA.
4. Mr. Vignesh Kumar, PRO, KSLSA.
5. Dr. Suresh V Nadagoudar, Principal, Chairman and Dean, ULC.
6. Dr. N Dasharath, Former Chairman & Dean, ULC.
7. Dr. V Sudesh, Former Principal & Dean, ULC.
8. Dr. N Sathish Gowda, Asso. Prof. & Faculty Coordinator, Legal Services Clinics, ULC.
Justice Mr. B Veerappa Sir in his inaugural address opined that the Judiciary and Press has been paralyzed because of the inaction of Legislature and Executive. Hence there is a need to strengthen these institutions and for this there should be support, coordination and contribution from judges, academicians, advocates and law students. He is proposing to BCI & KSLU to start LCC i.e., Legal Cadet Corps in law colleges like NCC, who would be trained to provide legal aid and services to all sections of the society (pro bono).
Justice Mr. B Veerappa Sir called the young generations to strive for creating a casteless society, to fight against corruption, to prevent crimes against women with a specific mention about gang rape and acid attacks. Sir also advised that, all the students should never to stop their sincere efforts until they achieve their goals.
Mr. H Shashidhar Shetty, Member Secretary, KSLSA spoke about the object of enacting Legal Services Authority Act, 1987, the purpose of creating various institutions like NLSA, SLSA and DLSA and the role played by them including TLSC in providing access to justice for all.
Sir instructed that outreach programs shall be conducted by all law colleges in rural areas as per SOPs and to educate illiterate rural masses about the rights and obligations. His highlighted views were:
1. Engage law students to educate rural and slum dwellers.
a. About the facilities and schemes of Central and State Government.
2. Legal services and legal aid. (Pro bono).
a. Circulate SOPs to law students.
b. Adoption of atleast 5 to 6 villages.
c. Open off campus legal service clinics.
d. Conduct workshops for PLVs.
e. Invite Member Secretary, DLSA/KSLSA to provide training to PLVs.
3. Facilitate to conduct Lok Adalat.
a. Promote ADR Mechanism to settle legal battles.
4. Implementation of NLSA activities.
a. Action oriented activities.
b. Submit periodical reports.
5. Assistance in distributing Victim compensation.
a. Quantify the compensation through DLSA.
b. POSCO cases.
c. Special Judge compensations.
6. File Public Interest Litigation through DLSA.
a. Reporting DLSA about strange activities witnessed by them.
Mr. Vignesh Kumar, Public Relation Officer, KSLSA spoke about the establishment of National Legal Services Authority. The rules and regulations framed for implementation of the objectives of NLSA. BCI rules for implementation of initiatives of NLSA. His views can be summed up as under:
1. Legal Social Responsibility of law students and law colleges.
2. Establishing In and Off campus legal Services Clinics
3. Annual calendar of programs by the law colleges in implementing the objectives of NLSA.
4. Legal Services Clinics to facilitate Lok Adalat.
Mr. Sridhar Prabhu, Non-Official Member, KSLSA & Advocate viewed that NLSA is the best and biggest Law firm in India. Its role in bringing the legal and social responsibility among Law colleges and its students is commendable. Its primary initiative is to create litigation free villages with a peaceful society.
Sir advised all the faculty coordinators and PLVs to be instrumental in conducting action oriented legal services camps for which every law college has to establish Legal Aid Committee with Principal as the chairman, Alumni, panel advocates, volunteers from corporate, industries etc., and Member Secretary, DLSA as honorary chairman as per SOPs circulated earlier. This committee is authorized to generate funds for conducting camps and to maintain proper accounts of the same.
The records shall be properly maintained and submitted to the authorities when called upon. The outreach camps by legal services clinics shall be conducted in three phases as stated below:
1. Door to door survey for collecting the data through the questionnaire provided in the workshop.
2. Outreach Camp with the design prepared and circulated by KSLSA.
3. Post camp analysis showing that every applicant has received the services sought for.
After conducting the camps every college has to submit of periodical reports to the NLSA, KSLSA and the jurisdictional DLSA.
The workshop concluded with the interaction between the faculty coordinators and the speakers. Many questions were answered by them. An attempt would be made to provide financial assistance from KSLU, Hubballi for conducting camps.
Hospitality like breakfast, lunch & refreshments was provided to all the participants by the Organizers. Mr. Hanumanthe Gowda N A, Asst. Prof. Faculty Coordinator LSC and Mr. Niranjan S, II Semester B Com., LL. B. PLV represented Soundarya College of Law, Bengaluru.
(Hanumanthe Gowda N A) (Dr. B P Mahesha)
Faculty Coordinator LSC Principal
Place: Bengaluru
Date: