|
Legal Services Day
observed at USTM
November 9, 2017, USTM, Ri Bhoi : The
University School of Law & Research, USTM had observed
National Legal Service Day today having a gathering of all
its enthusiastic student-participants. ‘The idea was to
generate awareness amongst the common people as well as
those who are into the legal field that however grim
scenario is there in the Justice Delivery system, common
people must not feel left out or deprived. And here in lies
the significance of observing Legal Services Day – quoted
Dr. Anil Kumar Sinha, Dean, USLR, USTM. Meanwhile it must be
mentioned that Legal Services Day are being observed every
year on 9th of November in all the states Authorities. At
this day variety of legal literacy camps and functions are
organized at many places in the capital city of the country.
People from government as well as non government
organizations take part in the functions and camps related
to the Legal Services Day.
In his augural speech, Dr. Sinha recalled that Legal Aid
Services Act was formulated in 1987 and enforced in 1995 to
protect that Justice is delivered to the poor, to ensure
compulsory free legal aid services to the underprivileged
and weaker section of the society and that Directive
Principles as charted out in the Indian Constitution are
maintained. He also referred to some historical cases like M
S Hoskot case of 1978, Hussainara Khatoon case of 1979 in a
bid to assure the audience that Justice was delivered even
before the Act was actually implemented.
Prof. Alaka Sharma, Dean, School of Social Sciences, USTM
referred that a democratic country like India has always
given adequate importance that by the Court of Law all are
equal and there would be no exception to it. And that is why
before the Legal Aid Services Act was enforced Public
Prosecutors were engaged to protect the poor who do not have
the resources to bear the expenses of legal proceedings.
Ameera Yasmin Mazumder, Asst. Prof, USLR, through a power
point presentation discussed the constitutional provisions
for securing justice and different mechanisms or appellate
bodies under Legal Aid Services Authority that are in place
to reduce the anomalies lying hidden in the system of
justice delayed and justice delivered.
The Chief Guest of the program, Mr. Mridul Saikia, Dy.
Secretary, State Legal Service Authority, Assam, reiterated
different perspectives of Indian Legal System through Hindi
movie clippings where we have examples of both Justice
Delayed and Justice Delivered. He then went on explaining
how Judiciary can bring about a change in making a country a
real welfare state, above all diminish the gap between haves
and have-nots by abolishing all hindrances that may come
within its ambit, be it political interference or other
Executive bodies of the Legislature. Thus the independence
of the Judiciary, the Judges, must be maintained so that
common people can trust that the rights that are given to
them by the Constitution are not there just for name sake
but for the benefit of the downtrodden, weaker section of
the society.
The program was followed by an agile interactive session
with the students where all queries related to
infrastructural, behavioral lapses implied in the Judicial
system were addressed. |
