Need to create awareness of legal rights emphasised

Gauhati High Court judge Justice L S Jamir today emphasised the need to create awareness of legal rights among the people.
High cost of litigation, the difference in capacity of the individual litigants to extract from the legal system, lack of adequate legal awareness, cumbersome procedures of litigation and quality of legal aid services available to poor and marginalised are issues concerning everyone, Justice Jamir said addressing the first All Nagaland Meet of District Legal Services Authorities here.
Though legal aid camps, clinics and legal awareness programmes are being conducted regularly, there is still a long way to go in creating awareness on legal rights among the people in general and ways of getting redressal through the legal system in particular, he said.

Legal Services Authorities(LSA) was constituted under the LSA Act, 1987 to provide free legal services to the weaker sections of the society to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities and also to organise Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes.
Justice Jamir expressed concern on the quality of legal services available to the poor and marginalised largely due to the reluctance on the part of experienced and senior advocates to volunteer for legal aid services.
Secretary to the department of Justice and Law, Khanrinla T Koza in her address said the work of LSA should not only be confined to free legal aid but also creating legal awareness by spreading legal literacy.

"We are dealing with the weakest section of the society, who are not only economically and financially poor but also ignorant of their legal rights due to lack of education," she said.