Legal Aid Cell at MRU

Legal Aid Guidelines


Legal Aid Camps

About Legal Aid Cell

Faculty of Law, Manav Rachna University has a Legal Aid Cell operating since 2017. Many Legal Aid and Awareness Camps in association with DLSA has been organised by Legal Aid Cell since its inception. Legal Aid Cell is operated by Legal Aid Committee which is comprises of Faculty-in charge, Core Committee members and other law student volunteers.

The main objective of organising a legal aid camp is to spread awareness on rights,entitlements and legal remedies.In these hard times of COVID, Faculty of Law is helping the society by organising Legal Aid Camps in virtual mode and is offering legal advice to the people facing difficulties.

Significance of Legal Aid

“The concept of seeking justice cannot be equated with the value of dollars. Money plays no role in seeking justice.”- Justice Blackmun

Legal Aid is about providing free legal assistance to poor people in judicial proceedings, administrative proceedings, quasi-judicial proceedings, or any consultation regarding all legal problems. It acts asa torchbearer for poor people who cannot afford the court proceedings, but are constrained to shell outhefty amounts at each step while seeking justice in courts.

Reginald Heber Smith in his book Justice and the Poor write “Without equal access to the law, the system not only robs the poor of their only protection, but it places in the bands of their oppressors the most powerful and ruthless weapon ever invented.” 

Legal Aid, as explained by Justice P.N. Bhagwati, is an arrangement to have easy access to the justice delivery system for the poor and illiterate people, so that ignorance and poverty does not stop them from seeking justice. The only objective of this service is to provide equal justice to the poor and downtrodden people. This not only includes the free access to the representation of an advocate in court proceedings but also Legal Awareness, Legal Advice, Public Interest Litigation, Legal Mobilizations, LokAdalats, law reforms, and many such services that could prevent the injustice. 

In 1976, keeping in mind the need for providing free legal aid, it was made a statutory right by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment by inserting Article 39A under the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP), on “Equal Justice and Free Legal Aid” which stated that the Court has to ensure equal opportunity of justice to everyone and provide free legal aid to the ones in need so that economic or any other disability does not stop anyone from seeking Justice. Judiciary has always been a major supporter and a proponent of free legal aid in India. It is evident from the past that the Hon’ble Justice P.N. Bhagwati and Hon’ble Justice Krishna Iyer have played a very important role in the legal aid movement, and have emphasized the importance of free legal aid in India. Various judgments by the judiciary like HussainaraKhatoon v. State of Bihar, State of Haryana v. Darshana Devi, and Khatri v. State of Bihar have proven effective in promoting the legal aid program.

The Legal Service Authority Act, 1987 added a huge momentum to the legal aid movement in India. It was enforced in 1995 after the final amendments were made to the Act. The Act has 2 objectives: (i.) to provide free legal services to the poor and weaker sections of the society, to ensure that no citizen is deprived of justice due to any economic and other disability reason, and, (ii.) to make sure that there is equal delivery of justice by organising LokAdalats. The Act also mentioned the institutional framework on national, state, district and Taluka level that is National Legal Services Authority, State Legal Services Authority, District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), and Taluka Legal Services Authority respectively.

The legal aid camps and LokAdalatshelp spread awareness about the rights of the people and awareness about the free legal aid programmesprovided under the statutes.

Legal Aid Committee

Legal Aid Camps

Legal Aid Committee consists of following persons:

• Shivam Gaur, Faculty Incharge
• Rahul Malik, BBALLB (H) 9^th Sem
• JishnuBakshi, BBALLB (H) 9^th Sem
• DeepanshiBhutani, BBALLB (H) 9^th Sem
• Muskan, BBALLB (H) 9^th Sem
• Saumya Bajaj, BALLB (H) 9^th Sem
• Mayank Singh,BALLB (H) 9^th Sem

• Aid Camp at Faridabad District Court
• Legal Aid Camp at Neemka Jail
• Legal Aid Camp at Faridpur Village Faridabad
• HIV A wareness Camp 2020
• Legal Aid Workshop at Manav Rachna University
• Legal Aid and awareness camp-2
• Legal Aid and Awareness Camp-3