New Delhi: Union Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju launched the Citizen’s Tele-Law Mobile App. He also felicitated the Tele-Law Frontline Functionaries.
Minister of State for Law and Justice Prof SP Singh Baghel was also present on the occasion. The event was part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations, celebrated by the Department of Justice from 8th to 14th November 2021.
In his message, Union Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju said New India is developed through the PM’s vision of Digital India. Under the Digital India scheme, e-interface platform Tele Law was developed. It is a platform to strengthen the pre-litigation mechanism in the country. He said the goal of this platform is to achieve Sabka Prayas Sabka Nyay. He gave a call to come together to make common people self-reliant and justice accessible to them, in the period of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
Addressing the gathering, the Union Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju announced the expansion of Tele-Law in 75,000 Gram Panchayats covering all States / UTs as a part of the 75 years of India’s Independence celebrations. He also appealed to the Lawyers to join the Tele-Law movement and provide legal guidance and consultation as basic steps to legal aid services. He appreciated the team effort of all frontline functionaries that has enabled Tele-Law to cross the 12 lakh + beneficiary mark and exhorted the ethos of Sabka Prayas,Sabko Nyaya to facilitate the last mile delivery of justice and legal aid services. He also encouraged the participants to download the Citizens’ Tele-Law Mobile App for optimizing the citizen-centric justice delivery mechanism.
Minister of State of Law and Justice Prof SP Singh Baghel highlighted that the Citizens’ Tele-Law Mobile App would be a first of its kind wherein as part of our constitutional mandate for providing equal opportunities before law, every citizen would now be entitled to have access to lawyer on a touch of a finger. He also emphasized that the features of the Mobile App would be available in form of e-tutorial in all scheduled languages and urged the frontline functionaries to ensure its maximum outreach.
Secretary, Department of Justice, Barun Mitra in his address gave deep insight of the growth trajectory of Tele-Law and focussed on capacity building of all frontline functionaries, quality training of lawyers on various schemes of the centre and states, strengthening of the monitoring mechanism and need for a good performance feedback system for delivery of tangible results.
Dinesh Tyagi, MD CSCe-Gov shared his commitment to provide his relentless support in carrying forward the Tele-Law service through its network of 4 lakh+ CSC centres in the entire country.
Tele-Law: Reaching the Unreached e-interface platform was launched in 2017 by the Department of Justice, to strengthen the pre-litigation mechanism in the country. This is operational in 51,434 Common Service Centres across 50,000 Gram Panchayats in 633 districts Tele-Law leverages technology (viz. tele-video conferencing facilities) to connect the beneficiary with the Panel Lawyer to seek legal advice and consultation for an early redressal of their grievance.
Expanding its reach and ambit the Citizens’ Tele-Law Mobile App intends to widen the access to increased legal information and empowers the masses to identify their problem and chose from appropriate forum of dispute redressal to claim their entitlements and rights by connecting the beneficiary directly to the Panel Lawyer or with an assistance of Para Legal Volunteers, Village Level entrepreneurs, in case of beneficiary who are unable to read or write. The consultation is available free of cost to those entitled for free legal aid under Section 12 of Legal Service Authority, whereas Others could avail at Rs 30/ per consultation.
The event also witnessed the felicitation of 124 Frontline functionaries which includes Para Legal Volunteers, Village Level entrepreneurs, Panel Lawyers and State Coordinators representing from different corners of the country. Instrumental in taking the benefits of Tele-Law reach to the far flung and hinterland of the country, these Frontline functionaries are the “Engines” of the Tele-Law programme. Behind the scene efforts of these Volunteers from six zones (North, South, East, West, Central and North-East zone) in the past six months (April- September 2021) were assessed on different parameters which includes number of beneficiaries registered under Tele-Law, innovative tools used to educate the masses on the need for legal advice and consultation; number of beneficiaries who have been provided with advice; number of mobilization and community awareness sessions conducted and efforts of networking and inter-departmental convergence with other Welfare Schemes of the Government. Prizes were handed over to star performers from each category by Hon’ble Ministers. In order to motivate all these frontline functionaries, the Department of Justice acknowledges their endeavor on a monthly basis.
