CHANGLANG, 16 Feb: Legal aid clinics were inaugurated at the police station and the sub-jail here on Friday, following direction from the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) and the Supreme Court of India Writ Petition (Civil) No 427 of 2022, titled ‘Bachpan Bachao Andolan vs Union of India and Ors’.
The legal aid clinics are intended to provide speedy, easy and accessible legal aid to the poor/weaker and backward sections of the society, which would benefit the inmates, and to cases related to missing children and offences against children.
APSLSA Member Secretary Yomge Ado inaugurated the clinics, in the presence of Changlang DLSA Secretary Mary Kamsi, SP Mihin Gambo, and EAC Gamjar Doke.
Ado explained the aims and objectives of the legal aid clinics to the officials and staffers of the police station and the sub-jail. The member secretary dwelt also on the importance and objective of legal aid clinics and free legal aid; free and competent legal services under the Legal Services Authority Act, 1987; the Arunachal Pradesh Victim Compensation Scheme, 2011; the role of paralegal volunteers; and the assistance rendered by legal services authorities to implement early access to justice at pre-arrest, arrest, and remand stages.
He also stressed on the importance of coordination between legal aid institutions and police stations.
Ado inspected the sub-jail, and reviewed the list of prisoners, comprising 19 undertrial prisoners and nine convicts.
The inmates were also informed about the free legal aid/services that the legal services institution provides under the NALSA’s free and competent legal services schemes and regulation under Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, by which every person in custody is entitled to free legal services and other facilities in order to ensure that every prisoner is provided with on-time, free legal aid.
