Tele Law Initiative

What is the Tele Law Initiative?

It is a program by the government where people can seek legal advice from lawyers through video conferencing available at the Common Service Centers, on the ‘Tele Law’ portal – a technology-enabled platform. The legal services would be provided at the Panchayat levels across the country through the Common Service Centers.

Tele-Law initiative – Overview

The Non-government organizations, hospitals, law school clinics, district legal services authorities, voluntary service providers can also be connected through the Common Service Centers. This is done with a view to improving access to justice for those who find it difficult to afford or get such services.

The Paralegal Volunteer would be the initial point of contact. He/she would be involved in helping people from the rural areas understand legal matters, elaborately explaining the lawyer’s advice and also in providing assistance in further actions as per the lawyer’s advice.

In order to encourage women entrepreneurship and empowerment, Women Paralegal volunteers would also be given the training to provide legal services through the Common Service Centres.

A panel of lawyers will be provided by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) in every state capital to advise the applicants through video conferencing.

To assess the quality of legal services being provided to the marginalized sections, robust evaluation and monitoring system will be put in place by the government.

The first phase will be implemented across 1800 panchayats in Jammu and Kashmir, North Eastern States, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Objectives of Tele-Law initiative

The main objective of the Tele-law initiative is to provide a planned delivery of legal advice through a panel of lawyers stationed at the State Legal Services Authorities (SALSA) and CSC.

The project aims to connect citizens with lawyers through video conferencing facilities by the Para-Legal Volunteers stationed at identified 1800 panchayat.