Twin protests rock Hyderabad; Union Minister detained
Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar was detained by the police for joining a protest being staged by job aspirants demanding the postponement of the Group I state civil services examinations.
Union Minister of Law and Justice Mr Kiren Rijiu, on Saturday, announced that from this year, Tele-law service was being made free of cost for the citizens in the country.
Tele-Law will provide legal aid to the underprivileged through Tele/Video-conferencing infrastructure available at Common Service Centers (CSCs) in 1 lakh Gram Panchayats by linking it with empanelment advocates to provide them legal aid, Rijiju said while inaugurating a two day sessions of the 18th All India Legal Services here.
To bring it to the mainstream, the Law Minister said, “The Tele-Law mobile application (both Android and iOS) for easy and direct access was also launched in 2021 and is currently available in 22 scheduled languages. Taking advantage of this digital revolution, Tele-Law has expanded the reach of legal services to over 20 lakh beneficiaries in just five years”.
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Rijiju stressed the need to decongest the prisons through release of undertrials. NALSA through its SLSA and DLSA is already providing free legal aid/legal counselors to undertrials in this regard through Under Trials Review Committee (UTRC), he said. A total of 21,148 meetings of the UTRC were held during the last year, resulting in the release of 31,605 undertrials, he added.
The Minister appealed to the State Legal Services Authorities to further intensify their efforts to provide legal advice/aid to the undertrials so that maximum number of undertrials can be released in coordination with the Undertrials Review Committee. He appealed to the high courts to ensure regular meetings of the UTRCs under the chairmanship of the concerned District Judge during this period to recommend the maximum number of undertrials in jails to be released before August 15, 2022.
He said the release of undertrials may be possible. It may be seen in this context that as part of the celebration of “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”, the Government of India has already decided to give special exemption to the prisoners, for which guidelines have already been issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
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