The Tele-law service launched by the Law Ministry to help rural residents get pre-litigation legal advice from a panel of lawyers has provided registration of 12,70,135 total cases of which advice has been enabled to 12,50,911 beneficiaries as of November 30 this year.
The Tele-law initiative of the Department of Justice, launched in 2017 as a free service for the marginalised and poor people became popular amid the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown in various parts of the country. When people call up the service’s local centre, they are put through to the panel of lawyers who answer their queries.
The service reached out to more than 52,000 beneficiaries between November 8-14 this year under a number of events organised under Azadi Ka Mahotsav. Through 4200 awareness sessions, nearly 17000 people were provided legal advice and consultation through video-conferencing during this time, an official statement said here.
A mega event was also organized by the Department on November 13, which was attended by more than 65,000 participants.
To maximize the outreach a Tele-law on wheels campaign was also rolled out where special Tele-law branded mobile vans travelled to different parts of the country to spread the message of Tele-law through playing of videos, radio jingles and distribution of Tele-law leaflets, it said.
The department initiated a Login Week Campaign under its ‘Tele-Law: Reaching the Unreached,’ to promote increased access to pre-litigation advice for rightfully claiming their entitlements and timely redressal of their difficulties, it said.
A Tele-law Mobile App has also been launched for enabling seamless connection of beneficiaries with the panel lawyers. Various print and digital knowledge products were released which include Tele-law brochure, Tele-law movies, Tele-law logo and Tele-law mascot to ensure citizen participation.
The Tele-law service is available at 75,000 gram panchayats in 669 districts, including 112 aspirational districts as per NITI Aayog data, across the country.