Haryana State Legal Services Authority on Sunday launched a year-long campaign “quality of legal services is key to access to justice for all”.

The campaign was inaugurated by Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, Judge, Supreme Court of India and executive chairman, National Legal Services Authority in Gurugram.

On the occasion, the service of dedicated video conferencing and structured and regular video consultation between legal aid counsel and person availing legal aid was launched.

Giving details, a spokesman said that this initiative was launched to overcome the gap between the jail inmates and the legal aid counsel. The dedicated video conferencing facility has been started in all the 22 districts of Haryana. They have been given complete infrastructure to accomplish this project, he said.

The spokesman said that with an aim to provide a cordial atmosphere to the children who accompany their parents to the ADR Centres, a kids zone has been inaugurated in 18 districts.  It will cater the needs of those children whose one of the parents has visitation rights and visit ADR Centres to meet their children as per the court orders.It will be also helpful for those children who accompany their parents at ADR Centres, he said.

He said that awareness of the Juvenile Justice Act is the key issue in the society as most of the people are not aware of the provisions of the Act. So as to create awareness amongst the people on this issue, a short film was also launched. Project Hope has also been launched by the Authority with an aim to help those unfortunate children who have lost their single or both parents in COVID pandemic. Under the said project, 3,090 children have been identified who have lost their single parent and 84 children who have lost both the parents, the spokesman said.

In the months of July, August and September 2021, Legal Services Authorities shall also undertake large scale tree plantation to create awareness for protection of environment by distributing free plants including crafted fruit plants, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, Judge, Supreme Court of India and executive chairman, National Legal Services Authority suggested all the State Legal Services Authorities in India to follow such initiatives as taken by HSLSA.

He said that the time period of one year of this campaign to provide quality legal services to the people at pre-arrest and arrest stage would certainly reduce the grievances of the people in the Police Station during arrest.

He further laid emphasis upon the virtual modes of creating awareness when physical interactions are not possible in situations like COVID-19.

Justice Ravi Shanker Jha, Chief Justice, Punjab and Haryana High Court and patron-in-chief HSLSA that the Authority has successfully disbursed Rs 23 crores as compensation in last one year under Haryana Victim Compensation Scheme. 250 vaccination camps were also organised by Authority, he said.