Acting Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court DN Patel has said that para-legal volunteers (PlVs) should have high morals as they serve as a medium to benefit the poor and downtrodden people of the society.
Justice Patel was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of 5-day “Orientation and Induction Training Programme” of tribal PlVs here coming from six tribal-dominated districts of Jharkhand.
“You should work with high morals as you serve as a medium to benefit people around who are mostly poor and downtrodden. As your work includes transaction of funds, you should never boast yourself as a donor,” said Justice Patel. “Always become a beneficiary, but never take benefit out of that,” he added.
Training is being imparted to the tribal PlVs of six districts -- Dumka, Deoghar, Sahibganj, Godda, Pakur and Ranchi to be deputed in Santhal Pargana to cater to the problem of communication in local and tribal languages so that the problems in those areas could be identified in a better way and legal remedy could be provided to the people living there.
Addressing the importance of language and communication in propagating legal awareness and legal aid, Justice Patel said that most of the people in the tribal areas remain devoid of government schemes due to their peculiar languages. He also emphasized that training should be imparted in such a manner that people of tribal areas are able to get legal awareness and legal aid in their vernacular languages.
“PlVs should bring benefits of the Government schemes to the tribal areas by making them aware in their own local languages as most of them are innocent and illiterate,” said Justice Patel.
Patel was of the view that the training imparted during this programme will help PlVs to work in a better way in the field.
“Try to learn all technicalities in detail so that people could get benefitted through you. Always try to avoid mistakes in filling up the application form so that it does not get rejected and the beneficiary remains devoid of the benefits being provided under any scheme or programme,” said Patel. “It is important that motto of “Justice for All” is realized by the legal Services Personnel and this training will solidify the same,” he added.
Ranchi Judicial Commissioner cum Chairman of DlSA Navneet Kumar emphasized on the fact that legal Services Authority was different from the Court of law as it believed in amicable settlement of issues. “Para legal Volunteers are the main crusaders of the legal Services,” said Kumar.
Padma Sri Ashok Bhagat, lauding the initiative taken by JHAlSA said that the tribal people will get benefitted of this training programme, as they take decisions in a traditional way. “If they start understanding the government schemes, they will definitely start taking benefits of it,” Bhagat said.
JHAlSA Member Secretary Arun Kumar Rai said that the tribal PlVs of six districts were the backbone of the legal services authority as they could reach those places where State Authority could not reach directly. “The PlVs are the face of legal Services Authority and the work done by them gives recognition to the Authority,” said the Member Secretary.
Module for the training programme consist of Minor Acts, rules, policies and basic laws as well as the 10 Schemes of NAlSA, Victim Compensation Schemes, Government Policies etc for providing an overall comprehensive knowledge about legal Services and legal Aid.