India will soon have legal-aid clinics (LACs) on the model of primary health centres in remote regions across the country.
The National Legal Services Authority (NLSA) is planning to set up 'LACs' in remote areas especially in rural villages as part of its plans to create awareness about legal rights among people lower strata.
"We are thinking of opening up legal-aid clinics on the lines of PHCs at the lowest levels. It will be manned by para-legal workers who can be there for all times beyond
working hours and advise people, particularly women," said Supreme Court judge Justice Altamas Kabir here, in South Indian state Andhra Pradesh.
Speaking after inaugurating the All India Women Lawyers Conference organised by All India Federation of Women Lawyers here, Justice Kabir said, "We have taken up various programmes in order to reach out to the people as part of legal awareness camps at the remotest places."
This (LAC) can be a place where people in villages can get help to solve their disputes or get at least necessary information within the parameters of Legal Services Act, he, also the Executive Chairman of NLSA, said.
The judge also conceded that percentage of women judges in the country is "dismal", but said effort is on to improve it.
"It’s true that there are few women judges and their percentage is rather dismal...but conscious effort is on so that more and more women are taken into the judiciary," the judge said.