PUNJAB STATE LEGAL SERVICE AUTHORITY PLV, SH. AVTAR CHAND, PUNJAB STATE LEGAL SERVICES AUTHORITY BADGED THE AWARD FOR BEST PLV Under the guidance of the Member Secretary, Punjab State Legal Services Authority, the Para Legal Volunteers work to their best of their efforts to innovatively engage with weaker and marginalized section of the society. The work of Sh. Avtar Chand, PLV had been exemplary through his contribution towards the marginalized sections of the society. Keeping in view the Impact of his work done at the Societal and Individual level and his ability to work in Co-ordination with fellow PLVs and other agencies, National Legal Services Authority has awarded him as Best PLV. His major contributions had been as follows- Timely intervention to stop child marriages Helped the girls who were sexually exploited by their uncle since 1 year Reunited a minor girl xxx (who was found 4 months pregnant) with her family Rescued a woman and safely sent her to Nari Niketan, Jalandhar and further united her with her family in Jammu and Kashmir Sh. Avtar Chand helped the parents of the deceased minor sisters with monetary compensation of Rs 42100 through the Help of NGOs at (21 May, 2019 Village Bacchua, Tehsil Balachaur, SBS Nagar)
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PUNJAB STATE LEGAL SERVICE AUTHORITY
PLV, SH. AVTAR CHAND, PUNJAB STATE LEGAL SERVICES AUTHORITY BADGED THE AWARD FOR BEST PLV
Under the guidance of the Member Secretary, Punjab State Legal Services
Authority, the Para Legal Volunteers work to their best of their efforts to
innovatively engage with weaker and marginalized section of the society.
The work of Sh. Avtar Chand, PLV had been exemplary through his
contribution towards the marginalized sections of the society. Keeping in view
the Impact of his work done at the Societal and Individual level and his ability
to work in Co-ordination with fellow PLVs and other agencies, National Legal
Services Authority has awarded him as Best PLV.
His major contributions had been as follows-
Timely intervention to stop child marriages
Helped the girls who were sexually exploited by their uncle since 1 year
Reunited a minor girl xxx (who was found 4 months pregnant) with her
family
Rescued a woman and safely sent her to Nari Niketan, Jalandhar and further
united her with her family in Jammu and Kashmir
Sh. Avtar Chand helped the parents of the deceased minor sisters with monetary compensation of Rs
42100 through the Help of NGOs at (21 May, 2019 Village Bacchua, Tehsil Balachaur, SBS Nagar)
United the Missing Child with her parents
Facilitated Admission of a Mentally Ill lady at Nari Niketan
He had organised 100+ seminars leading to 12000+ beneficiaries
EMPOWERING THE MARGINALISED THROUGH LEGAL SERVICES CAMPS:
Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 was passed with an objective to
provide free and competent legal services to weaker sections of the society so
that they do not remain deprived of justice due to economic or other disabilities.
Section 4 provides the various functions of the Central Authority. One of the
functions spelt out in Section 4(l) is to take appropriate measures for spreading
legal literacy and legal awareness amongst the people and, in particular, to
educate weaker section of the society about the rights, benefits and privileges
guaranteed by social welfare legislations and other enactments as well as
administrative programmes and measures”. This itself reflects that apart from
ensuring access to Justice, the mandate of the Legal Services Authorities is to
educate the weaker sections of the society about the rights, benefits and
privileges guaranteed by social welfare legislations and other enactments as well
as administrative programmes and measures. One of the functions as per
Section 4(e) of National Legal Services Authority is to organize Legal Aid Camps
especially in rural areas, slums, labour colonies with the dual purpose of
educating weaker sections of the society about their right and further
encouraging them for settlement of disputes through Lok Adalats. NALSA has
formulated a module for “Legal Services Camps” with unique approach away
from the traditional way of spreading legal awareness and orchestrates a model
of true empowerment with the foundation of need based analysis and focused
action.
LEGAL SERVICES CAMP, PATIALA
A State Level Legal Services Camp was conducted under the aegis of
Punjab Legal Service Authority in Village Sidhuwal, District Patiala on
23.02.2019 at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law. In this event, total 24
stalls were put in the camp including the stalls pertaining to District Legal
As per NALSA (Legal Services to Senior Citizens), Scheme, 2016, a Project-
Instilling Confidence amongst elderly- ਸੱਥ ਦਾ ਸਾਥ" and a Special Campaign- “ਲੱਸੀ
ਦਾ ਛੰਨਾ ਤੇ ਬਚਿਆਂ ਦਾ ਸਾਥ" for senior citizens" was launched by the Punjab State
Legal Services Authority for the
senior citizens. The main objective
of the project is to utilize the Legal
Aid clinics as ONE STOP
PLATFORM for senior citizens to
address their grievances and to
create a healthy association
between the Legal Aid clinics and
Legal Literacy clubs to foster
robust linkages between the younger generation and the elderly.
The said project was launched by Hon'ble Mr. Justice Mahesh Grover, Judge
High Court of Punjab and Haryana and Executive Chairman, Punjab State Legal
Services Authority, Punjab State Legal Services Authority on 7th May, 2019 at
Army Institute of Law, Mohali. The program encompassed Medical camp for
senior citizens for their health check up pertaining to General Medicine,
orthopedic, gynecology, ENT, Eye & Dental Check up. It also incorporated
diagnostic tests for the senior citizens. 203 Senior Citizens got benefitted out of
the medical camp. Spectacles and wheel chairs were made accessible to the
senior citizens as per their needs. “A Guide on Rights and Privileges of Parents
and Senior Citizens under the said project” was also released by the Punjab
State Legal Services.
LEGAL AID CASE CARD INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR UNDER TRIAL PRISONERS
To disseminate information to the under trial prisoners regarding the next date
of hearing/case status and provision of appeal in their cases, a drive has been
initiated by the Punjab State Legal Services Authority to issue Unique Legal Aid
Information Card System to the under trials prisoners. Under the pilot stage,
the drive has been started in District Barnala in 2019 and a total of 1500
Unique Legal Aid Case Information Cards have been issued to the under trial
prisoners of District Jail, Barnala. These Cards are just like ready references for
updating the prisoners about their legal aid cases.
LOCAL LEVEL CONSULTATION WITH LEGAL AID FUNCTIONARIES at Amritsar
On 20th May, 2019, the Member
Secretary, Director and Additional
Director of National Legal Services
Authority held local level
consultation at Amritsar with
Secretaries, Panel Lawyers and
Para Legal Volunteers to examine
and access the functioning of
District Legal Services Authorities
vis-à-vis implementation of
NALSA's regulations, Schemes ,
Programs and campaigns . The main focus of this consultation meet was
uniformity and proper functioning of front offices, proper functioning of legal aid
helpline numbers in District Legal Services Authorities, monitoring of court
based activities, proper functioning of legal services clinics and approach with
regard to outreach programs.
TRAINING –CUM- SENSITIZATION
PROGRAMMES
INDUCTION TRAINING PROGRAMME FOR THE SECRETARIES, DLSAs
Punjab State Legal Services
Authority imparted Induction
and Refresher Programmes for
the Secretaries, District Legal
Services Authorities
The Training Programmes were
focused on providing insight to
the Secretaries regarding the
working of District Legal
Services Authorities and to
build an effective delivery
mechanism thereafter. Expert
Resource persons shared their experiences and valuable inputs.
TRAINING OF LEGAL SERVICES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO THE FRONT
OFFICE STAFF AND RELEVANT STAKEHOLDERS With the objective of strengthening our
Front Offices, Punjab State Legal
Services Authority took up the
initiative to impart training to all the
front office executives and the relevant
stakeholders on Legal Services
Management System Software. The
Training programme held on
30.04.2019 covered overall working of
the LSMS software including the data
input and output methods. The
Resource Person Sh. Kamal Singh, Under-Secretary, National Legal Services
Authority made the participants fully aware of the working of LSMS software.
TRAINING REGARDING ACCESS TO E-PRISON PORTAL
To make the effective use of
access to e-prison portal,
Punjab State Legal Services
Authority imparted training to
the Secretaries, District Legal Services Authorities, Staff, Retainer Lawyers and
Para Legal Volunteers on 30.04.2019. The said training was given by ADGP
(Prisons) Punjab.
TRAINING PROGRAMME ON SAMARITAN-AN AWARENESS DRIVE
On 31.01.2019, a training program on
Samaritan was organized by DLSA Gurdaspur
in which doctors, police officials, panel
lawyers, PLVs were made aware about the
Rights of a Good Samaritan.
TRAINING PROGRAMME ON JUVENILE JUSTICE BOARD
On 29.01.2019 Sanjeev Kundi, Secretary, District Legal Services Authority,
Kapurthala alongwith Ms. Harpreet Kaur, Principal Magistrate, Juvenile Justice
Board, Kapurthala visited Police line, Kapurthala to address the Police officials
on the provisions of Juvenile Justice Act and related rules, for their effective
implementation, and about the rights of the Samaritans, who help the victims of
road accidents.
LECTURE DELIVERED TO TRAINING
JUDICIAL OFFICERS ON LEGAL
SERVICES AUTHORITIES ACT
Dr. Mandeep Mittal , Additional Member
Secretary, Punjab State Legal Services
Authority delivered a lecture on Legal
Services Authorities Act and State Legal
Services Authority during the training
program for 42 Trainee Judicial Officers
on 19.11.2019. The TGOs were apprised
as to what is their roles as Judicial officers to ensure free Legal Aid to the
unrepresented Litigants
TAKING CARE OF THE UNDER-PRIVELEGED
VISIT TO SPECIAL HOMES
Regular and thorough inspections of Special Homes are an effective way of
ensuring healthy living conditions and ensuring well-being to the inmates there.
With this objective the regular visits were organized by District Legal Services
Authorities in special homes.
Chairperson, DLSA Rupnagar and Kaputhala alongwith Secretaries,
DLSA, visited old age homes, Children Home and Schools for
specially abled children on various occasions.
Chairperson, DLSA, Bathinda alongwith Secretary, DLSA during
their visit to Children Homes
SUCCESS STORIES:
A Dhariwal-based middle aged woman was lured by an unscrupulous agent to
travel to Kuwait where she was promised a job but was later sold to a Pakistani
man in July 2018. After her
disappearance was highlighted in
Media, Secretary District Legal
Services Authority, Gurdaspur got in
touch with the Embassy of India and
Kuwait through mails and later
through telephone. She also got in
touch with Kuwait based NGO
Shaheed Bhagat Singh Youth Club registered with Indian Embassy.
The constant efforts became successful and in July 2019, the contact with the
Woman Victim of Human Trafficking was established and she flew back to
India.
After being received at New Delhi Airport by Punjab State Legal Services
Authority, she was given medical aid and counselling by Counsellor in the
premises of Punjab State Legal Services Authority, SAS Nagar and was also
disbursed compensation amount to the tune of Rupees One Lac under the
Punjab Victim Compensation Scheme, 2017 within 24 hours of her landing in
India from Kuwait.
“LEGAL LITERACY” NOW PART OF CURRICULUM FOR STUDENTS IN THE STATE OF PUNJAB. Even after continuous increase in number of Legal Literacy Clubs functioning in
the Schools and Colleges in the State of Punjab, some students still remained
outside the Legal Awareness Drive. Keeping in mind the fact that the students
are the future of the nation and therefore, deserve to be legally educated first
Medical/Health/Yoga Camps organized by DLSAs in Modern Sudhar
Ghar, Faridkot and Central Jail, Bathinda
and foremost of all, Punjab State Legal Services Authority took up the matter of
inclusion of Chapter on Legal Aid and Legal Rights with the Department of
Education, Government of Punjab. After continuous emphasis, Punjab State
Legal Services Authority succeeded in incorporating the matter related to Legal
Literacy in Social Studies Course Book meant for students of 9th Standard.
Thus, it is a part of curriculum for every student of 9th standard in State of
Punjab to learn that ADR System is a part of Legal Remedy and that disputes
can be resolved amicably as per Section 89 of CPC. Further, special Chapters
on the Legal Rights of Women and Penal provisions contained in NDPS Act have
been included to guide the students in right direction.
DISABILITY CERTIFICATE ISSUED TO ACID ATTACK VICTIM REVIEWED
AND MONTHLY PENSION MADE AVAILABLE TO ACID ATTACK VICTIM
Not satisfied with the Disability Certificate issued by Civil Hospital Kapurthala,
‘X’ had approached the Punjab State Legal Services Authority being an Acid
Attack Victim. She claimed that after acid attack on her in the year 2010, her
whole body had got burnt and she had undergone 7-8 plastic surgeries but the
Civil Hospital Kapurthala had determined her disability caused by acid attack to
be 25 per cent only. Immediately, the matter was taken up by Punjab State
Legal Services Authority with Director, Department of Health and Family
Welfare, Government of Punjab that the certification of 25% disability of the
victim be reviewed and a fresh certificate reflecting actual disability suffered by
her be issued as per prescribed rules and norms. Pursuant thereto, ‘X’ was
called upon by the Senior Medical Incharge District Kapurthala on 19.6.2019 to
review the percentage of Disability suffered by her. After thorough and careful
examination, fresh certificate was issued by the Board of Doctors declaring her
to be a victim of acid attack having suffered 65 per cent permanent disability.
Resultantly, she became entitled for monthly pension under the Punjab
Financial Assistance to Acid Attack Victims Scheme, 2017 and has started
receiving monthly pension to the tune of the Rupees 8000/- per month with
effect from July 2019.
REACHED OUT TO GROUP OF DISCONNECTED VILLAGES SITUATED
ACROSS RAVI RIVER ON INDO-PAK BORDER
Pontoon Bridge that connects a
group of villages situated across
Ravi River in border District
Gurdaspur was broken. To ensure
that the disconnection does not
cause deprivation of legal rights of
those villagers, a special
campaign was started by District
Legal Services Authority
Gurdaspur. A team comprising
dedicated Retainer Lawyers and
PLVs reached out to those villages by boat in October 2018. Villagers living on
the other side of the River Ravi were legally educated by holding 15 Seminars.
Legal Services Authority thus reached out to the unreached people and
extended benefit to 825 people by connecting them with various Government
Departments and getting issued their Aadhar Cards, Birth Certificates and
Driving Licenses.
RESCUE OF THE FLOOD AFFECTED RESIDENTS IN DISTRICT –RUPNAGAR
The release of water from Bhakra Dam and the heavy rainfall flooded many
villages in District Rupnagar. Under NALSA (Legal Services to Disaster Victims
through Legal Services Authorities) Scheme, 2010, various teams were
constituted to reach out to people in need.
Special dedicated teams and Help Desks of Panel Advocates and Para Legal
Volunteers of DLSA, Rupngar were constituted. A baby girl aged about 2.5
months in Village Phul Kalan,
was stranded on the roof of her
house along with her family.
No rescue or food item reached
them for more than 24 hours
and the team of PLVs
immediately reached them at 6:00 AM and provided food and potable water to
them and when the water level dropped, they were safely taken to Gurdwara
Sahib Sant Baba Mann Singh, Phul Kalan.
The relief operations were carried out at village Kherabad, Phool Kalan where
‘langar’ was got arranged from Gurudwara Sahib and clean and potable
drinking water was got supplied through NGO to the flood hit villages. Female
PLVs of DLSA, Rupnagar distributed approximately 250 Sanitary Pads amongst
the rural ladies of the flood affected villages. Stock of medicines was also got
supplied taking help from Pharmaceutical Company.
RECOGNIZED RIGHT OF PARTICIPATION OF LGBT COMMUNITY:
A transgender namely Mohani Mahant
was into begging before she came into
contact with District Legal Services
Authority, Ludhiana which provided her a
platform to live her life with human
dignity. In February 2019, she was
empanelled as Para Legal Volunteer with District Legal Services Authority,
Ludhiana. Soon, she got associated with Legal Services Schemes and was
deputed at Front Office Ludhiana, Civil Hospital Ludhiana and Juvenile Justice
Board Ludhiana on different occasions. She also held seminars in co-operation
with Department of Police to sensitize the Authorities about the needs of
Transgender Community. She inspired other transgenders to join the main
stream and also got prepared Voter Cards of 112 transgenders so as to enable
them to caste their vote in the general elections of 2019 along with their Aadhar
Cards, Pan Cards and Ration Cards.
UNDERTRIAL CONNECTED WITH
HER FAMILY AFTER 6 MONTHS
During one of the regular visits
made to Women Jail Ludhiana to
interact with the prisoners,
Secretary District Legal Services Authority, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar met
an undertrial namely ‘X’ who made request to allow her to meet her 4 years old
daughter staying with her brother-in-law and to make arrangements to contact
her parents in Uttar Pradesh. Secretary DLSA, SBS Nagar under guidance of
Punjab State Legal Services Authority immediately contacted the District Child
Welfare Committee, SBS Nagar and the meeting of undertrial mother was
arranged with her 4 years old daughter in Women Jail, Ludhiana on 22.5.2019.
Punjab State Legal Services Authority contacted the Uttar Pradesh State Legal
Services Authority to trace out the contact details of parents of X and to make
necessary arrangements for the video conferencing of X with her parents. On
17.6.2019 video conferencing of X in Ludhiana with her parents in Uttar
Pradesh was arranged made possible which gave some relief to the under trial
prisoner.
ACTION TAKEN ON VIRAL VIDEO OF VIOLENCE AGAINST A MINOR CHILD
A matter regarding viral video of violence against a minor child come to notice of
District & Sessions Judge-cum-Chairman and directions were given to District
Legal Services Authority, Barnala to look into the matter. Immediate action was
taken and team of District Legal Services Authority, Barnala alongwith DCPO
and SHO, Rureke Kalan reached at residence of said child. During interaction it
was found that a minor child was beaten by an unknown person and the video
of said incident was also got viral. The specific directions were given to
concerned SHO to take necessary action in this matter. Further, it was also
found that the said child also needed a medical aid. In this regard, team of PLVs
was deputed to provide every possible help to the Child and got him examined
from Civil Hospital, Barnala.
FINANCIAL HELP RENDERED TO VICTIMS
On 21.05.2019 Sh. Navdeep Singh, advocate, SBS Nagar came to the office of
District Legal Services Authority, SBS Nagar and informed the Secretary, DLSA
that two minor sisters of Slum area aged about 10 and 7 years were burnt to
death after their hut caught fire in the intervening night of 20-21.5.2019. Team
of PLVs was directed by Secretary, DLSA to visit the spot and to provide
necessary help. As per the instruction of Chairman, DLSA, SBS Nagar, an
amount of Rs. 42,100 was collected with the help of bar association of SBS
Nagar and NGO's of SBS Nagar and same was handed over to the victim family
on 28.05.19.
GOOD SAMARITAN
o On 07.01.2019 Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Sri Muktsar
Sahib while going to his office on his official vehicle noticed a women who fell
down on the road from her scooter. Some people gathered there but no one
was coming forward to help her. Then Secretary, District Legal Services
Authority, Sri Muktsar Sahib provided her necessary help.
o On 11.09.2018 at about 07:15 PM, while cycling towards Sri Muktsar Sahib
on Bathinda Road, Secretary District Legal Services Authority, Sri Muktsar
Sahib witnessed a motorcycle hitting against a stray bull. Alongwith the
motorcycle rider, two women pillion riders carrying three minor children fell
down and received numerous injuries. A number of vehicles stopped on the
spot but all were reluctant to come out and actually help the victims. The
driver and one of the children were pushed into the bushes. S. Pritpal Singh,
Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Sri Muktsar Sahib then himself
came forward and lifted the injured ladies and two children towards the left
side of the road one by one. He, then with the help of mobile phone
flashlight, found the third child lying in bushes in unconscious condition
along with the seriously injured motorcycle rider. His efforts inspired Mr.
Harmeet Singh Bedi, Headmaster, Govt. High School Marar Kalan, District
Sri Muktsar Sahib and Mr. Vaneet Arora of Bathinda who came forward for
help and took all the injured to Civil Hospital, Sri Muktsar Sahib by their
conveyance . The support in the “Golden hour” thus helped in saving six
lives of road accident victims.
Statistical Data
LEGAL AID/SERVICES
Month Legal Aid
Beneficiaries
SC/
ST
In
custody
Women Child Poor/General/Other
January,
2019 3574 700 764 1017 36
1057
February, 2848 587 534 852 37 838
2019
March, 2019 3589 696 752 1028 160 953
April, 2019 3747 679 942 994 31 1101
May, 2019 4099 750 849 1228 112 1160
June, 2019 2252 502 439 678 37 596
July, 2019 4877 890 987 1528 94 1378
August,
2019 11182 3077 1351 3735 179 2840
September,
2019 21864 6391 2945 4110 1978 772
October, 2019
15557 3435 1048 4536 809 828
November,
2019 15211 3643 1094 4619 479 1030
December,
2019 14051 2738 1045 4701 128 1354
LOK ADALATS
Monthly Lok Adalats
Month Number of Lok Adalats
held.
Cases taken
up
Cases Disposed
of
Amount
Settled
January, 2019 103 3067 1453 128873475
February, 2019 103 1411 473 70477431
March, 2019 333 57107 15681 2896919194
April, 2019 109 1702 492 78949079
May, 2019 130 1809 548 174042273
June, 2019 13 6 3 180000
July, 2019 308 71800 19492 3821999630
August, 2019 139 2510 143 4393259
September,
2019
307 65709 22018 8211493555
October, 2019 50 1047 219 130647286
November, 2019
103 1714 237 14667153.52
December,
2019
73 5323 1842 305843768
NATIONAL LOK ADALATS
Month Number of Cases
taken up
Number of cases
settled
Amount Settled
9-3-2019 53953 15205 2776350642
13-7-2019 71343 19431 3814061183
14-9-2019 65326 21938 4397432372
14-12-2019 60822 17869 3398899399
PERMANENT LOK ADALATS
Months Total No. of Cases Disposed off
January, 2019 525
February, 2019 432
March, 2019 1088
April, 2019 545
May, 2019 479
June, 2019 123
July, 2019 1508
August, 2019 829
September, 2019 1493
October, 2019 522
November, 2019 482
December, 2019 742
MEDIATION
Month Referred Cases Settled Cases
January, 2019 2364 209
February, 2019 2322 222
March, 2019 2195 215
April, 2019 2222 231
May, 2019 2555 257
June, 2019 1593 89
July, 2019 2305 211
August, 2019 2238 199
September, 2019 2341 219
October, 2019 2410 190
November, 2019 2990 243
December, 2019 2898 210
LEGAL AWARENESS ACTIVITIES
SEMINARS
Months Number of seminars organized
January, 2019 1232
February, 2019 1060
March, 2019 1460
April, 2019 1121
May, 2019 1369
June, 2019 2064
July, 2019 1161
August, 2019 2370
September, 2019 4308
October, 2019 2756
November, 2019 3664
December, 2019 3152
TRAINING PROGRAMMES FOR PANEL LAWYERS, PARA LEGAL
VOLUNTEERS (PLVs) AND OTHERS
Month No. of Training Programmes held
January, 2019 50
February, 2019 102
March, 2019 38
April, 2019 46
May, 2019 48
June, 2019 43
July, 2019 53
August, 2019 67
September, 2019 55
October, 2019 54
November, 2019 71
December, 2019 39
PARA LEGAL VOLUNTEERS, LEGAL AID CLINICS AND LEGAL LITERACY
CLUBS
Year Total
No. of PLVs
trained
No. of PLVs deployed
Police Station
Front Offices
Jails/ Observations
Homes
JJBs/ Child
Welfare
Centres
(CWCs)
Other (Community
Centres,
Villages,
Colleges and
PLVs deputed for
conducting
seminars)
Total
2019 1922 148 90 95 29 687 1049
No. of Legal Aid Clinic till December,
2019
521
No. of Legal Literacy Clubs established in school and Colleges till December, 2019