Tele Law Initiative - Indian Polity Notes

With a view to providing legal aid and services to the backward communities and the people in rural areas, the Tele Law Initiative was launched by the Ministry of Law and Justice in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Citizens can access these services over the internet at no cost through the Digital Seva Portal.

This topic is important for the IAS Exam from both the Prelims as well as Mains perspective.

Tele-Law Initiative – Indian Polity Notes:- Download PDF Here

What is the Tele Law Initiative?

It is a program by the government where people can seek legal advice from lawyers through video conferencing available at the Common Service Centers, on the ‘Tele Law’ portal – a technology-enabled platform. The legal services would be provided at the Panchayat levels across the country through the Common Service Centers.

Tele-Law initiative – Overview

1. The Non-government organizations, hospitals, law school clinics, district legal services authorities, voluntary service providers can also be connected through the Common Service Centers. This is done with a view to improving access to justice for those who find it difficult to afford or get such services.
2. The Paralegal Volunteer would be the initial point of contact. He/she would be involved in helping people from the rural areas understand legal matters, elaborately explaining the lawyer’s advice and also in providing assistance in further actions as per the lawyer’s advice.
3. In order to encourage women entrepreneurship and empowerment, Women Paralegal volunteers would also be given the training to provide legal services through the Common Service Centres.
4. A panel of lawyers will be provided by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) in every state capital to advise the applicants through video conferencing.
5. To assess the quality of legal services being provided to the marginalized sections, robust evaluation and monitoring system will be put in place by the government.
6. The first phase will be implemented across 1800 panchayats in Jammu and Kashmir, North Eastern States, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Objectives of Tele-Law initiative

The main objective of the Tele-law initiative is to provide a planned delivery of legal advice through a panel of lawyers stationed at the State Legal Services Authorities (SALSA) and CSC.

The project aims to connect citizens with lawyers through video conferencing facilities by the Para-Legal Volunteers stationed at identified 1800 panchayat.

The entire process(working model) of the Tele-Law initiative is demonstrated below:

Breakdown of the 1800 total CSCs:

List of States with Respective Number of CSCs

UPSC Questions related to Tele Law Initiative

What is the Common Service Centre scheme?

1. Common Services Centers (CSC) provide a platform providing the feature of multiple transactions in one geographical location.
2. These centres have been set up with the objective of providing facilities for delivering e-services by the government to the areas where the availability of the internet and computers is minimal.

What is Digital Seva?

1. The Tele Law Initiative was launched by the Ministry of Law and Justice in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
2. One can access these services over the internet at no cost through the Digital Seva Portal.

What is VLE in Digital Seva?

1. VLE stands for Village Level Entrepreneur. He/she is the person delivering the digital seva services provided by the Government at a Village level as per the requirements.

Tele-Law initiative- Indian Polity notes:- Download PDF Here

The above details would help candidates prepare for UPSC 2021.

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