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PUBLISHED IN THE GAZETTE OF INDIA, EXTRAORDINARY, PART III, SECTION 4

MINISTRY OF LAW & JUSTICE

(DEPARTMENT OF LEGAL AFFAIRS)
NATIONAL LEGAL SERVICES AUTHORITY

NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, dated 9th September, 2010

No.L/61/10/NALSA. - In exercise of the powers conferred by section 29 of the Legal

Services Authorities Act, 1987 (39 of 1987) and in pursuance of the provisions in
section 4 of the Act to make available free and competent legal services to the
persons entitled thereto under section 12 of the said Act, the Central Authority
hereby makes the following regulations, namely: -

1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) These regulations may be called
the National Legal Services Authority (Free and Competent Legal
Services) Regulations, 2010.

(2) They shall be applicable to Supreme Court Legal Services Committee,

State Legal Services Authorities, High Court Legal Services
Committees, District Legal Services Authorities and Taluk Legal
Services Committees in India.
(3) They shall come into force from the date of their publication in the
Official Gazette.
2. Definitions. – (1) In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires, -
(a) “Act” means the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 (39 of 1987);
(b) “Form” means a Form annexed to these Regulations;
(c) “front office” means a room in the Legal Services Institution where
legal services are made available;
(d) “legal practitioner” shall have the meaning assigned to it in clause (i) of
section 2 of the Advocates Act, 1961 (25 of 1961);
(e) “Legal Services Institution” means the Supreme Court Legal Services
Committee, a State Legal Services Authority, the High Court Legal
Services Committee, District Legal Services Authority or the Taluk
Legal Services Committee, as the case may be;
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(f) “Para-Legal Volunteer” means a para-legal volunteer trained as such by
a Legal Services Institution;
(g) “Secretary” means the Secretary of the Legal Services Institution;

(h) “section” means the section of the Act;

(i) “State regulation” means regulation made by the State Authorities under
the Act.
2. All other words and expressions used but not defined in these
regulations shall have the same meanings assigned to them in the Act.
3. Application for legal services.- (1) An application for legal services may be
presented preferably in Form-I in the local language or English.
(2) The applicant may furnish a summary of his grievances for which he
seeks legal services, in a separate sheet along with the application.
(3) An application, though not in Form-I, may also be entertained, if
reasonably explains the facts to enable the applicant to seek legal
services.
(4) If the applicant is illiterate or unable to give the application on his or her
own, the Legal Services Institutions may make arrangement for helping
the applicant to fill up the application form and to prepare a note of his
or her grievances.
(5) Oral requests for legal services may also be entertained in the same
manner as an application under sub-regulation (1) and (2).
(6) An applicant advised by the para-legal volunteers, legal aid clubs, legal
aid clinics and voluntary social service institutions shall also be
considered for free legal services.
(7) Requests received through e-mails and interactive on-line facility also
may be considered for free legal services after verification of the identity
of the applicant and on ensuring that he or she owns the authorship of
the grievances projected.
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4. Legal Services Institution to have a front office.- (1) All Legal Services
Institutions shall have a front office to be manned by a panel lawyer and one
or more para-legal volunteers available during office hours.
(2) In the case of court based legal services, such lawyer shall after
consideration of the application, forward the same to the Committee set
up under regulation 7 and for other types of legal services, the panel
lawyer in the front office may provide such legal services.
(3) The panel lawyer in the front office shall render services like drafting
notices, sending replies to lawyers’ notices and drafting applications,
petitions etc.
(4) The panel lawyer in the front office may obtain secretarial assistance
from the staff of the Legal Services Institutions.
(5) In case of urgent matters, the panel lawyer in the front office may in
consultation with the Member-Secretary or Secretary of the Legal
Services Institutions provide legal assistance of appropriate nature:
Provided that the Committee set up under regulation 7 may
consider and approve the action taken by the panel lawyer in the front
office.
5. Proof of entitlement of free legal services. -- (1) An affidavit of the
applicant that he falls under the categories of persons entitled to free
legal services under section 12 shall ordinarily be sufficient.
(2) The affidavit may be signed before a Judge, Magistrate, Notary Public,
Advocate, Member of Parliament, Member of Legislative Assembly,
elected representative of local bodies, Gazetted Officer, teacher of any
school or college of Central Government, State Government or local
bodies as the case may be.
(3) The affidavit may be prepared on plain paper and it shall bear the seal of
the person attesting it.

6. Consequences of false or untrue details furnished by the applicant. - The

applicant shall be informed that if free legal services has been obtained by
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furnishing incorrect or false information or in a fraudulent manner, the legal
services shall be stopped forthwith and that the expenses incurred by the Legal
Services Institutions shall be recoverable from him or her.

7. Scrutiny and evaluation of the application for free legal services. - (1)
There shall be a Committee to scrutinise and evaluate the application for legal
services, to be constituted by the Legal Services Institution at the level of
Taluk, District, State and above.
(2) The Committee shall be constituted by the Executive Chairman or
Chairman of the Legal Services Institution and shall consist of, -
(i) the Member Secretary or Secretary of the Legal Services
Institution as its Chairman and two members out of whom one
may be a Judicial Officer preferably having working experience
in the Legal Services Institution and;
(ii) a legal professional having at least fifteen years’ standing at the
Bar or Government pleader or Assistant Government Pleader or
Public Prosecutor or Assistant Public Prosecutor, as the case may
be.
(3) The tenure of the members of the Committee shall ordinarily be two
years which may be further extended for a maximum period of one year
and the Member Secretary or Secretary of the Legal Services Institution
shall, however, continue as the ex-officio Chairman of the Committee.
(4) The Committee shall scrutinise and evaluate the application and decide
whether the applicant is entitled to the legal services or not within a
period of eight weeks from the date of receipt of the application.
(5) If the applicant is not covered under the categories mentioned in section
12, he or she shall be advised to seek assistance from any other body or
person rendering free legal services either voluntarily or under any other
scheme.
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(6) The Legal Services Institution shall maintain a list of such agencies,
institutions or persons who have expressed willingness to render free
legal services.
(7) Any person aggrieved by the decision or order of the Committee, he or
she may prefer appeal to the Executive Chairman or Chairman of the
Legal Services Institution and the decision or order in appeal shall be
final.
8. Selection of legal practitioners as panel lawyers. - (1) Every Legal Services
Institution shall invite applications from legal practitioners for their
empanelment as panel lawyers and such applications shall be accompanied
with proof of the professional experience with special reference to the type of
cases which the applicant-legal practitioners may prefer to be entrusted with.
(2) The applications received under sub-regulation (1) shall be scrutinised
and selection of the panel lawyers shall be made by the Executive
Chairman or Chairman of the Legal Services Institution in consultation
with the Attorney-General (for the Supreme Court), Advocate-General
(for the High Court), District Attorney or Government Pleader (for the
District and Taluk level) and the respective Presidents of the Bar
Associations as the case may be.
(3) No legal practitioner having less than three years’ experience at the Bar
shall ordinarily be empanelled.
(4) While preparing the panel of lawyers the competence, integrity,
suitability and experience of such lawyers shall be taken into account.
(5) The Executive Chairman or Chairman of the Legal Services Institution
may maintain separate panels for dealing with different types of cases
like, Civil, Criminal, Constitutional Law, Environmental Law, Labour
Laws, Matrimonial disputes etc.
(6) The Chairman of the Legal Services Institution may, in consultation
with the Executive Chairman of the State Legal Services Authority or
National Legal Services Authority as the case may be prepare a list of
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legal practitioners from among the panel lawyers to be designated as
Retainers.
(7) The Retainer lawyers shall be selected for a period fixed by the
Executive Chairman on rotation basis or by any other method specified
by the Executive Chairman.
(8) The strength of Retainer lawyers shall not exceed, -
(a) 20 in the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee;
(b) 15 in the High Court Legal Services Committee;
(c) 10 in the District Legal Authority;
(d) 5 in the Taluk Legal Services Committee.
(9) The honorarium payable to Retainer lawyer shall be, –
(a) Rs.10,000 per month in the case of Supreme Court Legal
Services Committee;
(b) Rs.7,500 per month in the case of High Court Legal
Services Committee;
(c) Rs.5,000 per month in the case of District Legal Services
Authority;
(d) Rs.3,000 per month in the case of the Taluk Legal Services
Committee:
Provided that the honorarium specified in this sub-
regulation is in addition to the honorarium or fee payable
by the Legal Services Institution for each case entrusted to
the Retainer lawyer.
(10) The panel lawyers designated as Retainers shall devote their time
exclusively for legal aid work and shall be always available to deal with
legal aid cases and to man the front office or consultation office in the
respective Legal Services Institution.
(11) The panel prepared under sub-regulation (2) shall be re-constituted after
a period of three years but the cases already entrusted to any panel
lawyer shall not be withdrawn from him due to re-constitution of the
panel.
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(12) The Legal Services Institution shall be at liberty for withdrawing any
case from a Retainer during any stage of the proceedings.
(13) If a panel lawyer is desirous of withdrawing from a case he shall state
the reasons thereof to the Member-Secretary or the Secretary and the
latter may permit the panel lawyer to do so.
(14) The panel lawyer shall not ask for or receive any fee, remuneration or
any valuable consideration in any manner, from the person to whom he
had rendered legal services under these regulations.
(15) If the panel lawyer engaged is not performing satisfactorily or has acted
contrary to the object and spirit of the Act and these regulations, the
Legal Services Institution shall take appropriate steps including
withdrawal of the case from such lawyer and his removal from the
panel.

9. Legal services by way of legal advice, consultation, drafting and

conveyancing. - (1) The Executive Chairman or Chairman of the Legal
Services Institution shall maintain a separate panel of senior lawyers, law
firms, retired judicial officers, mediators, conciliators and law professors in the
law universities or law colleges for providing legal advice and other legal
services like drafting and conveyancing.
(2) The services of the legal aid clinics in the rural areas and in the law
colleges and law universities shall also be made use of.
10. Monitoring Committee. - (1) Every Legal Services Institution shall set up a
Monitoring Committee for close monitoring of the court based legal services
rendered and the progress of the cases in legal aided matters.
(2) The Monitoring Committee at the level of the Supreme Court or the
High Court, as the case may be, shall consist of, -
(i) the Chairman of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee or
Chairman of the High Court Legal Services Committee;
(ii) the Member-Secretary or Secretary of the Legal Services
Institution;
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(iii) a Senior Advocate to be nominated by the Patron-in-Chief of the
Legal Services Institution.
(3) The Monitoring Committee for the District or Taluk Legal Services
Institution shall be constituted by the Executive Chairman of the State
Legal Services Authority and shall consist of, -
(i) the senior-most member of the Higher Judicial Services posted in
the district concerned, as its Chairman;
(ii) the Member-Secretary or Secretary of the Legal Services
Institution;
(iii) a legal practitioner having more than fifteen years’ experience at
the local Bar-to be nominated in consultation with the President of
the local Bar Association:
Provided that if the Executive Chairman is satisfied that there is no
person of any of the categories mentioned in this sub-regulation, he may
constitute the Monitoring Committee with such other persons as he may
deem proper.

11. Functions of the Monitoring Committee. - (1) Whenever legal services are
provided to an applicant, the Member-Secretary or Secretary shall send
the details in Form-II to the Monitoring Committee at the earliest.
(2) The Legal Services Institution shall provide adequate staff and
infrastructure to the Monitoring Committee for maintaining the records
of the day-to-day progress of the legal aided cases.
(3) The Legal Services Institution may request the Presiding Officer of the
court to have access to the registers maintained by the court for
ascertaining the progress of the cases.
(4) The Monitoring Committee shall maintain a register for legal aided
cases for recording the day-to-day postings, progress of the case and the
end result (success or failure) in respect of cases for which legal aid is
allowed and the said register shall be scrutinised by the Chairman of the
Committee every month.
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(5) The Monitoring Committee shall keep a watch of the day-to-day
proceedings of the court by calling for reports from the panel lawyers,
within such time as may be determined by the Committee.
(6) If the progress of the case is not satisfactory, the Committee may advise
the Legal Services Institution to take appropriate steps.

12. Monitoring Committee to submit bi-monthly reports. – (1) The Monitoring

Committee shall submit bi-monthly reports containing its independent
assessment on the progress of each and every legal aid case and the
performance of the panel lawyer or Retainer lawyer, to the Executive
Chairman or Chairman of the Legal Services Institution.
(2) After evaluating the reports by the Committee, the Executive Chairman
or Chairman of the Legal Services Institution shall decide the course of
action to be taken in each case.
(3) It shall be the duty of the Member-Secretary or Secretary of the Legal
Services Institution to place the reports of the Monitoring Committee
before the Executive Chairman or Chairman of the Legal Services
Institution and to obtain orders.

13. Financial assistance. – (1) If a case for which legal aid has been granted
requires additional expenditure like payment of court fee, the fee payable to
the court appointed commissions, for summoning witnesses or documents,
expenses for obtaining certified copies etc., the Legal Services Institution may
take urgent steps for disbursement of the requisite amount on the advice of the
panel lawyer or Monitoring Committee.
(2) In the case of appeal or revision the Legal Services Institution may bear
the expenses for obtaining certified copies of the judgment and case
records.

14. Payment of fee to the panel lawyers. - (1) Panel lawyers shall be paid fee in
accordance with the Schedule of fee, as approved under the State regulations.
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(2) The State Legal Services Authority and other Legal Services Institution
shall effect periodic revision of the honorarium to be paid to panel
lawyers for the different types of services rendered by them in legal aid
cases.
(3) As soon as the report of completion of the proceedings is received from
the panel lawyer, the Legal Services Institution shall, without any delay,
pay the fees and expenses payable to panel lawyer.
15. Special engagement of senior advocates in appropriate cases. – (1) If the
Monitoring Committee or Executive Chairman or Chairman of the Legal
Services Institution is of the opinion that services of senior advocate, though
not included in the approved panel of lawyers, has to be provided in any
particular case the Legal Services Institution may engage such senior advocate.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in the State regulations, the
Executive Chairman or Chairmen of the Legal Services Institution may
decide the honorarium for such senior advocate:
Provided that special engagement of senior advocates shall be
only in cases of great public importance and for defending cases of very
serious nature, affecting the life and liberty of the applicant.

16. Evaluation of the legal aid cases by the National Legal Services Authority
and State Legal Services Authorities. – (1) The Supreme Court Legal
Services Committee shall send copies of the bi-monthly reports of the
Monitoring Committee of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee to the
Central Authority.
(2) The High Court Legal Services Committees, the State Legal Services
Authorities shall submit copies of the bi-monthly reports of their
Monitoring Committees to their Patron-in-Chief.
(3) The District Legal Services Authorities and Taluk Legal Services
Committees shall submit copies of the bi-monthly reports of their
Monitoring Committees to the Executive Chairman of the State Legal
Services Authority.
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(4) The State Legal Services Authorities shall also send consolidated half-
yearly reports of the Monitoring Committees, indicating the success or
failure of each of the legal aided cases, to the Central Authority.
(5) In appropriate cases, the Executive Chairman of the National Legal
Services Authority may nominate and authorise the members of its
Central Authority to supervise, monitor or advise the Legal Services
Institution for effective and successful implementation of these
regulations.

(U. Sarathchandran)
Member-Secretary
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Form -I
National Legal Services Authority
(Free and Competent Legal Services) Regulations, -2010

(see regulation-3)

The Form of Application for Legal Services

(this may be prepared in the regional language)

Registration No. :

1. Name :

2. Permanent Address

3. Contact Address with phone no. if any,

e-mail ID, if any. :

4. Whether the applicant belongs to the category :

of persons mentioned in section -12 of the Act

5. Monthly income of the applicant :

6. Whether affidavit/proof has been produced

in support of income/eligibility u/s 12 of the Act :

7. Nature of legal aid or advise required :

8. A brief statement of the case, if court based :

legal services is required.

Signature of the applicant

Place:
Date:
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Form-II

National Legal Services Authority

(Free and Competent Legal Services) Regulation, 2010
(see regulation-11)

Information furnished to the Monitoring Committee about the legal Services provided

(i) Name of the Legal Services : …………………………………

Institution.

(i) Legal aid application number and : …………………………………

date on which legal aid was given.

(iii) Name of the legal aid applicant. : …………………………………

(iv) Nature of case : …………………………………

(civil, criminal, constitutional law etc,).

(v) Name and roll number of the : …………………………………

lawyer assigned to the applicant.

(vi) Name of the Court in which the : …………………………………

case is to be filed / defended.

(vii) The date of engaging the panel lawyer. : …………………………………

(viii) Whether any monetary assistance like, : …………………………………

court fee, advocate commission fee, copying
charges etc. has been given in advance?

(ix) Whether the case requires any interim orders : …………………………………

or appointment of commission?

(x) Approximate expenditure for producing : …………………………………

records, summoning of witnesses etc.

(xi) The expected time for conclusion of the : …………………………………

proceedings in the Court.

MEMBER-SECRETARY / SECRETARY
Dated: