Ek Pahal' Pan-India drive for Justice Delivery at doorstep

Last Updated18/09/2021

Department of Justice and NALSA launched the “Ek Pahal” drive across the country from 17th September till 2nd October to encourage mass registration under Tele-Law.
The medium of Tele Law effectively provides pre-litigation advice / consultation to beneficiaries by Panel Lawyers through a huge network covering 51,434 Common Service Centres in 50,000 Gram Panchayats in 633 districts across 34 States and UTs.

With registration login of 5480 beneficiaries this login drive registered 138% increase over daily average registration of beneficiaries.
More than 25000 banners in regional languages were displayed at CSCs as ""कानूनी सलाह सहायक केंद्र"".
The highlights of this campaign include deployment of 185 Mobile Vans and other vehicles to show-case films and documentaries on Access to Justice programme, holding of 4100 Legal Aid Clinics to give pre-litigation / legal advice to common citizens with the help of 37,000 Panel Lawyers and Para-Legal Volunteers besides holding awareness programmes at the village level on legal aid in 672 districts.

It is a part of Ministry of Law & Justice as per the Allocation of Business Rules of Government of India.
It is one of the oldest Departments of Govt of India and was under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Union Home Secretary has been the Secretary of Department of Justice till 31st December 2009.
Keeping in view the increasing workload and formulating many policies and programmes for Judicial Reforms in the country, Secretary (Justice) was appointed on 1st January, 2010 in the Ministry of Law & Justice.
The secretariat of the Department is located in Jaisalmer House, New Delhi.
The Organisational setup includes four Joint Secretaries, six Directors/Deputy Secretaries and seven Under Secretaries.
The functions of the Department of Justice include the appointment, resignation and removal of the Chief Justice of India, Judges of the Supreme Court of India, Chief Justices and Judges of the High Courts and their service matters.
In addition, The Department implements important schemes for Infrastructure Development of Subordinate Judiciary, the E-court Project on computerization of various courts across the country, Legal Aid to Poor and Access to Justice.

It was formed on 9 November 1995 under the authority of the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987.
Its purpose is to provide free legal services to eligible candidates (defined in Sec. 12 of the Act), and to organize Lok Adalats for speedy resolution of cases.
The Chief Justice of India is patron-in-chief of NALSA while the second senior-most Judge of the Supreme Court of India is the Executive-Chairman.
There is a provision for similar mechanism at state and district level also headed by Chief Justice of High Courts and Chief Judges of District courts respectively.
The prime objective of NALSA is speedy disposal of cases and reducing the burden of judiciary.
Headquarters: New Delhi
Motto: Access to Justice for All (न्याय सब के लिए)
Patron-in-Chief: CJI N. V. Ramana
Executive Chairman: Justice Uday U. Lalit,