45,859 SC judgments translated in vernacular languages: Law Ministry
New Delhi, Feb 7 : A total of 36,335 Supreme Court judgments have been translated in Hindi and 45,859 verdicts have been translated in other vernacular languages and uploaded on e-SCR portal, the Parliament was informed on Friday. Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Law and Justice, Arjun Ram Meghwal told Lok Sabha that 12,629 judgments of nine High Courts have been translated in Hindi language and 18,315 judgments have been translated in other vernacular languages as on September 27, 2024 and uploaded on the website of the respective High Courts.
Replying to a question on government steps to provide accessible justice to citizens, MoS Meghwal said, “The government has approved a new Central Sector Scheme namely Legal Aid Defence Counsel System (LADCS) Scheme on March 12, 2024 to provide legal aid to the beneficiaries with respect to criminal cases only.” The approved financial outlay of LADCS scheme is Rs 998.43 crore for 3 years (FY 2023-24 to FY 2025- 26), he said. As on September 30, 2024, LADC offices are functional in 653 districts across the country and have engaged 4,674 staff including 3,167 Defense Counsels. During the year 2024-25 (up to September 2024), LADCS offices dealt with more than 2.54 lakh criminal cases.
The MoS said the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) had been set up under the Legal Services Authorities (LSA) Act, 1987 to provide free and competent legal services to the weaker sections of the society as covered under Section 12 of the Act. The activities/programmes undertaken by Legal Services Authorities include legal aid and advice; legal awareness programmes; legal services/empowerment camps; Legal Services Clinics; Legal Literacy Clubs; Lok Adalats and implementation of Victim Compensation Scheme, he said. MoS Meghwal said that in 2021, a comprehensive, pan-India scheme titled ‘Designing Innovative Solutions for Holistic Access to Justice in India’ (DISHA) was launched for a period of five years (2021- 2026) at an outlay of Rs 250 crore.
The DISHA scheme aims to provide easy, accessible, affordable and citizen-centric delivery of legal services through the scheme of Tele-Law, Nyaya Bandhu (Pro Bono Legal Services) and Legal Literacy and legal awareness programme. Till January 2025, Tele-Law Service was made available across 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats in 785 districts across 36 States and UTs and has rendered pre-litigation advice to 1,06,85,242 beneficiaries.
