Legal Aid Clinic

About

Pleading, Drafting and Conveyancing work are essentials of legal education and practice. A student learns more in an appropriate environment where he/she gets a chance to show whether he/she has the ability and inclination, demonstrate his/her effectiveness for these wider aspects of legal practice. A law school creates laboratory conditions in the form of Legal Aid Clinic. The Legal Aid and Service Clinic is a constituent unit of the Faculty of Law also known as Law School, Banaras Hindu University. This Clinic has been serving the society since the years 1977. Objective of the Legal Aid and Service Clinic is to achieve our constitutional goals as enshrined under the Preamble of the Constitution of India. The Constitution of India wishes to secure to all its citizens Justice, Liberty, Equality, and to promote among them all, Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and unity and integrity of the nation. Every person is entitled to equality before law. The Clinic works to make legal aid available to poor and marginalised people in India.

For more details visit http://www.bhulasc.com

Projects

  1. PIL at Allahabad High Court
    • A PIL was filed in the Supreme Court of India (Writ Petition (Civil), 406 of 2013 , Re- Inhuman Conditions In 1382 Prisons ).

      • A division bench the Supreme Court of India has rejuvenated its efforts and has issued landmark directions on February 05,2016 and September 15, 2017.

    • In its 5th February 2016 judgment the apex court through Justice Madan B. Lokur has deplored the little progress in the Indian prison law and observed:
    • “Prison reforms have been the subject matter of discussion and decisions rendered by this Court from time to time over the last 35 years. Unfortunately, even though Article 21 of the Constitution requires a life of dignity for all persons, little appears to have changed on the ground as far as prisoners are concerned and we are once again required to deal with issues relating to prisons in the country and their reform.” ( Para 01)
    • On 9th October 2017 the PIL (Criminal Writ-Public Interest Litigation No. - 21033 of 2017) was filed by the BHU Clinic in the Allahabad High Court and matter was taken up by a division bench consisting of Hon’ble Chief Justice Mr Justice Dilip Bhosle and Hon’ble Mr. Justice M.K. Gupta. The BHU Clinic sought implementation of the eleven specific directions of the Supreme Court of India issued on 15th September, 2017 in the Inhuman Conditions of Prisons Case.
  2. NATIONAL LEGAL AID WEEK CELEBRATION IN COLLABORATION WITH UP STATE LEGAL SERVICES AUTHORITY
    3. The Awareness Week Function consisted of three events:
    • A State Level Workshop on the Role of the University based Legal Aid Clinics ( November 11, 2017)
    • A Poster Exhibition on Legal Awareness ( November 11, 2017)
    • An Essay Writing Competition in Hindi and English on the Importance of Legal Aid

      • The Chief Guest of the workshop was Hon’ble Mr. Justice Arun Tandon, Senior Judge, Allahabad High Court and Executive Chairperson of UP State Legal Services Authority, Lucknow along with other three Judges of High Court who graced the event as Members of the UP SLSA.

  3. Public LEGAL AWARENESS
    4. Legal Awareness Camps organized by the BHU Clinic
    • Mega Village Camp at Chittupur village, BHU - Varanasi
    • BHU Clinic Members acted as RESOURCE PERSONS in Workshop organized by S.S.P., Varanasi in association with D.L.S.A., Varanasi
    • BHU Clinic Members acted as RESOURCE PERSONS in the Legal Awareness Camp, organised by D.L.S.A., Chandauli at Child Observation Home, Ramnagar.
    • BHU Clinic Members acted as RESOURCE PERSONS in the Legal Awareness Camp, organised by D.L.S.A., at State Women After Care Observation Home, Jaitpura, Varanasi city.
    • BHU Clinic Members acted as RESOURCE PERSONS in the Legal Awareness Camp cum AAP BITI related to Child Marriage, organised by Dr. Shambhunath Singh Research Foundation and Child Rights and You (CRAI) in association with DLSA, Varanasi
  4. Public Awareness through Poster Exhibitions
    • Protection of Child Rights
    • Child Labour and Human Rights.
    • Protection of Women and Family Law in India.
  5. PUBLIC AWARENESS LECTURES
    • A Public Awareness Lecture was held on ‘’Jammu and Kashmir Human Right and Constitutional Issues’’ held on Nov, 14 2017 , which is delivered by Shri Arun Kumar a well-known social activist and a distinguished scholar on Jammu Kashmir issues who is one of the mentors of Jammu Kashmir Study Centre, New Delhi.
    • A lecture was held on November 03,2017 on “Clinical Legal Education Program and Legal Service Clinic in Law Schools in India-Issues and Challenges". The main Speaker of the lecture was Prof. D.P. Verma, Additional Director (Research and Training), National Judicial Academy, Bhopal.
    • Lecture held on Constitutional Day by Prof. M. P. Singh, Former Member, NALSA.
  6. WEBINAR ON ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

    7. Webinar was held in collaboration with Indian Law Institute, New Delhi conducted six days workshop on ‘Environmental Laws: Contemporary Issues and Challenges’ from 6th February-11th February 2017 by video conferencing using the Google Hangout.
    The workshop discussed the specific issues relating to environment through the lenses of corporate law, human rights law, intellectual property law, criminal law, history, philosophy, religion and other relevant fields in not only cultivating environmental awareness but also reflecting on the scale of the environmental crisis around the world.

  7. CLIENT COUNSELLING
    • The BHU Legal Aid and Service Clinic provides free legal aid to the poor and weaker sections of the society
    • For this propose, the Clinic works on all working days between 4.00 to 6.00 P.M. on all working days at its office situated within the BHU Law School
    • On every working day, a team of student volunteers under the guidance of a faculty member provides legal advice to the clients
    • Recently The Clinic has started its landline phone calling facility

Copyright ©2018 Faculty of Law (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi - 221005