State level mega awareness camp to empower marginalized via legal services concludes

Increasing access to justice for poor, disadvantageous sections our main aim: Justice Gogoi  

SRINAGAR, JUNE 23: The week-long mega legal awareness camp to empower marginalized sections of the society concluded today which was held under the guidance of Supreme Court Judge and Executive Chairman National Legal Services Authority (NLSA) of India Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

Justice Gogoi was accompanied by Supreme Court Judge, Justice N.V Ramana. The major initiative was organized by NLSA in collaboration with Jammu & Kashmir High Court, J&K Government, Jammu & Kashmir State Legal Services Authority and Jammu & Kashmir High Court Legal Services Committee.

During the camp held from June 18 to 23, multifarious legal services activities including a one-day state level conference for legal services to marginalized sections of the society and four mega-legal services awareness camps in the rural areas of Jammu, Srinagar, Kargil and Leh districts were held.More than 3000 beneficiaries identified under different schemes received various benefits during the legal aid camps.

Acting Chief Justice, J&K High Court Alok Aradhe, Justice Ali Mohammad Magray, Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur, Justice Janak Raj Kotwal, Justice Sanjeev Kumar, Justice M.K Hanjura, Judges of High Court, Chief Secretary, Director General of Police, Heads of Various Departments, Registrar General High Court, Judicial Officers of High Court Registry, Director J&K State Judicial Academy, and judicial officers of Kashmir province participated in the mega day-long conference held on June 18.

After the inaugural session, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice N.V Ramana visited awareness camp at Harwan and interacted with the beneficiaries of the camp and inspected the stalls of different departments. Around 573 beneficiaries of different categories were benefitted on spot at the camp, besides 400 people visited the health camp organized by the Health Department for screening.

The Supreme Court judges accompanied by Chairman High Court Legal Services Committee Justice Ali Mohammad Magray, and Justice M.K Hanjura also inaugurated mega-legal services and awareness camp at Mishriwala Jammu on June 19 in which 597 beneficiaries were identified. Chairman District Legal Services Authority, Jammu, Deputy Commissioner, Jammu and other officers of the line departments were present in the camp.

Justice Alok Aradhe, accompanied by Chief Justice High Court of Gauhati Justice Ajit Singh inaugurated the mega-legal services and awareness camp at Kargil on June 22.

Justice Gogoi along with Justice Ramana, Justice Alok Aradhe, Justice Ajit Singh, Justice Ali Mohammad Magray, Justice Tashi Rabstan, and Justice M.K Hanjura a similar camp at Leh on June 23. Chairmen District Legal Services Authorities and Deputy Commissioners of the concerned Districts coordinated in organizing these camps.

Marathon technical sessions followed by interactions with different stakeholders on the changing dimensions of legal services were held during the awareness camp. Former Judges of J&K High Court Justice Muzzafar Hussain Attar, Justice Hasnain Masoodi, Alok Agarwal, Member Secretary, NALSA and Abdul Rashid Malik, Director J&K State Judicial Academy were the resource persons for the working sessions.

The awareness camps focused on sensitizing the participants about their role in ensuring the implementation of the schemes formulated by the NLSA, SLSA, Social Welfare Department, Labour Department, Health Department, Rural Development Department and other Departments for the benefit of marginalized sections of the society including women, children, specially-abled, old aged, senior citizens and other sections of the society.

During the camps, Justice Gogoi laid emphasis on increasing the reach to justice for poor, marginalized and other disadvantageous sections of the society.  

Justice Gogoi and other speakers emphasized upon the participants to reach out to the needy and deserving people so that the procedural wrangles do not become an obstacle in the way of implementation of these schemes.