LEGAL AID SOCIETY, CAMPUS LAW CENTRE UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

DELHI STATE LEGAL SERVICES AUTHORITY ORGANISES

“PARA LEGAL VOLUNTEER TRAINING” (13

th-14

th OCTOBER, 2017)

DAY 1 (13.10.2017)

Legal Aid Society, Campus Law Centre in association with Delhi State Legal Services Authority

organized the Two Days “Para Legal Volunteers Training” on 13th

– 14th

October, 2017 in Seminar Hall,

Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi.

Welcome Address: Professor (Dr.) Usha

Tandon, Professor-in-Charge, Campus Law

Centre

The program began with the felicitation of

Speakers Sh. Sanjeev Jain, AD&SJ/Member

Secretary, DSLSA and Sh. Naveen Gupta,

Additional Secretary, DSLSA by Professor (Dr.)

Usha Tandon, Professor-in-Charge, Campus Law

Centre. Following this the welcome address was

delievered by Prof. (Dr.) Usha Tandon, wherein

she drew light upon the beginning of the Legal

Education movement, the emergence of National

Law Schools and expansion of the education of

Law to a multidisciplinary degree. She used this

development of legal education in India to

emphasise upon the need for good lawyers in the

country.

She also talked about how legal aid activities have always been a fundamental part of the culture at CLC

and how they were institutionalized in 2013 with the setting up of the formal Legal Aid Clinic by the

DSLSA. Talking about the effect of the 1987 Legal Aid Movement and enactment of the Legal Services

Authorities Act, Prof. Tandon said that consequent to the Movement, the Legal Education as well as the

broad thinking and perspective of the Judiciary also altered. In the end, she requested the DSLSA to

provide the opportunity of becoming a PLV to a larger number of students.

Session 1: Orientation of Interns, Introduction to Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, Legal Aid

Programmes and Activities of Delhi State Legal Services Authority, Justice System, Adjudicatory

and non-Adjudicatory Activities: Sh. Sanjeev Jain, AD&SJ/Member Secretary, DSLSA

In the introductory session, Sh. Sanjeev Jain, AD&SJ/Member Secretary,

DSLSA began with introducing what Justice actually means. He used his

journey from being a Law Student to his present stature to explain to the

aspiring PLVs, how perspectives about law and justice may change but a

few questions and the urge to give back to the society will remain the

same. He further introduced DSLSA as a Legal Services Authority, its

composition and main area of work. In addition, he moved forward to

elucidate upon the Legal Services Authority Act, 1987. Emphasising upon

the importance of dispute resolution through Lok Adalat, Sh. Jain

presented to the students a fair picture of the low disposal of case rates and

thereby, brought to everyone’s notice – the significance of a Para Legal

Volunteer discharging their role responsibly. Moving forward, he also

elaborated upon the import of Legal Aid and how the word encompasses

more than just aid in discharging legal cases or providing with Advocates.

He also listed down the fundamental rights and how legal aid is one of the

important ways in which the State makes an effort to help citizens enjoy

the Right to Equality.

Session 2: Duties of Para Legal Volunteers (PLVs): Sh. Naveen Gupta, Additional Secretary,

DSLSA

Sh. Naveen Gupta, Additional Secretary DSLSA, thereafter took up the various duties which a PLV

must discharge responsibly. He discussed examples of issues that the students in their tenure as PLVs

may face and how they can easily resolve them.

Session 3: Overview of Criminal Justice System and courts and Basic Principles of Criminal Law,

Criminal Procedure, Bail and Victim Compensation: Sh. Naveen Gupta

This session was taken by Shri. Naveen Gupta, Additional Secretary of DSLSA. He mentioned the basic

principles of criminal law, first and foremost being that the accused in custody is entitled to free legal

aid. He emphasized as a paralegal volunteer we will come across such incidents and so it is important to

have a basic knowledge of Criminal law. Addressed the

important question as to why we need criminal justice

system and talked about three basic principle i.e. Law

enforcement, adjudication and reformation. He elucidated

on the two categories of law: Substantive law and second

Procedural law. He also talked about the elements of

crime such as mens rea and actus reus along with different

stages of crimes such as intention, preparation, attempt

and commission. He also mentioned about the

classification of offences as bailable and non-bailable

offences. He also touched upon the procedural aspect of

criminal law such as filing of FIR and framing of charges.

In the end he also mentioned about the Victim

compensation.

Session 4: Effective Communication and Interpersonal skills: Ms. Shahin Hussain

In an hours session, Ms. Shahin Hussain, undertook to relay it to the

student PLVs how important our interpersonal and communication

skills whether verbal or written are. She chose various volunteers to

participate in exercises in order to provide examples. She began with the

Jump in, Jump Out activity, which showed how important listening is,

in any conversation in order for it to be effective. In another

experimental activity, she asked a PLV to stand and speak about himself

for 5 minutes in any language of his choice. Ms. Hussain, then,

highlighted the importance of carefully choosing our words and the fact

that most of the people tend to fail to speak for more than a minute or so

about simplest of the topics. The third activity entailed a picture of 5

people with their backs facing the audience, looking at some pictures

and the PLVs were asked to comment on what their body postures said

about each of them. The touch exercise was performed by 5 PLVs who

were blindfolded, and were asked to form a straight line by holding each

other by shoulder with both hands.

Further she displayed certain slides of famous people like, Charlie Chaplin, Mr. Beans and pointed out

how their body language and facial gestures conveyed everything without them uttering a single word.

In the last activity she called on for 4 volunteers who were blindfolded and were allotted a team of 4

people each. The teams were asked to direct their representative by calling out their names and directing

them to pick up cotton balls from the ground. A lot of confusion was witnessed in this exercise, as many

volunteers couldn’t even hear their team’s instructions clearly, and the others weren’t able to follow the

instructions properly.

Through the aforementioned

exercises, Ms. Shahin, drew upon

the crowd how important each

aspect of our conduct is, whether it

is our listening prowess, body

language, writing abilities or even

touch. She used basic slides and in

between exercises, exemplified the

need to be always sharp in

interactions through her visits and

work at Tihar Jail.

Session 5: Matrimonial Laws, Laws of Inheritance, Adoption, Maintenance, Dowry Prohibition

Act 1961, Cruelty within Marriage u/s 498A IPC, Dowry Death u/s 304B IPC: Sh. Man Mohan

Sharma, AD&SJ, Judge in Charge, Mediation Centre, Rohini Courts

Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 was discussed. The session

started with the definition of a Hindu and the pre-

requisitions for a person to be eligible for marriage. Also

mentioned about Muslim law. It touched upon the stake

holders that might be involved in a marriage petition. The

session also had a brief mention about the legal solutions

and remedies available for a marriage which is beyond

compromise such as Divorce or judicial separation.

Maintenance and Dowry was also highlighted during the

session. In the end there was a brief mention about the

cruelty in marriage which is a ground for divorce.

Thus, the first day of the Para Legal Volunteer Training ended upon this note.

DAY 2 (14.10.20017)

Session 1: Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and Protection of Children and Sexual Offences Act, 2012:

Ms. Geetanjali Goel, AD&SJ/Special Secretary, DSLSA

Ms. Geetanjali Goel, AD&SJ/ Special Secretary, DSLSA

took this session. Ms. Goel, in the first session of the

second day of the training reiterated the ideals for Legal

Aid and PLVs. She then, moved forward and took up the

Child Marriage Act. The discussion included the evolution

of the said Act through the years and how the present

minimum ages for both the genders were fixed. The session

moved forward to the Protection of Children and Sexual

Offences Act, 2012. Under this, Ms. Goel clarified the

need for POCSO and how it differed from the already

existing Laws. The session further included the recently

legislated Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. The backdrop of the

said Act was discussed to bring forth the objective with

which it had been enacted. Ms. Goel emphasized on the

need for rehabilitation of children, which is the vision of

the said Act and thus concluded the session.

Session 2: Right to Information Act, 2005: Sh. K.S. Kumar, Director (Retd.), Ministry of Defense

The session began with

the definition of

information. Then the

importance of

information was

discussed. Various

Sections of the Right to

Information Act, 2005

was discussed, such as

section 4 which asks the

public authorities to

provide as much

information possible in

the public domain. The

most discussed and

important section was 2(j) which talks about the accessibility of the Information in the public domain.

The session also entertained various queries of the students.

Session 3: Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal)

Act, 2015: Sh. Naveen Gupta, Additional Secretary, DSLSA

Sh. Naveen Gupta undertook in the present session to elaborate upon the intricacies of the Act. He

discussed the landmark Supreme Court Judgment Vishakha and Others v State of Rajasthan and moved

on to explaining the various definitions of sexual harassment, workplace, aggrieved woman, employee,

employer and domestic worker under the Act. He

discussed the responsibilities that the students may be

required to undertake as a PLV.

Session 3(contd.): Protection of Women from

Domestic Violence Act, 2005: Ms. RuchikaSingla,

Secretary, North West DLSA, Rohini Courts, Delhi

Ms. RuchikaSingla addressed the gathering to discuss the

said Act. She began with an overview of the objective

with which the Act had been enacted. She further

elaborated upon the various reliefs and remedies which

the students as PLVs may tell victims of Domestic Abuse

or violence of. Further, the rights of such aggrieved

women were also discussed in detail.

Session 4: Overview of Civil Law and Courts related to possession and Injunction:

Ms. Tanvi Khurana, Secretary, South East DLSA, Saket Court.

The Session was taken up by Ms. Tanvi Khurana,

Secretary South East DLSA, Saket Court. The

Session was quite interactive where the hierarchy of

courts along with parameters of hierarchy, such as

territorial and pecuniary jurisdiction, was discussed.

She also discussed the subject matter and the

jurisdiction of tribunals. The basics of instituting a

civil suit were also taken up by her. She gave a brief

mention of types of Civil law, both substantive and

procedural. She also clarified the difference

between Review, Revision and Reference. She

touched upon the laws of possession and adverse

possession and injunction. In the end she also

apprised the students regarding the onerous duties

of a Para legal volunteer.

The last session of the training was followed by a

short feedback session in which Sh. Naveen Jain

congratulated the PLVs for their smooth conduct

over the previous two days and also addressed their

questions in relation to the training as a whole.

Vote of Thanks: Dr. Anju Sinha, (Assistant Professor) Convener, Legal Aid Society, Campus Law

Centre

The final vote of thanks was taken up by Dr. Anju

Sinha, Teacher Convener, Legal Aid Society, where

she thanked each speaker who had taken out time to

give their valuable inputs during the training. She

thanked Professor-in-Charge, Professor (Dr.) Usha

Tandon under whose supervision and guidance this

training and legal aid society in general has become a

great success.. Dr. Sinha also emphasized upon how

important legal aid has become and the significance

of the work that PLVs undertake during their tenure.

Further, she thanked the DSLSA authorities, Teacher

members of Legal Aid Society, Student Convener/

Co-Conveners and repertoires who had worked hard

to make the training a smooth success.