4th Quarterly Meeting with Working Group Network Member

CWAD organized 4^th quarterly meeting with working group on 25^th August 2021 (Bhadra 9^th, 2078) to know the amendment process on Legal Aid Act by Ministry of Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs (MoLJPA). CWAD on the behalf of working group had submitted Teen Mahale on Legal Aid Act from GESI perspective on 31st December 2020 to the then Law Minister Honorable Lila Nath Shrestha and later submitted a line-by-line recommendation on “कानूनी सहायता सम्बन्धी कानूनलाई संशोधन र एकीकरण गर्न बनेको विधेयक”on 25th March 2021 to Joint Secretary of MoLJPA, Hum Bdr. KC. In this stance, CWAD had organized this 4^th quarterly meeting via zoom in the presence of Joint Secretary of MoLJPA Hum Bahadur K.C. as a Key-Note Speaker.

The active participation of representatives from Nepal Bar Association, Supreme Court Bar Association, Nepal Law Campus, CSOs as a working group network members provided their valuable suggestion after the presentation on the status of amendment. There were altogether 23 participants where 3 male and 20 female participating the working group meeting.

 The objective of this quarterly meeting with working group network member is to know the amendment status of Legal Aid Act from Mr. Hum Bahadur K.C., Joint Secretary of MoLJPA. MoLJPA is in the process of formulating a completely new Legal Aid Act to address the issues that they have been addressed by the concerned stakeholders. Furthermore, this meeting is to collect suggestions and recommendations on the proposed amendment draft bill by the Ministry of Law. Similarly, to build strategies to further work together for the policy advocacy from individual to collective manner on Legal Aid Act to Ministry of Law. 

Joint Secretary of MoLJPA, Hum Bdr. KC presented the paper on the reforming provision on bill of legal aid for the effective and practical implementation.  According to him, Law Ministry is in the process of preparing the draft bill of Legal Aid Act. In doing so, Ministry of Law will organize a meeting with CSOs and other concerned stakeholders for open discussion after the draft paper is prepared. Based on Constitution of Nepal, 2015, Law Ministry is in the process of enacting new Law rather to reform the Legal Aid Act, 2054. In this stance Law Ministry has prepared the draft bill to make the legal aid effective and time relevant. In this process, Law Ministry had organized a series of meeting with 7 province concerned stakeholders to discuss on the initial draft. The draft is basically concerned to focus to find out the reason behind the effective implementation of act for the justice. As per his word, law should address the social, cultural and geographical context of Nepal.

Likewise, legal aid should be provided on both Criminal as well Civil Code cases. The lawyers will provide the counselling service to both victim as well as to alleged person as per the need. In the similar way, in coordination with local governance and district legal aid committee, legal aid service awareness program will be spread in the local level and district level as well. District Legal Aid Committee will coordinate with One Stop Crisis Management Centre for the psycho-social counselling service. The Committee will also provide the financial support to psycho-social counsellor. Similarly, he defines the incapable words where Women, Dalit, Indigenous, Madhesi, Tharu, Minorities, Marginalized, Muslims, Backward Groups, Sexual minorities, Labour, farmer, etc. are regard as incapable. In the same way, local government will provide the recommendation as well as made the identity card to the person who is economically and socially incapable. Moreover, Women, Dalit, Indigenous, Madhesi, Tharu, Minorities, Disable Person, Marginalized, Disadvantages, Backward Group, Sexual Minorities, economically weak Khas Aaryan, Labour, Farmer, and Backward Community will get the legal aid service based on their application. If the applicant’s documents are not available, immediate legal aid service will be provided but he/she will give the second chance to submit the necessary documents for the next hearing.

In the same way, legal aid committee will be established in the district and in the province level. In the context of local governance, judicial committee will be responsible to provide the legal aid services. In the similar manner, CSOs can also provide the free legal aid services after listed in the national legal aid council. There should be the coordination between the stipendiary lawyers and district legal aid committee lawyers to maintain quality of the services. Similarly, bill suggested to establish the complaint box in the service providing centre, monitoring and evaluation of the service by both internal and external body.  In the same way, service providing center should submit the report through electoral medium and hard copy as well about the legal aid services.

Facilitator Prof. Dr Shashi Adhikary closed the program by providing a concluding remark. In doing so, she thanked Joint Secretary of MoLJPA, Mr. Hum Bahadur KC for providing us the amendment status on Legal Aid Act prepared by Ministry of Law. Lastly, she thanked to all representative from Supreme Court Bar Association, Nepal Bar Association, Nepal Law Campus, Civil Society Organizations as a Working Group Members for the meaningful participation, their valuable time and suggestions.