Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, has been implementing a Central Sector Scheme, namely, Designing Innovative Solutions for Holistic Access to Justice (DISHA)
The Government of India has undertaken various initiatives in last five years to improve access to justice and reduce barriers in the legal and judicial processes with the aim to fulfil the obligation under Article 39A of the Indian Constitution.
The Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, has been implementing a Central Sector Scheme, namely, Designing Innovative Solutions for Holistic Access to Justice (DISHA), with a total outlay of Rs. 250 crores for a period of five years (2021-2026). It aims to provide a comprehensive, integrated solution on Access to Justice at a pan India level through the components of Tele-Law, Nyaya Bandhu, and Legal Literacy and Legal Awareness Programmes. It is a citizen-centric, inclusive, and leverages technology for ensuring ease of justice to the beneficiaries. The Tele-Law programme provides free pre-litigation legal advice to citizens through video and telephonic consultations at Common Service Centres (CSCs), the Tele-Law Mobile Application and the dedicated toll-free helpline number 14454. Tele-Law is operational in 2,50,000 lakh CSCs across 776 districts in 36 States/UTs, including 112 Aspirational Districts and 500 Aspirational Blocksofthe country. To strengthen last-mile delivery, Nyaya Sahayakshave been engaged since 2024 to provide door-to-door pre-litigation legal assistance in 500 Aspirational Blocks. As on 31st January, 2026, more than 1.12 crore pre-litigation advices have been provided across the country.
Under the Nyaya Bandhu (Pro Bono Legal Services) programme, interested Pro Bono Advocates are registered and connected to the beneficiaries (who are entitled for free legal aid under Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987) through the Nyaya Bandhu Application (available iOS/Android/UMANG Platform). A panel of Pro Bono Advocates has also been constituted in 23 High Courts to strengthen institutional mechanisms for delivering pro bono legal services to the beneficiary. As on 31st January, 2026, 10,133 advocates have volunteered and registered on Nyaya Bandhu platform. Further, to instil the spirit of pro bono work among law students and nurture a long-term commitment to legal services, Pro Bono Clubs have been constituted across 109 law colleges in the country.Under the Legal Literacy and Legal Awareness Programme, institutional collaboration is done with reputed Government and private organisations to prepare information and communication (IEC) materials in the form of books, training modules, workshops, etc.to promote legal literacy and awareness. This Programme has outreached more than 1.20 crore beneficiaries as on 31 January 2026.
Under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme namely Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) Scheme, 774 Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) including 398 exclusive POCSO (ePOCSO) Courts are functional across 29 States/UTs for the expeditious disposal of pending cases of Rape and POCSO Act, and have collectively disposed of 3,66,124 cases since their inception, as on 31.12.2025. The financial outlay under the scheme is Rs. 1952.23 crore with Rs. 1207.24 crore as Central Share to be incurred from Nirbhaya Fund on the CSS pattern. The Central Government, as on 05.02.2026, has released a total amount of Rs. 1,156.99 crore to States/UTs for the operationalization of FTSCs since the inception of the Scheme in 2019.
The Government has set up National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) 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, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizens by reason of economic or other disabilities, and to organize Lok Adalats to secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice on the basis of equal opportunities. For this purpose, the legal services institutions have been setup from the Taluk Court level to the Supreme Court. The activities/programmes undertaken by Legal Services Authorities include Legal Aid and advice; Legal Awareness Programmes; Legal Services/Empowerment camps; Legal Service Clinics; Legal Literacy Clubs; Lok Adalats and implementation of Victim Compensation Scheme.
Lok Adalat is an important Alternative Disputes Resolution Mechanism available to common people, where the disputes/ cases pending in the court of law or at pre-litigation stage are settled/compromised amicably. Under The Legal Services Authorities (LSA) Act, 1987, an award made by a Lok Adalat is deemed to be a decree of a civil court and is final and binding on all parties and no appeal lies against it before any court. National Lok Adalats are organized simultaneously in all Taluks, Districts and High Courts on a pre-fixed date. The details of the cases disposed of in Lok Adalatsfrom 2016 to Dec 2025are as under:
|
Lok Adalat
|
Pre-litigative cases settled
|
Pending cases settled
|
|
National Lok Adalat
|
33,80,76,089
|
8,45,59,866
|
|
State Lok Adalats
|
39,33,548
|
67,03,159
|
|
Permanent Lok Adalats
(cases relating to public utility service)
|
14,58,389
|
-
|
As per Article 39A of the Constitution of India and as a part of the preventive and strategic legal aid, NALSA through the State Legal Services Authoritiesand District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) has undertaken several legal services activities in the country to ensure that legal aid reach the poor. To strengthen the criminal court based legal services, the Department of Justice is implementing a Central Sector Scheme, namely, the Legal Aid Defense Counsel System (LADCS)Scheme, which involves full time engagement of Legal Aid Defense Counsels (LADCs) with supporting staff at district level.As on December 2025, Legal Aid Defense Counsel (LADC) offices are functional in 680 districts across the country. LADCS Scheme has been approved for the period of 3 financial years 2023-24 to 2025-26) with a totalfinancial outlay of Rs. 998.43 crore and up to January 2026, Rs. 643.755 crore has been released to NALSA for LADCS Scheme.The details of criminal cases assigned and disposed of by LADCs during the last three years are as follows: -
|
Financial Year
|
Criminal Cases assigned
|
Criminal Cases disposed
|
Disposal Rate
|
|
2023-24
|
3,36,830
|
2,12,505
|
63%
|
|
2024-25
|
5,32,413
|
3,72,750
|
70%
|
|
2025-26 (Dec. 2025)
|
3,93,614
|
2,86,326
|
73%
|
|
Total
|
12,62,857
|
8,71,581
|
69%
|
The Phase-III of the eCourts Project (2023-2027) approved on 13.09.2023 with an outlay of Rs.7,210 crore to make justice delivery progressively more robust, easy and accessible. As on 31st December, 2025, significant achievements have been made under the eCourts Project, inter alia:
- A total of 3,93,22,695 cases were dealt with (virtual hearings) on video conferencing in High Courts and District Courts.
- Video Conferencing Rules has been implemented in all the High Courts and District Courts
- Rules of eFiling, facility of ePayments and ICJS have been implemented in almost all the High Courts
- A total of 94,55,288 challans have been paid through 29 Virtual Courts functioning across the country, resulting in collection of Rs. 9,73,25,50,414 as Challan Amount.
- 1,03,96,720 cases have been submitted through e-filing in High Courts and District Courts.
- The number of downloads of the eCourts Services Mobile App is 3,54,86,435, while downloads of the eCourts Services JustIS app stand at 22,090.
- 2,36,96,50,903 pages have been digitized in High Courts, and 4,00,89,15,374 pages have been digitized in District Courts.
- Justice Clocks have been installed in 37 High Courts, and 30 District Courts.
- A total of 2,331 e-Sewa Kendras are functioning in High Courts and District Courts across the country benefiting a large number of litigants.
- The CIS 4.0 has been implemented in all court complexes and the eCommittee has also released a User Manual on CIS 4.0.
- As part of the e-Courts initiative, seven platforms have been set up to provide near real-time updates on case status, cause lists, judgments and more. These updates are being sent to lawyers and litigants through SMS Push and Pull (over 4 lakh SMS sent daily), email (over 6 lakh sent daily), the multilingual e-Courts services portal (with 35 lakh hits daily), Judicial Service Centres (JSCs) and Info Kiosks.
- Live streaming of court proceedings has been introduced in several High Courts, including those in Gujarat, Gauhati, Orissa, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Patna, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Calcutta allowing media and other interested parties to participate in the proceedings.
- A total of 96.1% of the target for installing solar power facilities in Court Complexes has been achieved.
- The Electronic Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal (e-MACT) platform to facilitate expeditious, online and asynchronous dealing of Motor Accidents Claim Petitions has been developed. The testing of the eMACT project in the live environment commenced from 07.05.2025 in the pilot court.
- NJDG (National Judicial Data Grid) has been upgraded with an improved dashboard, functioning as a monitoring tool, to identify, manage & reduce pendency of cases. It also provides information regarding the reasons for delay in disposal of the cases which are categorized on various attributes.
This information was given by the MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE; AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal in Lok Sabha today.
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