Circular dated 15.06.2021 of SCLSC, interalia, mentions that, "It is noteworthy to mention that Regulation 5 of the National Legal Services Authority (Free and Competent Legal Services) Regulations, 2010 has already been substituted by Notification No.L/61/10/NALSA dated 22nd October, 2018 for Regulation 5 (w.e.f. 25.10.2018). The Regulation 5 after substitution reads as under:
(5) Proof of entitlement of legal services: A self-certificate of the applicant, along with self-attested copies of relevant documents or certificate, if any, that he falls under the categories of persons entitled to free legal services under Section 12 of the Act shall ordinarily ne sufficient.
Henceforth, the amendments as directed are mentioned hereunder: To accept the self-attested copies of documents and certificates and change the existing practice of accepting notarized copy of affidavit."
Kindly provide following information:
1. For grant of pro-bono lawyer/services, whether self-certificate with regard to income proof will be sufficient in view of the above amendment/substitution in the National Legal Services Authority (Free and Competent Legal Services) Regulations, 2010 or affidavit is still required to be submitted.
2. Provide the details of rules that are followed by Department of Justice for grant of pro bono lawyers.
3. Provide whether rules/parameters for providing pro bono lawyer by DoJ are different from rules/parameters for grant of legal aid by legal services authorities.
4. Please let me know whether Department of Justice follows different rules/act and NALSA and SCLSC/HCLSC/DLSA follow different rules/act or same.
The above information is related to pro bono lawyers/services and response is solicited from Department of Justice only and not NALSA.