Rich encomiums were paid to V.K. Krishna Menon, India’s former Defence Minister, by senior Supreme Court judge Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and other speakers at the Indian Society of International Law (ISIL)-organised 18th VK Krishna Menon lecture on Thursday, May 19.

Justice Lalit said it took around 8-10 hours of research for him on VK Krishna Menon so that he can be well prepared for the lecture. He even shared that there was a time when former Chief Justice of India Mohammed Hidayatullah studied Marxism because of Krishna Menon for a case and this was one such thing for Justice Lalit too as for this lecture, he had to do research on Krishna Menon.

He further said that this is just an example of how fascinating a man Krishna Menon was, that even Judge Hidayatullah was compelled to study the matter deeper and deeper.

Justice Lalit shared an anecdote of his family friend N.M. Ghatate, who was a junior of Krishna Menon and he once asked him what did he find so fascinating about Menon’s work. To which, Ghatate said he was studying when he met him and he was drawn to study law because of Menon and his intellect.

Answering a question on NALSA of which he is the Executive Chairman, Justice Lalit said NALSA’s free legal aid programme will reach every nook and corner of the country, including the much-neglected rural areas. Justice Lalit said the NALSA programme mandates that they have to cover every village of the country, India has some 6 lakh villages, thrice and that too in 42 days.

Justice Lalit is the sixth Senior Advocate ever to be directly elevated to the Supreme Court. He is soon going to retire on November 8, 2022, he is in line to be the next Chief Justice of India for a period of 74 days.

Indian Society of International Law (ISIL) president Pravin H. Parekh, ISIL Vice President Dr GV Rao and ISIL Acting Secretary-General Dr Shikhar Ranjan were among the other speakers at the lecture.

Chief Justice of Inida Justice N.V. Ramana, the Patron-in-Chief of the National Legal Services Authority, and Justice U.U. Lalit, the Executive Chairman of NALSA, today called on President of India Ramnath Kovind. The President was requested to be the Chief Guest at a function proposed to be organised by NALSA on October 2, 2021 (Gandhi Jayanti) to galvanise the activities for the spread of awareness about legal services ahead of launch of the Legal Services Week (November 8-14, 2021).

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Supreme Court judge Justice U.U. Lalit, the Executive Chairman, National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), has drawn special attention towards the education of children housed in Juvenile Justice Homes during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. He said, “We must make available to children in conflict with law every opportunity to develop them to the fullest as the citizens of the country”

He made the observations during the inaugural ceremony of Capacity Building Programme on Pro-active Approach in Legal Assistance: Intervention at early stages, which was organized by the Uttar Pradesh State Legal Services Authority (UPSLSA) under the aegis of NALSA. The Programme was organized at the Judicial Training & Research Institute (JTRI), Lucknow under the guidance of Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari, the Acting Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court & Executive Chairman, UPSLSA. The said event was attended by judges of the Allahabad High Court, Senior Officials of the Government, Officials from Police and Prison Department, Judicial Officers, Administrative Officers, etc.

During his keynote address, Justice Lalit commended the achievements of the UPSLSA in the recently held National Lok Adalat, wherein around 12.5 Lakh cases were disposed of. He stated that these achievements have culminated through the continuous efforts of legal services authorities from the last 25 years. Apart from the commendation, Justice Lalit highlighted various areas which require immediate attention of all the stakeholders. He stated that due to lack of knowledge and information, only a negligible percentage of eligible beneficiaries avail legal services at pre-arrest stage. He emphasized that installation of informative boards in the Police Stations would spread awareness at any early stage of criminal justice and would help in removal of lack of knowledge and information. With respect to the outreach of Legal Services, His Lordship stated that the collaboration with Postal Department to install informative boards at every Post Office would ensure outreach of the legal services to every nook of the country.

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Referring to a Prison visit made by the officials of NALSA, Justice Lalit highlighted the issue of overcrowding of prisons and called upon the stakeholders to ensure that “living conditions in the prison must also be of an order that we can say proudly that our citizens are being taken care of”. He further highlighted that there is still need to make the prisoners aware of their rights and to accord them every opportunity to defend their trials and appeals.

The last area which was flagged by His Lordship was the Permanent Lok Adalats, which are capable to dispose the disputes at an early stage and can be a crucial mechanism to lessen the burden of the judiciary. His Lordship reiterated that every effort must be made to make these Adalats functional and to achieve maximum disposals through them.

During the Programme, Justice Lalit also released informative posters which are going to be installed at Police Stations and Post Offices across the State of Uttar Pradesh.

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The welcome note of the ceremony was delivered by Justice Pritinker Diwaker, Judge, Allahabad High Court. Thematic address of the ceremony was delivered by Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari, who recalled the areas of concern which were identified during the recently held regional consultation and apprised the steps taken to address such areas.The vote of thanks was delivered by Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Senior Judge, Allahabad High Court (Lucknow Bench).

The training programme will be conducted in two sessions, wherein the participants will be sensitized regarding various topics such as (i) early access to justice at pre-arrest, arrest and remand stage; (ii) legal assistance to persons in custody including children in conflict with law kept in juvenile homes; (iii) conciliation at prelitigation stage; (iv) permanent lokadalats u/s 22(B) of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.