Persons entitled to services

A woman with a high-paying job is thrown out of her marital home, and a man earning a modest salary is sued over a tenancy. Who gets free legal aid? Many students assume the answer is the poor, and only the poor. The Act is more interesting. It lists categories of people, such as women and children, workers and persons in custody, and then adds an income test for everyone else. This topic is a list question dressed as a problem question, and a precise reading of section 12 wins the marks.

In two minutes

Section 12 lists who is entitled to legal services, from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to women, children and persons in custody, plus anyone under a prescribed income limit; section 13 adds that the Authority must be satisfied there is a prima facie case, and allows an affidavit as proof of income.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Practical Training – II: Alternate Dispute Resolution on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.