What is Tele-law service?
● Tele-law is a service that uses video conferencing facilities and telephone services to
connect lawyers to litigants who need legal advice.
● This service aims to reach out to the needy, especially the marginalized and
disadvantaged.
● The project connects citizens with lawyers through communications and information
technology with the help of Para-Legal Volunteers stationed at identified Common
Service Centers or CSCs.

Role of Para Legal Volunteer
● Para Legal Volunteer (PLV) is the first point of contact between rural citizens and
lawyers providing legal aid through CSC.
● They are not lawyers, but have basic understanding of the legal process. They hear
the grievances of citizens and offer appropriate support/suggestions for legal aid. They also help the citizens understand legal issues and advice given by lawyers.

● A trained PLV is available in a CSC for minimum ten days in a month under the Scheme.

Benefits
● Tele Law service enables anyone to seek legal advice without wasting precious time and
money.
● Legal advice is made available to everyone under Tele-Law service Advice is free of Cost
to those who are eligible for free legal aid under Section 12 of Legal Services
Authority Act, 1987:
○ Women
○ Children
○ Persons belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe
○ Victims of Trafficking
○ Mentally ill and differently abled people
○ Victims of natural disaster/ethnic violence
○ Workers in unorganized /industrial workers
○ Under trials
○ People of low income group
● For all others a nominal fee of Rs INR 30/- charged for each consultation.
● The Tele-law website can be accessed at http://tele-law.in and is available in 22 official
languages.
Availability
● Presently, tele-law programme is operational in 633 districts (including 115 aspirational
districts) across all the States and Union Territories using a network of 50,000 CSCs.
Jurisdiction
● Legal matters in which advice can be taken through Tele-Law service :-
○ Dowry, family dispute, divorce, protection from domestic violence.
○ Sexual harassment, sexual abuse, eve teasing at the workplace.
○ Maintenance of women, children and senior citizens.
○ Rights regarding property and land.

Equal wages for males and females.
○ Maternity benefits and prevention of foeticide.
○ Prohibition of child marriage, protection of children from sexual assault,
prevention of child labour and implementing right to education.
○ Arrest – (F.I.R)/ process of registering the First Information Report.
○ Atrocities against scheduled castes/ scheduled tribes and their rehabilitation.
Why in News?
● The Department of Justice kicked-off the week- long “Tele-Law on Wheels” campaign
from 8
th
to 14
th November, 2021. As part of this campaign, a series of activities are being
undertaken to empower people through pre-litigation advice for rightfully claiming their
entitlements and for timely redressal of their difficulties.
Related Information
What is a CSC?
● Common Service Centres (CSCs) are shops/Kiosks that deliver various government
services online like public utility services, social welfare schemes, healthcare, financial,
education and agriculture services, apart from a host of B2C services to citizens in rural
and remote areas of the country.
● CSC is one of the mission mode projects under the Digital India Programme run by the
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). There are approximately
3.19 lakh CSCs in India. CSCs are located in Gram Panchayats.
Objectives
● CSCs have also been trying to bridge the gaps in digital literacy and skills of rural
citizens through a range of literacy initiatives focused on digital, financial and legal
literacy and e-learning and skill development courses.
● Under the CSC 2.0 scheme initiated by the Ministry of Electronics & IT in 2015, at least
one CSC is to be rolled out in each and every 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats across the
country.
Village Level Entrepreneur
● The CSC operator, also known as Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE), is the key
stakeholder.
● The essence of the CSC scheme is that it is managed and operated by a local person
whose acceptability is higher within the community she/he serves.
● The success of the Scheme depends largely on his ability, zeal and passion for setting up
a sustainable social enterprise within the existing constraints of rural India.
Implementation
● CSC e-Governance Services India Limited is a Special Purpose Vehicle set up by the
Ministry of Electronics & IT to oversee implementation of the CSC scheme.

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1770010