Multi-purpose legal aid centre opened in Chilaw

The language of the court proceedings should be in Sinhala or Tamil which could be understood by the litigants, said Chairman Legal Aid Commission S.S. Wijeratne. He was speaking after the inauguration of the multi-purpose Legal Aid Centre of the LAC in Chilaw High Court promises.

The LAC Chairman said the four essential steps to provide equal access to justice to all Sri Lankans are:

Firstly, the language of the court proceedings should be in Sinhala or Tamil which could be understood by the litigants. This was accomplished in early 70s at the original court level but still the Appellate Courts are functioning in English thus depriving the litigants to understand what is happening to their cases, said Legal Aid Centre Chairman S.S. Wijeratne.

Secondly, the LAC has embarked on a project to open multi-purpose Legal Aid Centres in the 31 High Court Zones in addition to the Special Legal Aid Centres in the tsunami affected areas to provide free legal aid to poor litigants whose income is less than Rs. 6,000 per month.

Like in many democratic countries, it is the responsibility of the State to provide the poor citizens with free legal assistance to have equal access to justice.

Thirdly, he said in addition to traditional court centred legal aid, diverse developmental legal aid programs should be launched to assist the legal needs of special categories.

In this respect multi-purpose Legal Aid centres would provide specialised legal assistance to elders, women and children, consumers, migrant women workers, victims of crime and domestic violence victims.

Fourthly, LAC in collaboration with the Alternative Disputes Resolution Institute (ADRI) have launched a mediation training program to settle disputes through mediation by the grama niladharies and police officials. He emphasised that adjudication as a method of dispute resolution should be the last resort as it produced winners and losers.

Former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Hector S. Yapa, the new Director General of the LAC said he consented to assist the LAC as he realised during his judicial career that many of the poor litigants needed legal assistance. He explained the procedures followed by the LAC in providing legal assistance in cases of fundamental rights violations and other personal litigations.

He also thanked the Chilaw High Court Judge and the Chilaw Bar Association for co-operating with the LAC to establish the new centre.

Senior Attorney-at-Law, Hillary Fernando who co-ordinated the project also thanked the LAC for promptly responding to the request of the Chilaw Bar Association.

Chilaw High Court Judge, Mrs. Madawala thanked the LAC for inaugurating the multi-purpose Legal Aid Centre as she had come across many cases of poor litigants who deserved legal assistance. She also said a separate block of land from the High Court premises have been released to construct a new Legal Aid Centre and a library for the Bar Association.

The Bar Association Chairman, Chilaw, Palitha Wijesinghe, AAL interviewed the first client who came to seek legal assistance from the Centre and the Secretary of the Chilaw Lawyers' Association, Sumudu Jayamanna, AAL proposed the vote of thanks.

Legal Aid Commission Chairman, S.S. Wijeratne, Director General, Justice Hector S. Yapa, High Court Judge Chilaw, Mrs. Madawala, District Court Judge Chilaw, Mrs. Kumari Navaratne, President and Secretary of the Bar Association of Chilaw participated in the inauguration.