How law students in Pune are responding to societal need – one case at a time

Started two years ago during the Covid-19 period, the pro-bono club at SLS, Pune, has several success stories, like providing a death certificate and other legal documents to the widow of a Covid-19 victim.

A stall put up by the law students of Symbiosis Law School, Pune, at a recent college festival as part of their outreach programme. (Express Photo)

Abandoned in her old age, a disabled senior citizen woman, who works as a house help and has no support from either the government or her family, has found a ray of hope in fifth-year law students and alumni of Symbiosis Law School (SLS), Pune. Their target is to get her an Aadhaar card, a ration card, register her for the e-Shram scheme and get her benefit of government schemes for the disabled and senior citizens.

Started two years ago during the Covid-19 period, the pro-bono club at SLS, Pune formed under the Nyaya Bandhu Scheme of the Department of Justice, is dealing with several such cases where access to justice is denied to the poor and disadvantaged classes.

“While many colleges already have legal aid cells, this club goes one step further and it works in conjunction with the district legal services authority. It tries to instill in the minds of young legal students a sense of responsibility towards the disadvantaged section. Our focus has remained women and children in conflict and in need of legal assistance,” said Shirish Kulkarni, faculty in-charge of the cell.

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The club has had several success stories, like providing a death certificate and other legal documents to the widow of a Covid-19 victim. The absence of those documents had resulted in the delay in disbursal of insurance amount. The law students also came to the aid of two children who were not allowed to join online classes by a city school.

“Our students have regularly been going out and spreading awareness on legal rights as well as the existence of this club. A man approached us, he runs a small grocery business and suffered severe losses during the pandemic due to which he couldn’t pay fees for his children. The students and alumni are working on his case as children are entitled to attend school under the Right to Education Act and we will approach the district legal authority as well as the education department on their behalf,” added Kulkarni.

Since its inception in 2020, the pro-bono club along with the Community Legal Care and Literacy Cell (CLCL Cell) of SLS, Pune has assisted in various activities related to legal aid and legal awareness such as sessions at the Daulat Rao Jadhav Prison Officer’s Training College, besides assisting the District Legal Services Authority in organizing the National Lok Adalats.

Its current project is to establish a legal aid clinic at the Regional Mental Hospital (Yerawada) to provide legal aid to mental health patients.

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“What are the rights of mental health patients and who is responsible for ensuring they are not trampled upon? In many cases, families take signatures of patients on documents when they get to meet them. Who ensures that a patient is not made a victim of financial fraud during their detention? That’s why they need a legal aid cell, to stop all this from happening,” said Kulkarni.

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