By: D.K Choudhary
SC Introduces Middle Income Group Scheme to Provide Legal Services at Affordable Rate
i. The Supreme Court has introduced the Middle Income Group (MIG) Scheme for the middle income group people whose gross income is not exceeding Rs. 60,000 per month or Rs. 7.5 lakh per annum.
ii. The MIG Legal Aid Scheme is a self-supporting scheme which aims to provide legal services to the middle income group who cannot afford the expensive litigation in the Supreme Court.
iii. Under the scheme, middle class people who have the desire to avail the benefit of the Scheme shall have to fill up the form prescribed and accept all the terms and conditions contained within and thus can avail the services of the society for a nominal amount.
Key Features of the Scheme
♦ Under the scheme a Supreme Court Middle Income Group Legal Aid Society (SCMIGLAS) would be set up as a governing body.
♦ The society will have Chief Justice-of-India as Patron-in-Chief, Attorney General for India as Ex-officio Vice-President, Solicitor General of India as Secretary and other senior advocates of the Supreme Court as its members.
♦ The applicants will have to pay a sum of Rs 500 to the Supreme Court Middle Income Group Legal Aid Society (SCMIGLAS) as service charges.
♦ Besides, the applicant shall also have to deposit the fee as indicated by the Secretary which will be in accordance with the schedule attached to the scheme.
♦ The Secretary will also be responsible to register the case under the MIG Legal Aid Scheme and further proceed to forward the papers to the Advocate-on-Record or the Arguing Counsel or Senior Counsel for opinion.
♦ If Advocate-on-Record is satisfied with the case to be proceeded forward then only the Society will consider that the applicant is entitled to legal aid.
♦ If the advocate who is appointed under the scheme is found negligent in the conduct of the case entrusted to him then he will be required to return the brief together with the fee received by him from the applicant under the scheme.
♦ The society will not be responsible for the negligent conduct of the case and the entire responsibility will be that of the advocate. The name of the Advocate will be struck off from the panel prepared under the scheme.
HRD Ministry Mandates Aadhaar to avail Scholarship Benefits by University and College Students
i. The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has made it mandatory for the College and University students to have possession of Aadhaar Card issued by UIDAI to avail benefits under the Central Sector Scholarship Scheme.
A Historic moment! ! UIDAI produced 100 crore Aadhaarsii .Further, the applicants eligible for these scholarships but not having an Aadhaar card can apply for the enrolment by June 30, 2017. However, the rule will not apply to Jammu & Kashmir.
iii. Similarly, the Ministry has also notified that students who wish to avail the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme will also have to apply for Aadhaar by June 30. This will not be applicable in the states of J&K, Assam and Meghalaya.
iv. The Ministry has also notified similar provision related to the Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme for schoolchildren.
v. The notification shall come into effect from the date of its publication.
vi. The decision aims to bring in transparency in providing scholarships and also enable beneficiaries to get their entitlements directly in a convenient and seamless manner.
vii .However, till the time Aadhaar is assigned to the students they may get scholarships on the basis of documents like Aadhaar Enrolment ID slip, Aadhaar enrolment application, voter identity card, PAN card etc.
2-Day South Asian Speakers’ Summit Begins In Indore
i. The two-day South Asian Speakers’ Summit was inaugurated by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in Indore, Madhya Pradesh on February 18, 2017
ii. Speakers of six countries includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Nepal attended the meeting to deliberate on ways to achieve sustainable development goals.
iii. The summit will have a plenary session on ‘Identifying Resources for SDGs Implementation in South Asia: Opportunities for Parliamentary Cooperation’
iv. A working session on ‘Gender Equality As A Critical Factor For Sustainable Development’ will discuss opportunities that the SDGs present to strike a better gender balance and to determine the gender impact of sustainable development policies.
v. This will conclude with the adoption of an ‘Indore Declaration‘ at a closing ceremony on February 18, 2017
