Tele-Law Program: A Journey Towards Legal Empowerment

The Tele-Law program was launched by the Government of India in 2017 as a digital legal empowerment initiative. This program aimed to connect marginalized citizens with Panel Lawyers through video conferencing and telephone services available at Common Service Centres (CSCs) located in rural Gram Panchayats. Initially, Tele-Law was introduced as a pilot project to provide pre-litigation legal advice and assistance in North-Eastern states and Union Territories, including Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, covering a total of 800 CSCs.

With encouraging results from the pilot project, Tele-Law was further expanded in December 2019 to two major states, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, covering an additional 1,000 CSCs. A significant milestone was reached in September 2019 with the launch of the Aspirational Districts Project, extending the reach of Tele-Law to 28,060 CSCs in 115 Aspirational Districts across India. The goal was to extend legal services to districts requiring special focus and improvement.

By the year 2021, the Tele-Law program was scaled up to 50,000 Gram Panchayats across 28 states and 6 Union Territories. This expansion was facilitated by the increasing demand for accessible legal advice and justice services among rural citizens.

Recognizing the critical role of digital platforms in expanding legal services, Tele-Law’s outreach was further broadened in 2022, bringing the program to 1,00,000 CSCs. The network of CSCs enabled the government to offer inclusive legal aid across a larger section of the citizen specially rural.

In April 2023, the Tele-Law program was further extended to cover 2,50,000 CSCs across 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats in 783 districts nationwide. This remarkable growth facilitated the provision of pre-litigation advice services to all citizens of India, reflecting a commitment to ensure that justice is accessible to every individual.By August 2023, 50,00,000 beneficiaries had successfully received advice under this initiative, marking a significant milestone in the program's outreach and impact.

In the year 2024 the Tele-Facilitation Centers, providing comprehensive support for legal services through a dedicated toll-free number were launched 14454. Another key initiative introduced in 2024 involved the provision of free doorstep legal assistance across 500 Aspirational Blocks in India. In this initiative, 500 Nyaya Sahayaks were trained and deployed in these aspirational blocks to provide door-to-door legal assistance to citizens. During this period, the program successfully delivered 1 crore pre-litigation advice sessions to citizens across 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats, including urban blocks, marking a significant success for the initiative.