NALSA: Legal Aid Defence Counsel Scheme Removal Sparks Debate

The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)’s recent decision to discontinue the Legal Aid Defence Counsel (LADC) Scheme, established primarily to provide legal aid to prisoners, is sudden and puzzling.From September 2026 onwards, contracts of LADCs in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh will not be renewed. The stated reason is that LADCs threaten the livelihoods of young lawyers in these states. Elsewhere too, LADCs have been told that their contracts will not be renewed.The concern about the economic condition of young advocates is real, given the poor remuneration that early-stage litigating lawyers receive. However, to pin the blame for their economic plight on LADCs is unfair. LADCs represent accused persons in the criminal justice system, principally undertrials who cannot access private lawyers. How can that narrow sliver of legal practice, for a section that cannot pay for legal representation, plausibly be treated as a threat to the livelihood of the young lawyers?The effectiveness of a legal aid scheme must be judged by how it serves its intended beneficiaries and not by the metric of providing sufficient work opportunities for lawyers. The beneficiaries here are poor prisoners, who are often unaware of what they are accused of, too poor to arrange a lawyer and, more importantly, isolated from the outside world by prison walls. Their liberty should not become a bargaining chip in a debate over professional opportunities for young lawyers.Why LADC Scheme was introduce