Marking A Year Since The Inception, Two Novel Initiatives Of The Kerala High Court Legal Services Committee Prove Their Success

Addressing Matrimonial Woes – The Family Counselling Centre (FCC)On March 15, 2023, the Family Counselling Centre, which is the first of its kind in the country, would mark one year since its functioning. The FCC, which is a facility under the aegis of Kerala High Court Legal Services Committee (KHCLSC), had been formally inaugurated by the Chief Justice, High Court of Kerala S. Manikumar, on October 26, 2022, although it had been functioning on an experimental basis since March, 2022. The FCC is an initiative of Justice A. Muhamed Mustaque of the Kerala High Court, who is also the Chairman of Kerala High Court Legal Services Committee, and is intended to help litigants in matrimonial and allied matters to address their emotional needs and to help and guide them to reach a logical conclusion to their protracted litigations. The FCC guidelines have been framed under the guidance of Justice C.S. Dias. The Core Objectives of the FCC include rendering emotional support and guidance to the litigants; enabling litigants to retrospect and identify their emotional disorders if any and guide them to resolve it with sobriety and to take mature decisions; assisting litigants to seek intense psychotherapy/ counselling or medical support if necessary to address their mental health status on reference from the counsellor; enabling the litigants to attain holistic solution to their issues and rapprochement of their family by extending counselling to their family members if found necessary; and finally, equipping the litigants with enhanced life skills.Within one year of its functioning, it is heartening to note that the FCC has dealt with more than 200 cases. The FCC renders counselling for cases that have been referred from the High Court, and all family courts, district judiciary, District Legal Services Committees in the Pre-Litigation Petitions registered with it, and mediation centres across the State. The Monitoring of the functioning of FCC has been outsourced to Kerala Federation of women lawyers by the KHCLSC. With six counsellors, two clinical psychologists, and a child psychologist-cum-psychiatrist, the FCC functions from 10:00A.M. till 4:30 P.M. from Monday to Saturday. The matters in which the presiding officer and mediators feel that counselling would help the litigants to take appropriate decisions are referred to the FCC for professional counselling. The Secretary of the Kerala High Court Legal Services Committee or any officer authorised by the Chairman of the KHCLSC is the Nodal Officer of the facility. The Nodal Officer, with the support of and in consultation with the Co-ordinator nominated by the Kerala Federation of Women Lawyers shall receive the reference and maintain the correspondence from or with the High Court of Kerala, Subordinate courts and mediation centres, categorize and schedule the references and allot it to counsellors at FCC. The Nodal Officer shall also prepare a short note of relevant details of the case and the parties to be given to the counsellors while allotting the parties/cases to them. The Nodal Officer shall also ensure on referring a case to a counsellor that the same counsellor continues to deal with the case/counsel the parties, till the end. The Counsellors on their part, are obliged to maintain utmost confidentiality. The counselling facility can be availed either offline or through the online platform on Google Meet. Offline counselling in FCC will take place on six working days in a week, and a counsellor shall be assigned for each day of the week. Online counselling can take place any time decided by the counsellor and the parties concerned after considering their convenience and time zone pattern in case of parties residing abroad. A counsellor shall be assigned for each day of the week. A website for the FCC is also being developed currently. There is also a mail ID and a mobile phone number which would be handled by the Nodal officer of FCC.The FCC functions on the ground floor of Niyama Sahaya Bhavan in the High Court precincts.Equipping Victims To Overcome Adversities - The Victim Rights Centre (VRC)Although it has not had any formal inauguration yet, the Victim Rights Centre (VRC) has been functioning since October 2021. Conceived and initiated by Justice A. Muhamed Mustaque in his capacity as the Chairman of the Kerala High Court Legal Services Committee (KHCLSC), the VRC is a platform to ensure access to justice and fair treatment of victims. Since the Legal Services Authority Act, 1987, required that the Project be handled by the Kerala Legal Services Authority (KeLSA) directly, it was accordingly, handed over to KeLSA, and brought to fruition under its aegis. Justice K. Vinod Chandran, the Chairman of KeLSA, has effectively taken the Project forward. Justice Vinod Chandran also introduced the Project to the District Legal Service Authorities (DLSAs) of the State. The Officers were sensitized and requested to emotionally invest in the Project, particularly...

Marking A Year Since The Inception, Two Novel Initiatives Of The Kerala High Court Legal Services Committee Prove Their Success

Navya Benny

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