President Nominates Justice SA Bobde As NALSA Executive Chairman

The President of India Ram Nath Kovind has nominated Justice SA Bobde of the Supreme Court as Executive Chairman of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) with effect from March 7, 2019.

Justice AK Sikri, who is currently the Executive Chairman of NALSA is retiring on March 6, 2019. Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi is the Patron in Chief.

Justice SA Bobde will be the senior most judge of the Supreme Court after Justice Sikri retires. 

As per section 3(2) of Legal Service Authorities Act, the Chief Justice of India shall be the Patron-in-Chief. and a serving or retired Judge of the Supreme Court nominated by the President, in consultation with the Chief Justice of India, shall be the Executive Chairman.

Objectives of NALSA are 1) To legally empower the marginalized and excluded groups of the society by providing effective legal representation, legal literacy and awareness and bridging the gap between the legally available benefits and the entitled beneficiaries.​ 2) To strengthen the system of Lok Adalats and other Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanisms in order to provide for informal, quick, inexpensive and effective resolution of disputes and minimize the load of adjudication on the overburdened judiciary.