Powers and Functions of State Bar Council:

Sec 6 of Advocates Act 1961 deals with the Powers and Functions of State Bar Council:

(a) to admit persons as advocates on its rolls;

(b) to prepare and maintain such rolls;

(c) to entertain and determine cases of misconduct against advocates on its roll;

(d) to safeguard therights, privileges and interests of advocates on its roll;

(e) to promote and support law reform;

(ee) to conduct seminars and organize talks on legal topics by eminentjurists and publish journals and papers of legal interest;

(eee) to organize legal aid to the poor n the prescribed manner;

(f) to manage and invest the funds of the Bar Council;

(g) to provide for the election of its members;

(h) to perform all other functions conferred on it by or under this Act;

(i) to do all other things necessary for discharging the aforesaid functions.

Judicial Activism

Judicial Activism may be taken to mean the movements of the judiciary to probe into the inner functioning of the other organs of the Government (i.e. the executive and legislature). The Judicial Activism is, no doubt, the result of inactiveness on the part of the executive and legislature.

The main object of Judicial Activism is to maintain the rule of law in the country.

Lok Adalat

The abnormal delay in the disposal of cases in law courts is a big clot on the Indian Judicial System. The concept of the lok adalat is one of the remedies suggested in the recent years to overcome this delay but it can be effective only in those cases in which the parties are likely to arrive at a compromise.

The lok adalat will resolve disputed which have not yet gone to the court of law and disputes which are pending in the court of law. The lok adalat will resolve the disputes by way of negotiation, settlement and conciliation.

Legal Aid

Its aim is to strike at the root of the problem of poverty by seeking to change the social and economic institutions and at the same time, educate and organize the poor so that they may become conscious and powerful and the institutional changes may become permanent.

Legal Literacy

The Legal Literacy may compose of the followings:

1. Literacy Sivir
2. Publication of legal literature and its free distribution
3. Para Legal clinic
4. Para Legal services

Para-legal Services:

It means rendering any legal service to the poor person of the society in connection to solve their legal problems or to safeguard their legal rights or to provide their legal rights.

It may compose of the following elements:

• Para Legal Clinic
• Para Legal Training
• Legal aid services
• Literacy

The following are the ways of providing Para Legal Services:

• Provision of Legal Programme
• Provision of Legal Education
• Provision of free legal aid
• Provision of free legal assistance
• By amicable settlement
• Settlement through Lok Adalat
• To provide justice through P.I.L.

Medical aid tells what type of aid is required is surgery, medicine, E.N.T. etc. likewise para legal training tells what type of aid is required to the victim.

Tribunals

Advantages of Tribunals:

1. Cheapness
2. Accessibility
3. Freedom from technicality
4. Expert knowledge of their particular subject [i.e. through specialism, which reduces the time needed and thus costs]
5. Legally qualified chairmen - helping to ensure justice is done  
6. The procedure means that if you do not know what you are doing the tribunal will help you.
7. Tribunals' local knowledge can be beneficial.
8. They allow flexibility since there is little use made of precedent. 
9. They reduce the workload of government departments.
10.  They help reduce the workload of the judiciary.
11. Reasoned judgments allow for both sides to make amends, for appeals, and for justice to be seen to be done. 
12. Speedy justice can be piossible.

Disadvantages of Tribunals:

1. There is an unfair imbalance between represented and unrepresented parties - it is unfair to people who are not represented and cannot get legal aid to come up against a rich corporation - since richer parties are allowed to employ skilled representation they are consequently more likely to win.
2. The no-costs rule and lack of legal aid penalise poor litigants, although they do keep costs down.
3. The lack of fees encourages poor applicants, although it may also result in ill-founded claims.
4. They may lack some of the perceived independence of the judiciary.
5. It can still be difficult for the people who go to tribunals to represent themselves because of the inherent difficulty in presenting a case in any environment.
6. Tribunals can become complex over time - as did the courts - rules of procedure grow up caused by the use of representatives who as a result make representation desirable in future.