KATHMANDU, July 19: A total of 64,000 individuals have received free legal consultation services from the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC).
KMC launched the service on January 31, 2023, in collaboration with Nepal Law Campus. According to Deputy Mayor Sunita Dangol, the number of beneficiaries has now reached 64,000.
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Before the initiation of this service, there was very limited access to legal consultation, said Dangol. She noted that citizens were often deprived of legal support due to the high costs involved in legal procedures. Now, local ward offices see large crowds seeking these free services.
“The primary role of the legal facilitators is to draft documents with appropriate structure, language, tone, and legal accuracy,” she said. “They assess the evidence, factual information provided by the clients, and ensure that the documents comply with federal, provincial, and municipal laws.”
A 16-point guideline has been given to participating students who have come to streamline service delivery. Based on this, 50 undergraduate and postgraduate students from the campus have been selected. Of them, 32 have been deployed—one in each ward—and three have been stationed at the central office.
Each ward now has a dedicated free legal consultation room equipped with desks, chairs, seating space for clients, and essential materials. Legal facilitators assist clients in drafting applications, complaints, petitions, replies, reconciliation documents, and also provide oral or written legal advice.
In addition, the students help operate ward-level mediation centers, assist in women-related programs, and support other tasks assigned by elected representatives or ward secretaries.
