(1) There shall be a Committee to scrutinise and evaluate the application for legal services, to be constituted by the Legal Services Institution at the level of Taluk, District, State and above.
(2) The Committee shall be constituted by the Executive Chairman or Chairman of the Legal Services Institution and shall consist of,— (/) the Member-Secretary or Secretary of the Legal Services Institution as its Chairman and two members out of whom one may be a Judicial Officer preferably having working experience in the Legal Services Institution and;
(//) a legal professional having at least fifteen years' standing at the Bar or Government pleader or Assistant Government Pleader or Public Prosecutor or Assistant Public Prosecutor, as the case may be.
(3) The tenure of the Members of the Committee shall ordinarily be two years which may be further extended for a maximum period of one year and the Member-Secretary or Secretary of the Legal Services Institution shall, however, continue as the ex officio Chairman of the Committee.
(4) The Committee shall scrutinise and evaluate the application and decide whether the applicant is entitled to the legal services or not within a period of eight weeks from the date of receipt of the application.
(5) If the applicant is not covered under the categories mentioned in section 12, he or she shall be advised to seek assistance from any other body or person rendering free legal services either voluntarily or under any other scheme.
(6) The Legal Services Institution shall maintain a list of such agencies, institutions or persons who have expressed willingness to render free legal services.
(7) Any person aggrieved by the decision or order of the Committee, he or she may prefer appeal to the Executive Chairman or Chairman of the Legal Services Institution and the decision or order in appeal shall be final.