The legal cell, one of the few of its kind in the country, was set up two months ago and is funded by the European Commission. It already has six cases on board, said Mandeep Dhaliwal, project co-ordinator. ``Many doctors refuse to treat patients who have contracted HIV,'' she informed. ``People also get thrown out of their jobs when employers find out that they have AIDS.''

One case the unit recently fought was that of Charu (name changed), who was thrown onto the streets by her in-laws after she tested HIV-positive. Charu had been infected by her husband, a bus driver. Her husband and her two children later died of thedisease. Charu then approached the legal unit, who managed to negotiate an out-of-court settlement with her in-laws and ensured that she got a share of the husband's provident fund and gratuity amounts.

In another case, a private hospital, in stark violation of a patient's right to confidentiality, spilt the beans on a HIV-positive person's status to his employer when the boss paid him a visit at the hospital. In the resulting fracas, the patient was forced to resign from his job. Now, with the aid of the legal cell, he is fighting to regain it.

While the lawyers have been individually tackling such cases on a piece-meal basis for some time, it was only recently that they decided to formalise their efforts after they were approached by the European Commission, said Mandeep. The main thrust of the unit is to use the law as a weapon to usher in changes in attitudes towards the AIDS disease and towards HIV-positive patients. ``Education and awareness are not enough to combat discrimination. The law is astrong enough tool to force people to change their attitudes,'' Mandeep told Express Newsline.

The unit also involves HIV-positive patients in decision-making on various issues centring around the cases at meetings held at the unit's centre every Thursday.

Yet, the absence of legislation that guards against discrimination of HIV patients makes the task at hand anything but hunky-dory. ``What is really needed is an anti-discriminatory law,'' Mandeep told Express Newsline, especially in cases which involve private organisations, where it is next to impossible to win cases ``If a government company sacks a person because he has contracted the HIV virus, we can ensure that the person gets his job back. But there are no such rules in the case of a private company,'' she pointed out.

The unit later plans to file public interest litigations to ensure adequate medical treatment of AIDS patients, declassification of homosexuality as a crime and protection of commercial sex workers. They also propose to fightfor legislation against quacks professing cures for AIDS as well as demand guidelines for research performed on human beings for developing AIDS vaccines.

The unit will also hold workshops to train lawyers and judges. One such workshop will be held for judges next January, and will also impart AIDS-related information to Non-Governmental Organisations.