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“You can’t talk about development if people within a community don’t think they have equal
access to justice. Nobody feels safe. You can’t even begin to talk about development if citizens
don’t share a sense of belonging and entitlement to their community justice system. Legal aid is
such a fundamental necessity for human existence: it calls for a much greater public investment
than we currently see.”
Each state legal services authority will have a legal assistance establishment manned by
professionals who can connect with prisons within the state and reach out to poor and needy
prisoners who require legal assistance
The motto behind this is to universalize the precious fundamental right to fair and speedy trial,
which was declared to be a fundamental right by the Supreme Court long ago.
There will be video conferencing facility between the legal assistance establishment in each state
legal services authority and each prison to enable professionals and paralegal volunteers to keep
in touch with under trial prisoners for better understanding of their case and provide immediate
legal assistance.
Though legal aid is a right of every citizen of India, but it is far from the reality. The legal rights
entitled to needy under-trials have been mandated by the Constitution. The Supreme Court has
laid down that Article 21 of the Constitution of India – the Right to Life – mandates that every
indigent accused has the right to free legal aid from the point of arrest (D.K. Basu vs. State of
West Bengal, AIR 1997 SC 610). Though in reality legal aid is only provided at the time of trial.
Legal Aid is widely perceived as a privilege rather than a matter of right.
The state funded legal aid programme is organized under the Legal Aid Services Authorities Act,
1987. Under this Act the National Legal Aid Board has been set up by the Central Government
and State Legal Aid Boards have been set up in each state. These boards are mandated to provide
free legal aid to poor and needy. But these boards have been largely inefficient in dealing with
burgeoning number of cases.
Though each person is entitled to free legal aid from the point of arrest, this objective is not
achieved many times, due to the lack of awareness on the part of the accused/victim, and the lack
of initiative and coordination between the police and the legal aid authorities.
National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) on 29 June 2017 launched a web application for
free legal services to prisoners and the Legal Services Management System. NALSA is entrusted
with the responsibility to provide legal aid inter-alia to all persons in custody.
The web application was launched by Justice Dipak Misra, Judge at Supreme Court of India and
Executive Chairman of NALSA.
• Through this web application, the State Legal Services Authorities and District Legal Services
Authorities can feed the data for each individual prison inmate in the jails within their
jurisdiction, with regard to their being represented through a counsel in the court.
• The software will be able to generate reports showing total number of inmates, number of
inmates unrepresented, number of inmates represented by legal services lawyers and number of
inmates represented by private lawyers.
• All the above information can be generated State wise, District wise and also in respect of each
jail.
• The reports can also be generated by the period of imprisonment, which will in turn generate
information with regard to prisoners eligible for bail under Section 436-A Cr.P.C.
• It will be universally useful for all the relevant authorities to monitor the grant of legal aid
provided to the prisoners in order to ensure that no prisoner goes unrepresented in the court.
What can the Legal Services Authority do to fulfil the goal of access to justice for persons
in custody?
The Legal Services Authorities should:
Constitution of Mandated Bodies and Effective Coordination
Develop mechanisms for effective co-ordination between the Legal Service Authorities, court,
police, prisons and prisoners to eliminate delays in identification of a person in need of legal aid
Ensure that legal aid clinics are constituted and made operational in all central, district and
sub-jails
Intimate the prisoners regarding appointment of lawyer and details so that prisoner or his/her
family may contact him
Provide adequate means to prisoners to air their grievances against legal services rendered
Appoint able and committed jail visiting lawyers and jail paralegals for the early identification
of persons in custody in need to legal aid and provide representation and advice at the earliest
stage of their cases
Monitor the implementation of the Supreme Court order in “In Re-inhuman conditions in 1382
prisons” (April 2015) where directives have been issued to National Legal Services Authority
(NALSA) and the SLSAs: - for the constitution and healthy functioning of Under trial Review
Committees in every district to prevent long and unnecessary detentions, - to appoint and entrust
panel lawyers to identify and represent in cases where detentions persist due to poverty and
inability to pay bail or provide sureties in spite of bail being granted, and - the early disposal of
compoundable offences
The dynamic role that legal services bodies need to perform in the face of these realities will
ensure that the closing of the prison gates do not close access to the constitutional right to legal
aid and fair trial. What you can do: If you are a lawyer, you should get enrolled with the legal
services authority in your vicinity and if permissible visit your nearest police station and jail
regularly to identify, aid and assist arrestees and prisoners in need of legal help on pro bono
basis.
For others, Right to Information is a great tool. We use it to assess/identify if legal aid schemes
are working for the benefit of prisoners. So can you in your district/state.
Review the work of jail visiting lawyers and paralegals on a quarterly basis and seek feedback
from prisoners and prison staff in order to monitor their performance
Monitor the implementation of the Supreme Court order in “In Re-inhuman conditions in 1382
prisons” (April 2015) where directives have been issued to National Legal Services Authority
(NALSA) and the SLSAs: - for the constitution and healthy functioning of Under trial Review
Committees in every district to prevent long and unnecessary detentions, - to appoint and entrust
panel lawyers to identify and represent in cases where detentions persist due to poverty and
inability to pay bail or provide sureties in spite of bail being granted, and - the early disposal of
compoundable offences
The dynamic role that legal services bodies need to perform in the face of these realities will
ensure that the closing of the prison gates do not close access to the constitutional right to legal
aid and fair trial.