New Delhi: For the first time since its inception, the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee (SCLSC) has in the last two months received close to 2,000 criminal appeals from prisoners lodged in different parts of the country, as compared to the 700 to 1,000 cases it handled annually till last year.
Set up in 1986, the SCLSC is the Supreme Court’s legal aid body that provides free legal representation in the top court to those who cannot afford it.
The uptick in numbers is a result of SCLSC’s proactive approach that included initiatives to convince prisoners to use the committee’s assistance to file their appeals in the SC, instead of languishing in jails.
The body stepped up its efforts in January this year to build awareness about the SCLSC’s reputation as a credible and reliable legal aid clinic in the Supreme Court.
Under the chairmanship of Justice Surya Kant, who will become the Chief Justice of India (CJI) end-November, the SCLSC opened up a communication channel with prisoners, apart from using reinforcement measures such as daily announcements on loudspeakers and distributing pamphlets.
A letter penned by Justice Kant was read out multiple times in jails across the country. Addressed to the prisoners, this letter assured every convict and undertrial of a lawyer of their choice.
“This letter was sent to the director general of each jail in the country and instructions were issued to read aloud its contents to the prisoners so that they repose trust on the SCLSC and reach out to it for legal aid,” said a senior SCLSC officer, not wanting to be named.
Convincing the prisoners, however, was a daunting task, the officer added. “Inmates were concerned about the quality of legal assistance. This doubt was one of the primary reasons why prisoners preferred jail, instead of appealing in the Supreme Court through SCLSC. For them, free legal aid means lawyers of poor quality.”
“Spreading the message through the sound system worked the best,” he further said.
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How the exercise began
The work to rebuild SCLSC’s image amongst prisoners began in January this year. While chairing a meeting, Justice Kant learnt that the body was handling just two to three criminal appeals daily or 700-1,000 matters annually. He found the numbers too low, considering there are around 65,000 cases filed every year with the body, of which legal aid was given in cases ranging between 1,500 and 2,000.
To increase filing from the prisoners’ side, the SCLSC first took up the exercise to identify convicts/undertrials who were eligible to file appeals but had not done so.
For this, they wrote to director generals and inspector generals of prisons, asking them to identify inmates who were convicted by both the trial court and high court, but had not approached the Supreme Court.
The second category of prisoners on whom information was sought were those whose acquittals by trial court were reversed by high court.
Thirdly, SCLSC wanted to know about those prisoners whose appeals were pending either in the sessions court or high court, had spent half of the sentence in jail and were eligible to file bail petitions in the top court.
The fourth category was of prisoners who qualified for premature release and the HC had upheld state remission board’s decision to deny them remission.
Within two-and-half months, the SCLSC received details of 4,216 prisoners under all the four categories.
With this data in hand, Justice Kant on 1 April held a virtual meeting with heads of all High Court Legal Services Committees (HSLSC) and State Legal Service Committees (SLSC) wherein they were told to publicise the SCLSC’s promise to help the prisoners with best possible legal aid.
Following this, five panels, comprising lawyers associated with HCLSC and SLSC, were constituted to assess each prison in the country. These panels visited the jails four times, engaged with prisoners and convinced them to file appeals. By April-end, the SCLSC was informed that 3,800 prisoners had agreed to appeal through SCLSC.
“From 4,216 prisoners identified earlier, a few of them preferred to hire their own lawyers. Finally, a confirmed list of 3,800 prisoners who wished for legal aid from SCLSC was sent to us,” said the officer quoted earlier.
Breaking the ice
The SCLSC officer said the lawyers were able to break the ice with the inmates in their third meeting.
“In the first two meetings, the prisoners were extremely rigid and in a denial mode. They felt legal aid means poor quality of legal assistance. Some of them doubted the concept of free lawyers and believed there would be hidden costs in the offer. There were those who feared that their sentence might get enhanced in case their appeal is not entertained, while there were some who had resigned to their fate and lost the capacity to litigate in courts,” the officer added.
Once the identification process was over, Justice Kant held another virtual meeting on 5 May. This time it was to instruct all high courts to complete the paperwork needed to file the appeals. They were told to get signatures of all inmates authorising the SCLSC to represent them and also prepare the paper books (case files).
“Between 5 May to now, we have got complete paper books with vakalatnamas (a legal document that authorises an advocate to represent a party in court proceedings) of 2,000 prisoners. These paper books contain the translated version of trial court records of the cases and the HC judgements that are under challenge,” the officer said.
The responsibility to prepare the paper books was given to HCs so that lawyers who are assigned to argue cases for prisoners on behalf of the SCLSC do not have to run from pillar to post for documents.
Incomplete files was one of the causes for delayed adjudication of cases filed by the SCLSC.
600 lawyers
To ensure the prisoners are not disillusioned with its service, the SCLSC upgraded its team of lawyers. The team of empaneled lawyers has been increased from 175 to 600 and 180 junior lawyers have been appointed to provide assistance to the seniors.
Of the 600 lawyers, 200 are advocates-on-record who will file the cases, 200 are arguing counsel, while 75 are designated senior advocates.
“We have received a positive response from all high courts and jails who are giving us regular updates about the preparation of paper books and their dispatch,” the officer said.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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