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PREVENTIVE AND STRATEGIC LEGAL AID PROGRAMMES Equal access to Justice is a cherished ideal of our Constitution. It has to be made a reality by giving inexpensive justice to people and providing legal aid to those who cannot seek justice due to economic deprivation and social backwardness by making people aware of the availability of legal aid and generating legal awareness among them and by improving legal literacy of the disadvantaged sections of society and empowering them to seek justice. Right to legal aid has been specifically recognized as being a part of the fundamental right to life and liberty enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. In view of enactment of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 and reiterating of the entitlement for legal aid and advice in various other enactments dealing with social justice for example the Mental Health Act, 1987, the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 the state is now under a statutory obligation to make available “legal service” which includes “rendering of any service in the conduct of any case or other legal proceedings”. (a) Legal Aid Counsel for remand hours According to Section 12(g) of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 (as amended in 1994), any person in custody, including custody in a protective home or in juvenile home or in psychiatric hospital or psychiatric nursing home, is entitled to legal services for filing or defending a case. A large number of under-trial prisoners who are not in a position to engage lawyers for defending them, feel handicapped in their defence and remain incarcerated for long periods. Therefore the model scheme modulated by National Legal Services Authority has been implemented by Haryana State Legal Services Authority in all the districts and sub-divisions of Haryana so that nobody remains unrepresented at the time of remand hour. During the period from 1.4.2008 to 31.3.2009 number of the Advocates empanelled under the ‘Legal Aid Counsel’ scheme attended the courts during the remand hours as deputed by District Legal Services Authorities and Sub-Divisional Legal Services Committees for representing under-trial prisoners, giving legal advise to them and filing their applications. (b) Permanent Legal Aid Clinics/Legal Aid Cells in Jail Haryana State Legal Services Authority has established Permanent Legal Aid Clinics/Centres in all the Jails/Sub Jails of Haryana. One of the Advocates empanelled under the ‘Legal Aid Counsel’ scheme regularly visited Central/District Jails/Sub Jails at specified intervals as deputed by District Legal Services Authorities and Sub-Divisional Legal Services Committees for giving legal advise to the accused/convicts if the need be and collecting their applications/representations, if any and to submit the same to the concerned courts on the next working day. (c) Permanent Legal Aid Clinics in Courts Permanent Legal Aid Clinics have been set up in Judicial Courts Complexes in all the districts, National Institute of Law, Faridabad, Chotu Ram College, Hissar, Aggarwal Sabha Hall, Aggarwal Chowk, Kaithal, Law Department, Kurukshetra and Gurudwara Nada Sahib, Panchkula. The Legal Aid Counsel/Social workers attended the Permanent Legal Aid Clinics on the scheduled dates for providing legal aid to the litigants/members visiting these Permanent Legal Aid Clinics. (d) Permanent Legal Aid Clinics in Villages Permanent Legal Aid Clinics have been established in a number of villages of Haryana, where empanelled Advocates of District Legal Services Authorities and Sub-Divisional Legal Services Committees are visiting on rotational basis for giving legal advice to the villagers about their legal problems. (e) Legal Aid at State Expenses Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 read with rule 19 of the Haryana State Legal Services authority Rules, 1996 specifies the persons eligible for free legal aid at State expenses. Every accused unable to engage a lawyer due to poverty, or incommunicado situation is entitled to free legal service at the cost of the State. The entitlement to free legal aid is not dependent on the accused making an application before the Magistrate/Sessions Judge who is bound to inform the accused of his right to obtain free legal aid and to provide legal aid except when the accused is not willing to take advantage of the free legal services provided by the State. The provisions of Section 304 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 have been made applicable to Magisterial Trials vide Haryana Government Notification No. 20/5/78-JJ(4) dated 1.6.1983. The persons benefitted under the Legal Services Programmes during the period form 1996 to January, 2010 are shown below:-
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