Skip to main content

Every Judge Shall Inform Convict About His Right To Appeal And To Avail Legal Assistance

The Calcutta High Court while hearing MALATI SARDAR VS STATE OF WEST BENGAL recently expressed concern over the “dismal failure in the matter of extending effective legal aid/assistance to convicts”, and made it mandatory for Judges across the State to inform convicts of their right to file an appeal and legal aid while disposing of a case.

The guidelines were issued by Justice Joymalya Bagchi in an Appeal filed by one Ms. Malati Sardar whose appeal took 6 years to reach the Court due to non-appointment of a lawyer on her behalf.

It then issued the following directions:

1. Every Judge while pronouncing a judgment of conviction and sentence shall inform the convict in a language which is understandable to him, his right to prefer appeal against such judgment including his right to avail of legal aid in that regard from the appropriate legal services authority under the Act of 1987. In the event, the appellant expresses his desire to prefer appeal with legal aid, the Judge shall send a free copy of the judgment to the Secretary of the concerned legal services authority attached to the appellate Court for necessary steps in the matter.

2. The aforesaid fact shall be endorsed at the foot of every judgment stating clearly that the right to prefer appeal with legal aid has been duly communicated to the understanding of the convict. Response thereto of the convict shall also be indicated in the body of the judgment.

3. Necessary amendments may be made to Chapter X of the Calcutta High Court Criminal (Subordinate Courts) Rules, 1985 so that such duty is imposed on the trial Judge at the time of delivery of judgment.

4. In addition thereto, Superintendent of the Correctional Home where the convict is received upon conviction shall also communicate to him such right and record his willingness, if any, to prefer appeal with legal aid in the records of the Correctional Home. In the event, the convict desires to prefer appeal with legal aid, the Superintendent of the concerned Correctional Home shall forth remit necessary papers not only to the registry of the appellate Court but also to the Secretary of the concerned legal services authority attached to the said Court for necessary steps in the matter.

5. Secretary of the concerned legal services authority attached to the appellate Court on receipt of the papers from the trial Judge or the Correctional Home authorities, as the case may be, shall immediately but not later than seven days appoint a lawyer from its panel, who has sufficient knowledge and expertise to deal with such cases, to prefer and prosecute the appeal on behalf of the appellant.

6. The lawyer so appointed shall, if necessary, interview the convict in the correctional home, file necessary pleadings in Court and prosecute the appeal in accordance with law. He shall submit quarterly reports to the Secretary of the concerned legal services authority as to steps taken by him and the status of the appeal till its disposal.

7. Registrar General of the High Court is directed to circulate a copy of this order to every judicial officer in the State of West Bengal to ensure that the aforesaid directions are duly complied with. He shall also initiate the procedure for amendment of the Criminal Rules and Orders, as proposed in the direction no (c), by the High Court in accordance with law.

8. Secretary, State Legal Services Authority shall circulate a copy of this order to all the Secretaries of the District and Sub-divisional Legal Services Authorities and give wide publicity to these directions amongst the general public for prompt and effective implementation of such directions.

9. Department is directed to communicate this order to the Director General of Correctional Services, West Bengal, who shall communicate this order to the  Superintendents of all the Correctional Homes in the State of West Bengal for prompt and effective implementation of the directions.”

 Article referred: http://www.livelaw.in/every-judge-shall-inform-convict-right-to-appeal-avail-legal-assistance-calcutta-hc-issues-guidelines-read-judgment/

Comments

Post a Comment

Most viewed this month

Appellate authorities under Special Statutes cannot be asked to condone delay

Madras High Court in R.Gowrishankar vs. The Commissioner of Service Tax has held that Appellate authorities cannot be asked to condone the delay, beyond the extended period of limitation A Division Bench comprising of Justices S. Manikumar and D. Krishnakumar, made this observation while considering an appeal filed against Single Bench order declining to set aside the order made in the condone delay petition filed by the petitioner to condone 223 days in filing the appeal before the Commissioner of Service Tax (Appeals). Article referred: http://www.livelaw.in/appellate-authorities-special-statutes-cannot-asked-condone-delay-beyond-extended-period-limitation-madras-hc/
Post a Comment
Read more

'Seize assets to pay damages to accident victim'

Her story might be an inspiration for the physically challenged but justice has remained elusive for her. In 2008, a bus accident left research engineer S Thenmozhi, 30, paraplegic. In April 2013, the motor accident claims tribunal directed the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) to provide her a compensation of 57.9 lakh. However, TNSTC refused to budge and on Tuesday a city court ordered attaching of movable assets of the transport corporation. Thenmozhi was employed in C-DOT, a telecom technology development centre in Bangalore. On July 21, 2008, she was coming to Chennai in a private bus. Around 2am, the bus had a flat tyre and the driver parked it on the left side of the road near Pallikonda in Vellore district on the Bangalore-Chennai highway. While the tyre was being changed, a TNSTC bus of Dharmapuri division hit the stationary bus. The rear part of the bus was smashed and passengers were injured. Thenmozhi who had a seat at the back of the bus suffered...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mumbai ITAT rules income of offshore discretionary trust is subject to tax in India

The Mumbai Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has recently determined the following issue in the affirmative in the case of Manoj Dhupelia: Should the income of an offshore discretionary trust be subject to tax in India, if no distributions have been made to beneficiaries in India? The question arose from appeals filed by individual beneficiaries in relation to a Lichtenstein-based trust, the Ambrunova Trust and Merlyn Management SA (the Trust) with the ITAT. It is important to note that the individuals in this case were amongst those first identified by the Government of India (GOI) as holding undeclared bank accounts in Lichtenstein. The ITAT ruling raises the following issues: Taxation of Trust Corpus: ITAT classified the corpus of the trust as "undisclosed income" and declared it taxable in the hands of the beneficiaries. Taxation of Undistributed Income: ITAT refused to draw a distinction between the corpus and undistributed income from the trust and declared i...
Post a Comment
Read more