SC directs courts to make offer oflegal aid if accused can’t afford lawyer

To ensure the representation of the accused in criminal cases who cannot afford a lawyer, the Supreme Court directed courts on Thursday to make an offer of legal aid counsel to such persons and record their response before the trial commences.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and K Vinod Chandran asked the trial courts to follow its order scrupulously, after taking note of the long incarceration of one Reginamary Chellamani in a case lodged under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The bench, while granting bail to Chellamani, noted that she did not cross-examine the witnesses at the initial stage and it was only after she engaged her own counsel and her application for re-examining the witnesses was allowed that she was permitted to do so.
“The amount of contraband substance allegedly seized from the person of the appellant, Reginamary Chellamani, is stated to be above the commercial quantity prescribed in that regard under the aforestated enactment. We, however, find that the appellant, Reginamary Chellamani, has been in custody for four years one month and 28 days as on date,” the bench said.
“Given the length of incarceration that the appellant has already suffered and as an identically-situated accused person, who was travelling along with the appellant, Reginamary Chellamani, on the same flight, has been granted bail by this court, we are inclined to grant the same relief to the appellant at this stage,” it added.
Directing for an expeditious trial in the case, the bench said Chellamani shall surrender her passport before the trial court, cooperate during the course of the trial and not seek unnecessary adjournments.
The top court directed that it is incumbent upon the trial courts dealing with criminal proceedings, faced with such situations, to inform the accused of their right to legal representation and entitlement to be represented by legal aid counsel if they cannot afford a lawyer.
“The trial courts shall record the offer made to the accused in this regard, the response of the accused to such offer and also the action taken thereupon in their orders, before commencing examination of the witnesses. This procedure requires to be adopted and put in practice scrupulously,” it said.
The apex court further directed that this order shall be communicated to the chief justices of all the high courts to enable the issuance of suitable instructions in this regard to all the trial courts concerned.