At the inaugral function of First Regional Conference for the year 2023, ‘Northern Regional Conference on Enhancing Access to Justice’ organised by the Uttar Pradesh State Legal Services Authority at Varanasi, Justice Sanjiv Khanna of Supreme Court pointed out the deficiency of legal aid to underprivileged despite India having per capita lawyer ratio better than most of the other countries.
He said that 80% of India's population will qualify for legal aid under proviso in Legal Services Authority Act 1987.
"If one looks at Section 12 of the Legal Services Authority Act 1987 which provides for categories of people who are eligible to legal aid, according to which 80% of entire Indian population are eligible for seeking legal aid. The provisions have been put in place to ensure that those who cannot afford it have the legal representation in every state. India’s per capita lawyer ratio is far better than most other countries in the world but inspite of that the problem of adequate legal aid still bothers us", he said.
Distinguishing between 'reach in' and 'reach out' approach, he stated that at times of crisis, it their duty to extend legal aid to public.
"I’d like to distinguish between reach in and reach out approach to legal aid. When I refer to reach in - it is resorted to by the public when they approach us for legal aid. What we have to differentiate is the ‘reach out’ approach i.e. when we have to provide legal aid on our own to the public. This can be in the form of legal literacy and legal awareness. But more important than that, when there is a crisis in any situation, we have to come out and reach out and provide legal aid to them."
He went on to state that there is need to expand legal aid at pre-trial stage as well.
"There has been a lot of focus as far as legal aid in trial and appellate stage is concerned, the area of concern however is the pre-trial stage which can be divided into three categories i.e. pre-arrest stage, arrest stage and remand stage. This is the area we must focus for the simple reason that this is a situation when a person is being called to the police station there the awareness of rights and availability of legal aid has significant importance", Justice Khanna advocated.
Referring to different schemes such as the Victim Compensation Scheme, Witness Protection Scheme, etc. he stressed the need for a holistoc approach to resolve the difficulties that have arisen in executing and implementing these schemes.
"Look, many of these things cannot be implemented. What has to be done is selectively and carefully implementing different parts of the entire role that we have with certain amount of flexibility so that we are fully able to fulfil our statutory and constitutional duty", he said.
Vouching on the fact that to date, people seeking legal aid feel that it will involve a monetary transaction, he narrated an incident.
"Let me share with you that when I was appearing as a legal aid counsel before the High Court, the accused came to me in the court and asked me “How much do I have to pay you?”. I was taken aback. But that’s a fact. Many of the convicts do believe that you have to pay."
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