DLSA to inform convicts about right to appeal
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 5
The District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) has streamlined the process of filing appeals for convicts lodged in jail.
Under the new system, the DLSA will identify convicts who have not filed appeals and informed them about their “right to appeal” and will ensure that their appeals are filed “expeditiously”.
The New system
- In the older system, it used to take 60-120 days to file an appeal and included at least 10 stages, leading to undue delay. But now, the entire process has been simplified, wherein all the file work of the convict will be done by the DLSA team members and the time has reduced to 10-25 days.
- “After adoption of the revised procedure, appeals to High Court were filed within 10-12 days and the ready draft for filing SLP to the Supreme Court were sent to the Supreme Court Legal Services Authority within 25 days,” Mann said.
Last year, the NALSA started a campaign in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, which was unanimously adopted by Justice Jaswant Singh on December 20, 2019 for prisoners confined in Model Jail, Chandigarh.
Since the launch of the campaign, 423 convicts were contacted and of them 41 convicts were identified who were not aware of their right to appeal. Being informed, 22 showed willingness to file an appeal (seven in Supreme Court and 15 in High Court) through legal services.
A detailed campaign report for “Accessing justice to convicts through legal services” was submitted on Wednesday by the DLSA to Justice Jaswant Singh of Punjab and Haryana High Court-cum-Executive Chairman, State Legal Services Authority, Chandigarh.
Ashok Kumar Mann, Chief Judicial Magistrate-cum-Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, said the main objective of the campaign is to expeditiously provide legal aid to such convicts whose appeals have not been filed and to ensure appeals are filed expeditiously through legal services.
He added: “On the directions of Justice Jaswant Singh, the points of delay in existing system were identified, and a new mechanism was devised for speedy and effective legal aid to all especially those confined in Jail and still have right to appeal left with them.”
Mann said that during interaction with convicts, they found that some common reasons for delay in filing appeal included poor financial background of the convicts, the facts that many were migrants and poorly educated and had no access to trail court lawyer.
In the older system, it used to take 60-120 days to file an appeal and included at least 10 stages, leading to undue delay. But now, the entire process has been simplified, wherein all the file work of the convict will be done by the DLSA team members and the time has reduced to 10-25 days.
“After adoption of the revised procedure, appeals to High Court were filed within 10-12 days and the ready draft for filing SLP to the Supreme Court were sent to the Supreme Court Legal Services Authority within 25 days,” Mann said.
