NALSA being the succour to the incarcerated undertrials deprived of their right to seek justice and the fundamental rights

By Udbhav Bhargava

An appalling truth the nation’s confinement system faces today, is, that the undertrials have astonishingrly outnumbered the convicts in the ‘already crowded’ jails.    The existing pendency rates of these courts spell doom for them, as the undertrials find them trapped in a quagmire of lack of justice and wrongful restraint. Justice delayed is justice denied. And the status quo is observed not only prisons in urban areas but also in those away from cities. They languish, despite the government’s order to do so, without court or legal assistance against it.

The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) steps forward and aims to bring the succour. It aims to reach outside the metro and state capital and offer such help to those who cannot afford legal assistance. According to news sources, NALSA charts the whereabouts of 4,19,623 inmates in 1,401 prisons according to a media report. The enormous research often includes listing all allegations against them, as well as figuring out, among them who could not employ a lawyer. Former Indian Chief Justice and NALSA’s executive chairman Dipak Misra said: “The notion behind digitizing data on cases against prisoners, 67% of whom face trial in the current time-frame, is to identify who needs legal assistance. Each state legal services authority or state law enforcement agency will have a legal aid system staffed by specialists who can communicate with state prisons and meet poor and needy inmates who need legal aid. Since, the driving force behind this initiative is to preserve, enforce, and universalize the precious fundamental right to a fair and swift trial which the Supreme Court long ago declared a fundamental human right.  “The strength of paralegal volunteers has been increased from 54,000 to nearly 80,000 to make this happen. In the initial stage, an attempt will be made to secure bail for those inmates who have endured a significant proportion of the sentence that would be awarded to them upon conviction, after evaluating cases of each prisoner”. He also mentioned that there will be video conferencing facilities between the legal assistance system in each state legal services agency and each inmate to allow practitioners volunteers to keep in contact with undertrials in order to truly comprehend their situation and provide urgent legal aid.