Legal Aid Defence

Counsel System.

Report by: Report by:

Akshita Giri Jaya Chaudhary
BA LLB- IV YR BBA LLB- III YR
Mody University, Banasthali Vidyapith
Laxmangarh, Rajasthan

Academic Report 1
Contents

Introduction

Scope

Objective

Members

List of SLSA

Conclusion

Academic Report 2
 Introduction
Legal services before a court are provided by Legal Services Authorities
in the form of legal representation, legal advice, drafting of application,
notices, replies etc. The Court based legal services are provided primarily
through the Lawyers empanelled with the Legal Services Authorities across
the country. Authorities across the country.Across the world, three models of
legal aid are in existence. These are
(i) Counsel Assignment System
(ii) Public Defender System
(iii) Contract System.

Under counsel assignment system, lawyers are paid on cases-to-case

basis. Under the Public Defender System , Lawyers are hired on monthly
salaries, and they deal exclusively with legal aid cases. They cannot take
private cases. Under the contract system, legal aid corporations enter into
contract with the law firms to deal with legal aid cases.

Since the enforcement of the Legal Services Authorities Act,1987 ,

counsel assignment system is being followed by the Legal Services
Authorities wherein the empanelled Lawyers are paid honorarium8 on case
to case basis. They are not hired on monthly honorarium or salaries. They are
free to take their private cases along with assigned legal aid cases to them.

In August 2019, National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) introduced on

pilot basis “ Legal Aid Defence Counsel System” in 17 Districts of 17 Different
States9 for a period of 2 years . The said system has been introduced to deal
exclusively with criminal cases triable by Sessions Courts.

Academic Report 3
 Legal Services Authorities provide legal services to accused/convicts,
who are in custody or otherwise coming within the eligibility criteria spelt out
in Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. In 2016, about 48
lakh crime incidents were reported, out of which 4.29 lakh were violent
crimes . During the same period about 37 lac persons were arrested in IPC
crimes and 23 lac persons under Special laws . Normally, variation in crime
incidents is around 3% from year to year.

About 2 crore criminal cases are pending in the courts at the District
level across the country . Legal Services are being provided at remand, trial
and appellate stages in criminal matters. Legal representation, at trial stage,
is being provided by the Legal Services Authorities in around 960004
criminal cases at the district level. In the year 2018, around 99,223 arrestees
were provided legal aid at the remand stage.

At present, Assigned Counsel System of delivery of Legal Aid is being

followed in India. Under the said system, cases are assigned to panel lawyers
by Legal Services Institutions. Panel lawyers to whom cases are assigned by
the Legal Services Authorities have private practices, and hence, they do not
exclusively devote their time to the legal aided cases. Many times their
accessibility and availability remains an issue for timely client consultation
and updating legal aid seekers about the progress of their cases. It also
comes in the way of effective monitoring of legal aided cases.

Under the system, Defence Counsel Offices are to be set up by the Legal
Services Authorities to handle the legal aid work in the sessions court and
providing legal advice and assistance in criminal matters.

Academic Report 4
 Scope
It aims to strengthening and making legal services more professional,
NALSA has envisaged a legal aid delivery based model i.e Legal aid Defence
Counsel System’ for proving legal aid in criminal matters( in Sessions Courts,
at the first instance) on the lines of public defender system.
It is pertinent to mention that in most of the countries, Legal Aid Delivery
Models are combination of the Public Defender System, Assigned Counsel
System and Contract Services System.

Legal Aid Defence Counsel System will involve salaried lawyers with
Assistants. The said unit would be dealing exclusively with the legal aid work
in criminal matters. Lawyers engaged for it shall not be taking any private
cases.

It will create institutional capacity to effectively provide legal aid to

needy in criminal justice system. Some of the perceived advantages of Legal
aid Defence Counsel System vis-à-vis assigned counsel system may be
mentioned as follows:

• Availability and accessibility of Legal Aid Defence counsel

• Effective and efficient representation by seasoned lawyers
• Timely and effective Client Consultations
• Effective monitoring of legal aided cases
• Professional management of legal aid work in criminal matters
• Enhanced responsiveness leading to updating of legal aid seekers
• About the progress of their cases
• Adequate time to commit to legal aided cases.
• Ensuring accountability on the part of the legal aid providers.

Academic Report 5
 Objective
November 9 is celebrated as National Legal services Day in India to
create awareness about legal aid services provided under the Legal Services
Authorities Act, 1987. This act came into force in 1995. Even after 25 years of
enactment, many are not aware about this very important Legislation.

The objectives of introducing the Legal Aid Defence Counsel System are
to provide quality legal services in Criminal matters to eligible persons and
also to professionally manage and implement legal aid system in criminal
matters.
Its objective is to:

• To provide quality legal services in criminal matters to eligible persons.

• To professionally manage and implement legal aid system in criminal
matters.

Members
Presently there are 9 members at the Human Resources for a Legal Aid
Defence Counsel Office at NLSA. Moreover, Number of Deputy and Assistant
Legal aid Defence Counsel may be increased or decreased as per the
requirement in individual districts. Number of Legal Aid Defence Counsel
shall be proportionate to the actual requirement.

List of members are:

• Chief Legal Aid Defence Counsel

• Deputy Chief Legal Aid Defence Counsel
• Assistant Legal Aid Defence Counsel
• Office Assistants

Academic Report 6
 • Receptionist-cum-Data Entry Operator
• Office peon

List of SLSAs
Name of SLSA Name of District Selected
1. Andhra Pradesh Ananthapuram
2. Assam Kamrup- Metro
3. Chhattisgarh Bilaspur
4. Delhi South West DLSA, Dwarka
court
5. Gujarat Surendranagar
6. Jharkhand West Singbhum at Chaibasa
7. Karnataka Belagavi
8. Kerala Ernakulam
9. Maharashtra Nashik
10. Meghalaya ——
11. Odisha Cuttack
12. Rajasthan Bharatpur
13. Tamil Nadu Salem
14. Tripura West Tripura Distt.
15. Uttar Pradesh Banda
16. Uttarakhand Dehradun

Academic Report 7
 17. West Bengal __________

Conclusion
The analysis of the implementation of Legal Aid Defence Counsel system
in the selected States reflects that only nine States have so far commenced
the same. Out of these, adequate work with the Legal Aid Defence Counsel
Offices is in the States of Rajasthan and Jharkhand. In other States, where the
project has commenced, the cases have not increased the way the same
were expected to increase. This may primarily be due to the lockdown and
the on-going pandemic. However, the fact remains that work in the Legal Aid
Defence Counsel Offices need to be appropriately enhanced.

The entire concept note on Legal Aid Defence Counsel System does not
reflect framework relating to performance standard with monitoring
indicators to effectively monitor the performance of the Legal Aid Defence
Counsel System for ensuring delivery of quality legal services to the legal aid
seekers. Performance standards, keeping in view the different stages of the
sessions trial, may be framed as outcome of the case cannot be the sole
criteria for judging the performance of a counsel.

Academic Report 8