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Source: The Times of India dated 2.1.2014
New Delhi: Kapila Hingorani, who more than three decades ago became the first woman lawyer to file a PIL on behalf of undertrial prisoners in Bihar, earning the title ‘the Mother of PILs’, has passed away. She was 86.
In her nearly 60-year practice as advocate, she and her three practicing lawyer children — Aman, Priya and Shweta — fought more than 100 cases in the SC through PILs. PILs may have become a fad these days, but the 1979 case she fought for Hussainara Khatoon remains a pioneering effort as a true harbinger of justice to the voiceless.
The court, in 1979, laid down important guidelines on undertrial prisoners in the Khatoon case. It said: “A procedure which keeps large number of people behind bars without trial for long, cannot possibly be regarded as ‘reasonable, just or fair’ so as to be in conformity with the requirement of Article 21 (right to life)… Speedy trial is of the essence of criminal justice and, therefore, delay in trial by itself constitutes denial of justice.” Importantly, the SC, for the first time, talked of the necessity of free legal aid to poor persons.
Eight years after the judgment, the National Legal Services Authority was constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, to provide free legal services to weaker sections of society and to organize Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes.
The second most important PIL, which Hingorani herself filed in the SC, related to denial of salary — accrued over four to 94 months — to thousands of Bihar government employees. She alleged that hundreds of government employees had died of penury-actuated poverty.
On Tuesday, the ‘Mother of PIL’ may have breathed her last, but she has left behind a rich legacy of selfless pro-bono fights for the underprivileged and a mighty weapon in the form of PILs.
Kapila Hingorani, Mother of PILs, dies
Dhananjay Mahapatra TNN
New Delhi: Kapila Hingorani, who more than three decades ago became the first woman lawyer to file a PIL on behalf of undertrial prisoners in Bihar, earning the title ‘the Mother of PILs’, has passed away. She was 86.
In her nearly 60-year practice as advocate, she and her three practicing lawyer children — Aman, Priya and Shweta — fought more than 100 cases in the SC through PILs. PILs may have become a fad these days, but the 1979 case she fought for Hussainara Khatoon remains a pioneering effort as a true harbinger of justice to the voiceless.
The court, in 1979, laid down important guidelines on undertrial prisoners in the Khatoon case. It said: “A procedure which keeps large number of people behind bars without trial for long, cannot possibly be regarded as ‘reasonable, just or fair’ so as to be in conformity with the requirement of Article 21 (right to life)… Speedy trial is of the essence of criminal justice and, therefore, delay in trial by itself constitutes denial of justice.” Importantly, the SC, for the first time, talked of the necessity of free legal aid to poor persons.
Eight years after the judgment, the National Legal Services Authority was constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, to provide free legal services to weaker sections of society and to organize Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes.
The second most important PIL, which Hingorani herself filed in the SC, related to denial of salary — accrued over four to 94 months — to thousands of Bihar government employees. She alleged that hundreds of government employees had died of penury-actuated poverty.
On Tuesday, the ‘Mother of PIL’ may have breathed her last, but she has left behind a rich legacy of selfless pro-bono fights for the underprivileged and a mighty weapon in the form of PILs.
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