Pro bono in action: How one global law firm is making a lasting impact

Source: Legal Cheek

Pinsent Masons senior associate Meghan Higgins on the importance of pro bono and the skills it teaches junior lawyers. In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and following years of increased need for accessible legal services around the world, Pinsent Masons launched a regenerated pro bono programme in May of last year, providing free legal advice to organisations and individuals who could not otherwise access it. To read more please go to the following link:

https://www.legalcheek.com/lc-careers-posts/pro-bono-in-action-how-one-global-firm-is-making-a-lasting-impact/

The Awakening Dawn : Legal Aid

Source: The LawZ magazine

Link to the article: https://lawzmag.com/2020/06/18/the-awakening-dawn-legal-aid/

Despite the fact that our legal system functions on the premise that ignorance of law is no excuse, still the achievement of ‘legal literacy’ in its absolute terms remains a myth. Everyone is ‘equal before law’, but beneath this surface there remains a profound inequality in the actual working of the legal system by reason of the indifference of the law to the ‘inequality between the rich and poor’.

Legal aid as Human Right is implicit and also clearly all pervasive. In a developing country like ours, ‘ legal aid’ acts as a catalyst for achieving standards of social and economic development. The aid and assistance of the community in an unequal member have an access to justice on equal footing with the powerful and the privileged is called legal aid, but the concept of legal aid and its content changes as per the needs of every society, as asserted in Maneka Gandhi’s case

By incorporating Art 39(a) into the Constitution on the basis of 42^nd Amendment the concept of legal aid has been brought  within the Constitutional framework and subsequently the Legal Service Authorities Act,1987 has been enacted. Section 12 of this Act prescribes the criteria for giving legal services to eligible persons. In the case of Khatri vs State of Bihar, the Hon’ble Apex court has held that free legal aid to poor under Article 39(a) applies even to granting of bail . The court opined in another leading case of Hussainara Khatoon vs State of Bihar that legal aid is a constitutional right .

It is necessary that people not only be aware of their rights and remedies, they must believe that the enforcement of such rights is possible and that they will get adequate remedies within a reasonable time, on a reasonable expense or no expense. The whole perception must change as  there is a direct relationship between the faith  the people have in an institution and the success of that institution.

The concept of legal aid embraces both the Preventive and Remedial aspects.  A country where over 70 per cent of the population still lives in villages ensuring effective legal literacy must entail that, essential legal provisions which guarantee basic  rights must be simplified and translated into the language of the common man.

In India there are places so remote and underprivileged that local people have no financial capacity to pay the legal fees. Their poverty and illiteracy leads them to believe that they are born with no rights and this very perception makes the notion of imparting 100 percent legal aid a myth.

These harsh realities convince us that proper dissemination of legal aid can only be done  when the ‘conception of rights’ reaches the mass at the grass root level.

• To make justice real, affordable and physically accessible, larger and closer associations of the primary institutions becomes essential. Thereby, the role of Nyaya Panchayat gains prominence. In order to bring about a positive change in the imparting of legal aid, judges must be sensitized to the problems of the poor, they can then assist the Nyaya Panchayat to render speedy justice at the doorsteps.
• A formal tie-up of the Bar Council with the law colleges throughout the country must also be institutionalized to disseminate information to the masses.
• The functions of the Central authority also extends to allocating funds to voluntary associations working at the grass root level for this cause. Here the role of voluntary organizations must be crystallised.

Scrutinizing the authenticity of the organization and the cause of its working and how effective it is must be well assessed by the responsible authorities prior to making them a part of this scheme.

On a number of occasions it has been observed that a NGO after being allotted the project and the necessary funds stops working on the proposed lines and is of no use to the cause. In order to eliminate such encumbrances, the concept of ‘social auditing’ must be introduced whereby the ‘accountability of their work’ is established and  they are made to realise that they are responsible to the people and not for the statistics.

Another important means of streamlining the system would be the inclusion of legal luminaries and educationalists with the NGO’s by the government itself in order to keep a check on the functioning of these voluntary organisations.

• The use of popular medium and traditional media platforms and the tactical use of local language in the hoardings, banners , posters and brochures etc can be employed as a means to an end.
• Innovative means of promoting the concept of legal aid shall be employed by setting up:

Roadside legal aid booths and other stalls in local melas(fairs) and exhibitions while setting up legal aid kiosks around petrol pumps, railway platforms , bus stands, local hospitals and other such places, mostly frequented by the masses.

Anganwadi workers have gained much prominence in the recent past over their contribution for the promotion of the cause of rural women, so their popularity must be tapped to bring about effective legal literacy amongst women.

If the seeds of legal education be sowed in the primary years of upbringing of a child, then it makes a very withstanding impact. Thus we shall propose the introduction of  ‘legal literacy or the need to incorporate knowledge of the basic rights’ as a part of the school curriculum. The appropriate course material and the content of the information must be discussed thoroughly keeping in mind the intake capability and level of interpretation , of a budding child.

The achievement of Legal literacy is not an easy task nor can it be accomplished by one or two institutions alone, however it can be made a reality if all the three organs of the state merge with the contribution of  NGO’s, law schools, international organisations, the media etc and every right spirited individual with the belief in ensuring the ‘Rule of law’.

Bail amount, legal aid: How 1,000 Maharashtra inmates got help in 2019

Source: Hindustan Times dated 17.02.2020

-- Faisal Tandel

Around 1,000 inmates, who were locked up in 10 jails across the state owing to lack of access to legal aid or financial constraints to pay surety, have been released on bail between January and December 2019, thanks to a joint initiative between the prisons department and the Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives (APPI). The project — the result of a three-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the prisons department and APPI on June 28, 2018 — was undertaken in order to tackle overcrowding in jails across the state.

In October 2019, HT had reported that although the 60 prisons across the state had a capacity of 24,032 inmates, the current population was 50% higher, at 36,195.

The 1,000 inmates were released from jails in Nagpur, Kalyan, Latur, Amravati, Akola, Arthur Road, Thane, Byculla, Yerwada in Pune and Taloja.

To keep a tab on the initiative, a project implementation and monitoring committee — under the chairmanship of Sunil Ramanand, additional director of general, prisons — was formed in September 2019.

“Our aim is to decongest the jails in Maharashtra. The initiative is reaping good results. The NGO members periodically visit the jails and take a review of the inmates and accordingly help them get legal access. It is a continuous process. In a year or two, we hope to see a positive change,” said Ramanand.

The prisons department and APPI have roped in implementation partners such as Prayas, a field action project of the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS); Fair Trial Fellowship project by the National Law University (NLU), Delhi; and VARHAD, an NGO based in Amravati.

Prayas, which played a significant role in the signing of the MoU between APPI and the home department, works in six prisons at Arthur Road, Byculla, Thane, Kalyan, Taloja and Latur. NLU Delhi is working in Yerawada Central Jail in Pune and Nagpur Central Jail, while VARHAD is working in Amravati and Akola prisons. John Jacob, co-ordinator of APPI, refused to comment on the project citing company policy.

Professor Vijay Raghavan, of the Centre for Criminology and Justice at TISS, who is the project director of Prayas, said, “A legal consultant and social worker have been appointed for each jail. The legal consultants are enrolled under District Legal Services Authority (DLSA). They identify the undertrials in need of legal aid and also those who’ve been granted bail but continue to languish in prisons owing to lack of surety or cash amount. The legal consultants then write legal aid applications on their behalf and expedite the appointment of legal aid lawyers by coordinating with DLSA,” said Raghavan. “They also follow up with the appointed lawyers to ensure they attend court dates and also submit bail applications, or modification of bail applications,” he said.

Between December 2018 and December 2019, Prayas members reached out to around 3,858 inmates across the six jails, wrote 1,893 applications to DLSA, and helped 701 undertrials get bail and 51 get bail on personal bond. It has helped in 15 acquittals and 383 convictions. Raghavan said they also regularly organise workshops and training sessions for the legal aid lawyers to motivate and update them.

Ravindra Vaidya, founder-president of VARHAD, said he’s been working with the Amravati Central Jail for the past six months. “We are going to start work in Akola jail soon. We have six people in our team who visit the jail and identify problems of inmates. In most of the cases, we found the inmates are suffering in jail owing to incompetent lawyers or for financial reasons. Once we meet an inmate, we first study the case and then visit his house and get details about him, for instance, if he is financially weak or needs an advocate. Also, if there is an advocate, then we get a follow-up and bridge the communication gap between the family and the advocate,” he said. “In the past six months, we have reached out to 150 prisoners and helped 50 inmates get bail,” he added. Dr Anup Surendranath, assistant professor of law, executive director, Project 39A of NLU, Delhi, said that from January to December 2019, their team had reached out to around 2,406 inmates in Pune and Nagpur jails, and helped 1,322 inmates get legal aid. Around 228 inmates were released on bail; 63 inmates got acquittal; 92 inmates were convicted; six inmates got their sentences reduced; and 123 cases were withdrawn by the complainants.

Yogesh Desai, deputy inspector of general (DIG), Pune, said the initiative is basically aimed at improving communication between the inmate’s family and the advocate. “We have also noticed cases wherein inmates don’t even have their Aadhaar cards or the family is not aware about them being in prison. In such cases the legal aid team reaches out to the family and continuously follows up to help the prisoners get bail. This has helped reduce the stress on inmates.”

Prison reforms crucial to refining the justice system

Source: Hindustan Times dated 12.11.2019

Vijay Raghavan (Professor at the Centre for Criminology and Justice, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and one of the authors of the India Justice Report)

Extending legal aid to undertrials, allocation of resources, utilisation of expenditure important

Prison populations are at the margins of welfare, rights, and basic entitlements. Various landmark judgments by the Supreme Court and high courts have repeatedly highlighted the need for prison reforms, particularly with respect to custodial conditions, lack of health care, effective legal aid, non-production of undertrials on their court dates (due to a lack of police escort), inadequate trained staff, and the near absence of aftercare services for released prisoners.

It is in this context that the India Justice Report 2019 assumes significance. It looks at the human resources and infrastructure available across four pillars of the justice system — police, prisons, legal aid and the judiciary. With respect to prisons, the report tries to throw light on several indicators, using data from the Prison Statistics India (PSI) Report 2016, published every year by the National Crime Records Bureau. The PSI 2017 report released recently wasn’t included.

Some of the findings are stark: the average prison occupancy is 114%; 19 out of 36 states and UTs (where data was available; J&K, which was recently bifurcated, has been included as a state) have more than 100% occupancy; Delhi has 180% occupancy. It is worrying that in 10 states, prison occupancy and share of undertrials has increased over the last five years. The year-on-year trend over five years [2012-2016] shows between 0.5 to 1.5% increase in the share of undertrials per year.

One of the major reasons for the large number of undertrial prisoners is pendency of cases in courts. The Case Clearance Rate — number of cases cleared in a year measured against the cases filed that year — is more than 100% in only a handful of states. More than 20% of ongoing court cases have been pending for over five years in eight of the 18 large and mid-sized states, and two of the six small states for which data was available. Another reason for undertrials languishing in prisons is the poor state of legal aid.

The data showed that no state had used up their entire budget granted by the National Legal Services Authority. The District Legal Services Authority bodies (DLSAs) are mandated to appoint legal aid lawyers and pay them an honorarium for their services. To do so, full-time DLSA secretaries should be posted.

However, the report revealed vacancies in these posts in many states: it is as high as 34.8% in Chhattisgarh and 28.2% in Uttar Pradesh.

Vacancies are a problem across board. In prison departments, vacancies are greater than 20% for most prison staff positions. In the officer cadre, highest percentage of vacancies are in Bihar (52%) and Uttarakhand (68%), while in the constable cadre, Bihar (65.9%) and Jharkhand (69%) have the highest percentage of vacancies. As far as correctional staff — counsellors, psychologists, social workers and welfare officers — is concerned, the situation is grim: 18 out of 23 states have correctional staff vacancies above 80%. For example, UP had 95,366 inmates per correctional staff. A similar picture emerges when it comes to filling up posts of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates. The number of inmates per prison cadre staff —constables and warders — is highest in Jharkhand at 25.52 inmates per prison cadre staff and lowest in Arunachal Pradesh at 1.61 inmates per prison cadre staff. Most states have a range of 5 to 15 inmates per prison cadre staff.

One of the reasons for poor prison conditions is inadequate expenditure. The report reveals that 16 out of 35 states and UTs spent less than ~30,000 per inmate per year or ~2,500 per inmate per month on food, clothing, medical, vocational and welfare activities. This is not due to budgetary constraints: 15 out 35 states and UTs spent less than 90% of their annual budget. In fact, on an average, prisons take up less than 0.5% of the annual budget in all states, with the lowest being 0.06% in Gujarat. This is probably because prisoners don’t constitute a vote bank or garner much sympathy.

In terms of trends across last five years, only four of the 25 ranked states were able to significantly improve across key indicators like staff vacancies, share of women staff, inmates per staff, spend per inmate, and spend of annual budget. Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Maharashtra had improved their performance in seven out of the nine indicators.

The purpose of the report is to engender public debate and foster healthy competition among states to improve their ranking. One hopes this exercise would lead to a more robust data collection process by state agencies so that they are able to present a more accurate picture about the justice delivery system in future.

Training for law students to tackle cybercrimes and ragging on campus

Source: Hindustan Times dated 27.09.2019

MUMBAI : The Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority and Mumbai District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) plan to introduce a training programme for law students who want to become paralegal volunteers and help their peers deal with incidents of ragging and cyberbullying on campus.

Yatin Game, secretary of the Mumbai DLSA, said the authority conducted a seminar on anti-ragging and cybercrime at KC College, Churchgate, on Thursday. “After the seminar, we handed out forms for those who wish to register for the training programme,” said Game. “The seminar was held under the guidance of justice SC Dharmadhikari. Although law colleges are expected to have centres for such training, students often do not get enough on-ground exposure for paralegal training.”
Around 600 students from 33 colleges participated in the event. “Once the students understand the basics, they can undergo the training and then help their peers,” said Kavita Lalchandani, principal of KC Law College.

Last year, the DLSA had held a paralegal volunteer training workshop for 30 transgender persons, following which they were expected to help members of their community and provide aid at police stations, assist lawyers and help the authority during Lok Adalat sessions.

The SC’s offer to poor litigants is long overdue

Source: DNA dated 02.01.2018

It can be called a fine piece of judicial activism at the start of a New Year, one that was long overdue. An in-house study conducted by the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee (SCLSC), has concluded that poor litigants on the death row or those facing harsh punishments are not getting quality legal aid. In two recent judgments in December last month, the apex court, while commuting two capital punishments to life terms, took note of the poor socio-economic conditions of the two convicts. That the law is tilted heavily in favour of the rich, would be to state the obvious. The court, taking cognisance of this truism, quoted from the SCLSC report, which pointed out to “enormous delays in attending to cases of the poor and the needy.” Therefore, it makes 2019 a good year for such litigants, who need legal assistance, not just because they are poor, but also because they are not educated enough to know the pros and cons of their case. Quite correctly, the court observed that quality legal aid to the disadvantaged and weaker sections of society is an area that requires great and urgent attention. It needs no rocket science to know that the cost of litigation has been rising in India and as such, justice remains inaccessible for the underprivileged who are in no position to approach the courts. The National Legal Services Authority or NALSA was set up in 1987 precisely for this purpose, of providing free legal services to the weaker sections. Successive law ministers have flagged concerns about the high cost of litigation. Equally well known is the fact that leading advocates in the Supreme Court, high courts and district courts charge such exorbitant fees that it is beyond the reach of the underclass litigants. It makes the situation even more pronounced when a poor litigant is pitted against a rich opponent. It has generally been observed that in such cases, the result of the adjudication has gone against the lesser privileged litigant. The problem persists because big lawyers - many of them money spinning machines -  rarely, if ever, offer their services for such voluntary work. On occasions when they do, their performances are not as professional as when they charge their fat fees to appear in cases. The tragedy is that despite such awareness about the plight of poor litigants, not much has been done in this direction, apart from setting up the NALSA that has done commendable work, but falls far short of what is needed given the enormity of the problem. To that extent, the latest Supreme Court initiative needs to be applauded. Statistics compiled by the National Law University, Delhi, in its Death Penalty India Report based on interviews with 373 death row prisoners across the country, found that three-fourths of prisoners were economically vulnerable, with most of them being the sole or primary earners in their families. Even though Article 39 A of the Constitution promises free legal aid, its practical implications have proved to be something else.

Kapila Hingorani, 'Mother of Public Interest Litigation' Dies

Source: The Times of India dated 2.1.2014

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.