Prisoners And Their Right To Legal Aid In India

Anshuman Shreya, LL.M, CNLU

Introduction

India being a welfare state has a duty towards its citizen; this duty includes working for the welfare of its general public. Lord Bryce once observed that there can be no better test of excellence of a government than the efficiency of its judicial administration. Same has been pointed out by Salmond who stated that through law as an instrument, justice is administered. According to him, “law is the body of principle recognised and applied by the State in the administration of Justice”. The concept of justice is as old as the concept of society wherein the social nature of man demands peace. While living in a society conflict of interest is witnessed by the members and rightful conduct on the parts of others is expected. This ultimately leads to the concept of rights, duty and equity. The laws thus made should be just and should promote equity among different strata of the society. One of the way of promoting equity is by providing access to justice for each and every citizen. The concept of access to justice insinuates that justice is accessible to all irrespective of their standing in the society. This involves removing the imbalance in the society by providing accessibility to economic weaker section and socially neglected people. Due to various factors like illiteracy, corruption, destitution, there is absence of knowledge and lack of awareness among people about their rights. This lack of awareness acts creates a disadvantage for people and this group of people suffer as they become invisible to the established legal system and continue to suffer substantive inequalities which scourge their life.