EARLY ACCESS TO LEGAL AID

IF EARLY ACCESS IS NOT THERE The police beat me up and produced me in court after 4 days I was not granted bail even though I committed a bailable offence My family knows nothing about my arrest No medical Examination was Conducted on me The Magistrate did not even look at me and sent me to judicial custody I am only 10 years of age

EXPERIENCES

IMPACT OF EARLY ACCESS In 2006, interviewed 345 under-trials detained in a prison in Rajasthan 5 % had access to lawyer at the time of arrest 31% had access to lawyer at the time of production before magistrate Corresponds to the total percentage of persons (36.6%) who were produced before magistrate within 24 hours of arrest in compliance of constitutional & statutory mandate Early access ensures protection of individuals fair trial rights

 Name : Biswanath Dutta s/o Ranjit Dutta  Incident date: 13 November 2012  Incident: Biswanath Dutta, who suffers from mild dementia and speech impairment was arrested by the railway police for wrongfully boarding a ladies’ compartment of a local train. He did not have a lawyer at the time of his production  Consequences:  He was detained for twelve days at the Presidency Jail  Due to his dementia he could not tell his address or contact number  Police, magistrate or prison officers made no attempts to locate his family who could thus not be informed of his arrest and place of detention  He suffered abuse by fellow inmates in jail  He could be located by his family members only after 12 days – after they filed missing persons report INCIDENTS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED VICTIMISATION OF A MENTALLY DISABLED PERSONS

 Name : Baby Paul w/o Ranjit Paul  Incident: Baby Paul was arrested in 2010 along with her husband, mother and father as an accessory for murder and cruelty to her sister-in-law. She had a year old daughter at the time of her arrest. As everyone in the family was in prison, there was no one left to look after her daughter. She did not have a lawyer.  Consequences:  Even though a child is permitted to stay with her mother till 6 years of age, her daughter had to spend 2 years without proper care and attention  Only after CHRI intervened and got a legal aid counsel appointed for her, that she was finally permitted to stay with her mother INCIDENTS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF MOTHER AND CHILD

 Rule of Law: All cases where an accused seems to be less than 18 years of age must be transferred to the juvenile justice board  Incident: In two separate petitions filed in Delhi & Kolkata High Court it was found that more than a 100 accused persons were found to be less than 18 years of age at the time of commission of offence. Due to lack of a lawyer at the time of production, these accused persons were sent to adult prison without proper investigation into their age.  Consequences:  In some cases, these children had to spend more than 3 years as under-trials in jail whereas the maximum punishment under the Juvenile Justice Act is 3 years. INCIDENTS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED VICTIMISATION OF CHILD IN CONFLICT WITH LAW

Thank you! MADHURIMA DHANUKA Consultant - Prison Reforms Programme Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Behind Bars Not Beyond Justice