LATEST news reports revealed that jail appeals filed by more than 1,300 people, who are incapable of hiring lawyers to challenge their sentences have been pending with the High Court for years, causing many of them to languish in the jail beyond their terms. The reports said, convicts who are too poor to engage lawyers can appeal against their sentences awarded by the District or Metropolitan Courts to the High Court through Jail Superintendents. They are entitled to get free legal aid from government-appointed counsels. But the reality on the ground is that over 1,321 jail appeals were pending so far with the High Court, as per an official at the Supreme Court Registrar’s Office. This is because they have no legal aid to pursue their cases. Of the appeals, 96 were pending before eight High Court benches for hearing and 200 more ready to be placed before the benches. The information said 127 jail appeals would be prepared soon for hearing but the rest 898 are yet to be prepared. The delay is taking place because their trial court records yet to be sent to the High Court. As per observations of the officials of the National Legal Aid Organization many of the poor convicts were languishing in jails even after serving out their terms as the appeals were still pending or verdicts not cleared.
As per decision by the former Chief Justice in 2012, some appeals might be disposed of in a single order by the benches concerned. But subsequent court decision backtracked from the earlier decision on the grounds that it infringed the basic rights of the appellants to dispose of a case without proper hearing. Meanwhile, some appellants are serving sentences for the past seven years after filing appeals in 2008 as they are waiting for hearing. But this is primarily not taking place for want of a lawyer for them. There are also appellants languish in the jail even after being acquitted by the High Court. It is happening due to delay in the delivery of the verdicts by the judges or due to lapses in dispatching the verdicts by the court officers to the jail or the trial courts. They are suffering because they are poor and failing to engage a lawyer.
This clearly goes against the spirit of the law as the person or persons have already served their sentences or for wrongly punished for alleged crimes. It also shows the indifference of our criminal justice system in which the poor are not given proper protection of law just because they are poor. There is no denying of the fact that many of them resort to crimes like robbery to mitigate poverty. But once they are punished through imprisonment, why they should languish beyond their term mainly for the weakness of our legal system. This is not acceptable. It is suggested that the Attorney General Office must take proper steps to address all such appeal cases quickly to help the poor appellants return to their normal life.
