Legal Aspects of Legal Defences at the time of Pre-Arrest, Arrest and Remand and Bail Stage to be Imbibed by Legal Aid Defence Counsels

The legal Aid Defence Counsel System is a mechanism by virtue of which eligible accused within the scope of Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 can resort to the qualitative defence mechanism established under the law. A fulcrum of rights of accused gets propelled when he/she is aware of his/her fundamental rights, especially the one enshrined under Article 21 of the mother law i.e., the Constitutional Law of India. The Constitution of India abrogated the draconian doctrine of ex post facto entanglement of accused in the law . But then situation may emerge regarding fairness in the trial. The trial is considered to be fair and fruitful only when the defence, as required by the manifestation of legal philosophy of ‘fair trial’ under Article 21 of the Constitution, is practically set up by accused. Accused must be given fullest opportunity of structuring his defence at the behest of defence counsel. The opportunity shall be practically be provided in every legally possible way. If the philosophy of fair trial is not assured in all practical sense, the trial gets stuck in a quagmire of unfairness. Therefore, in order to assure robust defence for the accused who are impecunious, indigent in their status, deprived of rights, eligible and fit person for the legal aid, the National Legal Services Authority, New Delhi (NALSA) has devised a Scheme called as Legal Aid Defence Counsel Scheme 2022 (For Short LADCs). Every District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) is conferred with effective monitoring of the mechanism of LADCs. The DLSA has every authority to undertake educational programmes and effective refresher courses for LADCs so that, the system works vibrantly. Thus, in propinquity with the above guidelines, it is desirable to have a compendium of cases of law so that, there would be a scope for knowledge sharing. Resultantly, the object of refresher training and knowledge sharing would be served in real and pragmatic sense.