Seventy per cent of India’s prison population consists of people who have not yet been found guilty, Supreme Court Justice Vikram Nath said on Friday, calling for urgent reform in the way legal aid and undertrial detention are handled..He said that most undertrials remain behind bars not because the law requires it, but because the system has failed them.“There are undertrials who have spent time in prison exceeding the maximum sentence for the very offence they are accused of. There are undertrials charged with bailable offences who remain in custody simply because they could not furnish bail. There are undertrials who would have been acquitted or given suspended sentences had their trials concluded promptly, yet they continue to languish.”.Justice Nath was speaking at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad during the release of the Report of the Fair Trial Programme in Pune and Nagpur, organised by the Square Circle Clinic..He pointed out that many prisoners were unaware of their right to legal aid and even those who knew of it often distrusted the system due to past experiences.“Even in cases where they do know, they often refrain from seeking it due to distrust stemming from past experiences. They rather go ahead with engaging some private advocate believing that if they pay someone, he’ll do better than the person who is getting nothing out of it.”This lack of trust and access defeats the constitutional promise of liberty and dignity, the judge said. “When legal aid is rendered in form but not in spirit, it may still comply with procedure, but it fails the Constitution. It fails the idea of justice itself.”He said that legal representation must be both available and effective.“It is not enough to just provide a lawyer; we must ensure that the representation is effective.”.Justice Nath further noted that legal aid in India still functions in disconnected silos - courts, prisons and legal services authorities often work separately, leaving poor and unrepresented accused lost in the system. He called for these institutions to be linked through a single line of accountability from the first hearing to the final outcome.He also emphasised the need for training, supervision and mentorship within Legal Services Authorities to ensure quality representation.“It needs to be understood that this is not merely a formality. It is a constitutional duty, one that can decide whether a person spends years in confinement or walks free with dignity.”The judge further suggested that law schools take legal aid work seriously and help students experience law through service.“Every law school must treat legal aid clinics as places where justice comes alive, not as extra work to be checked off a list. If a young lawyer’s first real experience of law comes from meeting an undertrial, from seeing his fear and hope, rather than from reading it in a book, we will have already begun to reshape our profession.”.He stressed that certain groups - women, prisoners with mental health concerns and those from marginalised communities - face much greater hardships in the criminal justice system and require a compassionate approach.“True equality demands that we account for the distinct burdens carried by women and other vulnerable groups and shape our laws, policies and institutions in a manner that enables them to stand on equal footing, whether it is through effective legal aid, access to healthcare, safe spaces, or institutional sensitivity.”Justice Nath underscored that improving legal aid is not charity, but an act of faith in the Constitution.“It is not an act of charity, but an act of faith, faith in the Constitution and faith in the equality of all before the law.”.He concluded that the real test of the justice system lies in how it treats the weakest, not in how it serves the powerful.“The measure of our legal system lies not in the elegance of our jurisprudence or the efficiency of our procedures, but in how we treat the most vulnerable within it.”.Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.
