Plea filed in Delhi High Court to ensure supply of FIRs, chargesheet, court orders to undertrial prisoners

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought responses from the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) and the Delhi government in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition seeking directions to provide copies of first information reports (FIRs), chargesheets, court orders and other evidence recorded before the trial court to undertrial prisoners (UTPs) who are unable to procure the same (Alok Tripathi vs. State)..The plea filed by Advocate Alok Tripathi contended that due to COVID-19 and the limited functioning of trial courts, a large number of UTPs did not possess documents like FIRs, chargesheets, orders etc in their own cases."In the absence of required documents, such UTPs are unable to avail their legal remedy of filing bail applications or interim bail applications before the. concerned court or before the High Court," the plea submitted.A Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice to DSLSA and Delhi government in the matter and posted the case for further hearing on November 29.Tripathi, who is also the panel lawyer of Delhi High Court Legal Service Committee and is serving as the jail visiting advocate at central jail No. 7 in Delhi's Tihar jail, submitted that such prisoners are in a precarious situation since neither is there any progress in their trial nor have they been able to avail their remedy of filing bail applications before the courts.This is a serious infringement of their fundamental right to seek remedies provided under the law, it was submitted.Tripathi also stated that UTPs had filed multiple applications seeking certified copy of documents, but to no avail. Tripathi also mentioned that recently the DSLSA had issued a circular on January 7, 2019 and re-circulated the same on September 20,2021 which prohibited the UTPs private counsel from obtaining the documents through DLSA's legal aid channel. It was also submitted that there cannot be any distinction between UTPs having legal aid counsel and UTPs having non-functioning private counsel for the limited purpose of obtaining documents."An under trial prisoner without having any requisite documents pertaining to his case is completely incapacitated to avail legal remedy of seeking ball or any other relief from the court," the petition said.Thereafter, the present plea was filed seeking a direction to provide a mechanism for easy access to FIRs, chargesheets and evidence to UTPs. The plea also prayed for the same to be uploaded on the website for easy and immediate access.The matter shall be heard next on November 29..[Read Petition]