Legal aid framework

The essentials

Free legal aid means providing legal advice and representation free of cost to people who cannot afford it. The 42nd Amendment (1976) inserted Article 39A, a Directive Principle directing the State to ensure equal justice and free legal aid. The Supreme Court went further and read legal aid into Article 21. Parliament enacted the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, which came into force on 9 November 1995 – observed as National Legal Services Day.

Key points

• Constitutional basis: Article 14 (equality before law), Article 21 (fair procedure), Article 22(1) (right of an arrested person to consult and be defended by a lawyer of choice), Article 39A (free legal aid).
• M.H. Hoskot v. State of Maharashtra (1978): a prisoner has a right to free legal services to file an appeal.
• Hussainara Khatoon v. State of Bihar (1979): free legal aid and speedy trial are part of Article 21.
• Khatri v. State of Bihar (1981): a magistrate must inform the accused of the right to free legal aid.
• Criminal procedure: under the BNSS, 2023, when an accused in a trial before a Court of Session has no lawyer and lacks means, the court must assign a lawyer at the State's expense.
• Structure under the 1987 Act: NALSA (Chief Justice of India as Patron-in-Chief; executive head a senior Supreme Court judge), Supreme Court Legal Services Committee, State Legal Services Authorities, High Court Legal Services Committees, District Legal Services Authorities (headed by the District Judge), and Taluk Legal Services Committees.
• NALSA (Free and Competent Legal Services) Regulations, 2010: aim to make legal aid good in quality – front offices in legal services institutions, selection of competent panel lawyers, monitoring and mentoring of legal aid cases, and a ban on panel lawyers taking any fee from aided persons.

Exam tips

• Note that legal aid is both a Directive Principle (Article 39A) and, through judicial interpretation, part of a Fundamental Right (Article 21).
• Remember 9 November as National Legal Services Day.

Common mistakes

• Saying Article 39A was in the original Constitution – it was added in 1976.
• Describing the CrPC as the current procedural law; it is now the BNSS.