Hyderabad: New offices of the Legal Aid Defense Counsel System (LADCS) were inaugurated on Monday, from the Central Hall, High Court for Telangana.
Telangana High Court Chief Justice, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan along with Telangana legal services authority, executive chairman, justice P. Naveen Rao have virtually inaugurated the LADCS from the Central Hall of Telangana HC in 16 Districts of Telangana.
Adilabad, Karimnagar, Bhadradri-Kothagudem, Hanumakonda, Jangaon, Mahabubnagar, Nagarkurnool,
Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Peddapalli, Sangareddy, Siddipet, Suryapet, Vikarabad, Warangal and
Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri were the districts that received new offices.
Justice P. Naveen Rao, while addressing the gathering, expressed that Legal Services Authorities are providing legal services or legal aid to the accused or convicts who are in custody or otherwise falling within the eligibility criteria as specified under Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987.
Legal Aid is also being provided at pre-arrest, remand, trial and appellate stages in criminal matters.
Justice Naveen Rao further stated that the new LADCS involves full-time engagement of lawyers with
a suitable support system and deals exclusively with the Legal Aid work in criminal matters in the district headquarters, where it is situated.
Services offered at LADCS
- Legal Advice and Assistance to all the individuals visiting the offices.
- Representation for conducting trials and appeals in miscellaneous work in all sessions including the special and magistrate courts and executive courts.
- Handling remand and bail work.
- Providing legal assistance at the pre-arrest stage as per NALS Sscheme.
- Any other legal aid work related to district courts or as assigned by the secretary, DLSA.
- Periodic visits of jails or prisons of the district under the guidance of the secretary, DLSA.
Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, while addressing the inaugural stated that the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, was framed by the Parliament in terms of the mandate of the Constitution to provide free legal aid to entitled and marginalised sections of the society.
At present, 14 chief legal aid defence counsels, 14 deputy legal aid defence counsels and 20 assistant legal aid defence counsels are appointed to the new aid stations.
He further stated that the majority of the prisoners are undertrial prisoners and belong to marginalised and weaker sections of society.
The judge further expressed that the new LADCS will help the needy, poor and distressed to have access to justice in a more effective manner in Telangana, and will be expanded to other districts in future.
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