The Allahabad High Court has observed that every prisoner has a fundamental right to file an application for bail and courts cannot remain a mute spectator when legal aid is denied to prisoners before them.
Justice Ajay Bhanot made the observation while granting bail to one Anil Gaur, who is in jail in a murder case in district Jaunpur.
The counsel for the applicant submitted that though he was not named in the FIR, Gaur has been in jail since 6 December, 2017.
According to the applicant, he did not have access to legal aid to file his bail application before the trial court as well as the high court.
He was able to file a bail application before the trial court in 2019 - after a delay of more than one year - but it was rejected. He could approach this court for bail only in 2022 - three years after the trial court refused him bail.
"There is no direct evidence against the applicant and he had no motive to commit the murder. It is a case of circumstantial evidence," his counsel said.
Exactions of Poverty More Severe Than Punishments in Law: Allahabad High Court
While granting bail to Gaur on Monday, 12 September, the court observed that there are a number of cases where bail applications were filed after inordinate delays because the prisoners did not have access to legal aid.
The court said:
"The failure of justice in the said case was occasioned by poverty, social exclusion, legal illiteracy, and denial of legal aid. Exactions of poverty are more severe than punishments in law."
"For them, the glorious dawn of the 75th year of independence has lost the sheen of freedom's ideals and the substance of the republic's promise," it said.
The court further observed, "The courts too have a duty to ensure that prisoners appearing in criminal proceedings have access to legal aid. Courts cannot remain mute spectators when legal aid is denied to prisoners in legal proceedings before them."
In the present case, the applicant belongs to an economically deprived class of citizenry and was abandoned by his near and dear ones after his imprisonment.
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