New Delhi, Oct 5 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Tuesday asked the Delhi government and legal aid service authority to reply to a plea seeking that copies of FIRs, charge sheets, evidence and court orders be provided to undertrials who are unable to procure the documents of their cases and seek remedy.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice to the Delhi government and Delhi State Legal Service Authority (DSLSA) on the petition and listed the matter for further hearing on November 29.

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The petition said due to the COVID-19 pandemic and limited functioning of the trial courts, a large number of undertrial prisoners (UTPs) do not have any documents such as FIR, charge sheet, evidence recorded and relevant orders with them pertaining to their cases and are unable to avail of legal remedy - bail or interim bail pleas.

The plea has been filed by advocate Alok Tripathi, a member of the Delhi High Court Legal Service Committee and presently serving as the jail visiting advocate for Central jail no.7, Tihar Jail.

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Such UTPs are so precariously entangled that neither is there any progress in their trial nor have they been able to avail their legal remedies which is a serious infringement of their fundamental right to seek remedies provided under the law, the plea said, adding that they have filed various applications seeking documents but to no avail.

Tripathi said that during his visit to the Central Jail, he encountered several inmates, allegedly involved in sexual offences against minors and rape, who do not have a copy of their FIR, charge sheet, evidence or other relevant documents of the trial court proceedings.

"Trial in the matters is not progressing due to the circumstances beyond control and as such the UTPs cannot be withheld to pursue legal remedies available under the law till indefinite period of time,” the plea said.

It also challenged a January 7, 2019 circular issued by DSLSA which restricts the inmates to obtain the copy of their documents and puts a complete bar on the UTPs having private counsel to obtain certified copy of documents through DLSA legal aid channel.

“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,” the plea said and sought to quash the circular.

It also sought direction to the authorities to devise a mechanism so that the FIR, charge sheet, evidence and other records of the UTPs be scanned and uploaded on the website of the respective courts and to direct the trial courts to upload on its website the recorded evidence and daily order sheets.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)