In Bangladesh,
it is common that litigants are expensive a lot of money to get justice or to
enforce his breached rights. The reason is, in civil suits each litigant has to
pay a prescribed amount of court fees to commence his proceeding. In addition
to this, he/she will also need to appoint a lawyer who will proceed his suit on
behalf of him/her before the court. Apart from this, there are many more
sectors to spending money to continue a proceeding like collecting and coping
necessary documents, serving the notice/summons, adjournment fees, fees to
appoint commission etc. Hence enforcement of legal rights or getting justice is
an expensive matter here.
As well as it is
a lengthy process, which also accelerate the wheel of cost. In our motherland,
many poor villagers cannot seek legal remedy due to their financial deficiency.
A popular perception exist in our society that the court building requires
money to provide legal remedy. Even many of them are not able to imagine stepping
on the veranda of the Supreme Court because of heavy remuneration of those
lawyers and huge cost for court fees and other proceedings. Consequently, in
many circumstances common people are deprived from getting justice only for lack
of money. As a result, justice is crying in the bottom of their heart alone.
To become a
welfare state and to resolve this problem, our parliament had enacted an
instrument titled the Legal Aid Act in 2000 to provide free legal supports to
the natives of this soil. The Government has already made rule under this Act
and constituted National Legal Aid Services Organization. They also formed
district legal aid committee under the national committee and now the committee
extends to Upozila and to some extent up to union level also.
Who are
eligible to get free legal aid: Only financially defeated persons are
entitled to get free of cost legal aid under this mentioned Act. As per the
provision of this law the following personnel are eligible to get free legal
aid from the govt.:
● The person who
earns less than 50,000 taka in a year,
● Disable,
partially disable or unemployed freedom fighter who’s income is not more than
75,000 taka in a year,
● Who gets older
allowance or VGD card holder poor mother,
● Abducted
child/women or acid victim child/women.
● Poor widow,
husband abandoned and marginal women,
● Unemployed and
asset less disable person,
● The person who
cannot established his legal right before the court for lack of money,
● The person who
detain in jail without trial and who is not able to defend himself,
● Insolvent person
declared by competent court,
● Person
recommended by prison authority as unable to maintain case for lack of money.
How to apply: Now in every district
there is a legal aid office at the District Court. Application form to apply
for legal aid is available there and any eligible person can collect an
application form from there. In addition, a prisoner can take this form from designated
prison officer.
Apart from this
the form is also available at the office of secretary of local bar association,
bench assistant (peshkar) in each
district court, district and Upozila
office of national women organization etc. An applicant will have to fill up the
form duly and submit it at the district legal aid office. An applicant may
apply on a white paper mentioning his full name, address and reason to ask for
legal aid addressing to the chairman of district legal aid committee or if the matter
is concerned with any division of the Supreme Court then to the chairman of the
national legal aid committee.
After
scrutinizing the application, the authority will appoint a lawyer on behalf of
the petitioner to conduct his/her case for free of cost. Then the Government
will pay the honorarium to the advocate, which the litigant need to pay. If
district committee is disinclined to provide legal aid then the aggrieved
appellant can file an appeal before the national committee within sixty days
from the date of the decision of the district committee. In addition to this,
there is a hot number i.e 01761222222-4
from which any interested person can get more information about free of cost
legal aid. Apart from this, a pauper (a insolvent person) is also entitled to
enforce his rights under the provision of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
When legal aid may be granted: A
litigant can seek legal aid from the government before or after the commencement
of his/her proceeding. Legal aid may be provided in both civil and criminal
cases. Even a legal aid may be granted to pay the
remuneration of a mediator or arbitrator appointed under the Code of Civil
Procedure, 1908. The Government will fund all relevant cost to conclude a legal
proceeding. Usually legal aid is allowed to conduct suit relating to custody
& guardianship of minor children, remarriage by a husband without taking
permission from arbitration council, torture by husband, dowry or torture for
dowry, acid throwing, kidnapping, abduction, rape, arbitrary arrest by law
enforcing agencies etc. Apart from this legal aid may also be awarded to
maintain civil suits like-divorce, maintenance, recovery of dower, recovery of
possession, cancellation of deed, perpetual injunction, partition, declaration
or suit arising out of breach of contract etc.
The lawmakers
should bear in mind that this state has a constitutional obligation to ensure
equality before law and equal protection of law to all citizen of the territory
under Art. 27 of the Constitution. Hence mere enactment of a law to provide
legal aid is not sufficient to guaranteed equality and to protect legal rights
of marginal people and it is also not the last task for them. Rather, State
should implement the provisions of the enacted law effectively and should also
be pro people to ensure the right to get justice of the commoners of this
independent land and to uphold the true spirit of the Constitution.
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