Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee v. Union of India & Ors.

Judgment

ORIGINAL JURISDICTION: Writ Petition (Cr!.) No. 1451 of 1985. (Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India). · R.K. Jain and R.K. Bhatt for the Petitioner. 34 SUPREME COURT LEGAL AID COMMITTEE v. U.0.1. 35 Kapil Sibal, Anil D. Singh, V.C. Mahajan, A. S. Nambiar, Salman Khurshid, Gopal Singh, Ms. K. Jaiswal, Ms. S. Janani, Ms. A. Subhashini, Mrs. Indira Sawhney, Mrs. Urmila-Kapoor, A.S. Bhasme, A.M. Khanwilkar, K.R. Nambiar, J.R. Das, D.K. Sinha, D. Bhandari, Y.P. Rao, S.K. Agnihotri, P.K. Manohar, M. Veerappa, R.K. Mehta, K.R.R. Nambiar, B.D. Sharma, K. Vasdev, D.N. Mukharjee, M.P. Jha, T.V.S.N. Chari, Mahabir Singh, M.N. Shroff, A. Subba Rao, R.S. Sodhi, K. Ramkumar, S.K. Bhattacharya, L.R. Singh, A.K. Sanghi, C.V.S. Rao, R. Venkataramani, Probir Choudhary, T.V.S. Krishnamurthy, S. Vasudevan, D.R.K. Reddy, K.J. Rao and U .N. Singh for the Respondents. The following Order of the Court was delivered:

ORDER It is stated by counsel appearing for the States including that of Nagaland that affidavits as directed have been filed. Mr. Jain appearing in support of the writ pet\tion has asked for a direction to the State to set up Advisory Boards both at the State and the District levels, as contemplated in the scheme so that implementation of the various provisions of the Act can be facilitated. We are of the view that for the present the Board in terms of the provision of the scheme should be set up at the State level and steps at the District level may be deferred for the present. Each of the States including the State of Jammu & Kashmir to which the scheme would apply though not under the Act in view of its consent, is directed to set up its Advisory Board in terms of the scheme.

Implementation of the Act would be convenient if in the Board to be set up the Ministers of Law and Social or Children's Welfare, as the case may be, the Secretary to Government in the relevant Department, the Head of the Police Establishment (Director General or the Inspector General, as the case may be), the Head of the Health Directorate, two members of the Bar with appropriate aptitude, an acknowledge lady social worker, a Member of Parliame.nt and a M.ember of the State Legislature, one or two social worke£> of .acknowledged -.reput~ preferably connected with children's rehabilitation activity ate included. It would be open to the State Government to make small variations depending upon the requirements of any particular State. The total number of the Advisory Boards should not be below 15 and not above 20: The State Government should indicate H 36 SUPREME .COURT REPORTS [1989] Supp. 1 S.C.R. as to wno would be the Chairman and Secretary respectively of the Board.

Such Committee should be set up within six weeks from today ·and report of compliance shall be filed with the Registry of this Court within eight weeks. The first meeting of the Board should be within four weeks of its constitution and every such Board is directed to send its first proceeding to the Registry. N.P.V.