Holding

The right to free legal services for an indigent accused is an essential ingredient of the fair procedure guaranteed by Article 21, and the State is constitutionally mandated to provide such aid and to ensure magistrates inform accused persons of this right at all stages of the criminal process.

Summary

The Supreme Court examined the plight of blind prisoners in Bihar who alleged police‑inflicted blinding and the State's failure to provide free legal aid. It reaffirmed that the right to free legal services for an indigent accused is an essential component of the fair procedure guaranteed by Article 21 and that the State is constitutionally bound to furnish a lawyer at its expense whenever the circumstances of the case and the needs of justice require, including at the first appearance before a magistrate and during remand. The Court held that magistrates must inform accused persons of this right; otherwise the guarantee is illusory. It also stressed the constitutional duty to produce arrested persons before a magistrate within 24 hours under Article 22 and to prevent detention without remand. While the petition on compensation for the alleged blinding was adjourned for further evidence, the Court directed the State to provide free legal aid to the prisoners and to arrange suitable accommodation in Delhi pending further hearing.

Issues considered

The extent to which the right to free legal services for an indigent accused is implicit in Article 21 of the Constitution.
Whether the State is constitutionally obligated to provide free legal aid at all stages of criminal proceedings, including first appearance and remand.
Whether magistrates are required to inform accused persons of their right to free legal aid.
The liability of the State to pay compensation for alleged violations of Article 21 arising from police‑inflicted blinding.
The duty of the State to produce arrested persons before a magistrate within 24 hours under Article 22.
The legality of detention without remand.

Legislation cited

Constitution of Indias. Article 21, s. Article 22

Subjects

free legal aidright to counselArticle 21Article 22indigent accusedstate liabilitycompensationblind prisonersdetention without remandproduction before magistrate

Judgment

•
KHATRI AND OTHERS
v.
STATE OF BIHAR & ORS.
December 19, 1980
[P. N. BHAGWATI AND A. P. SEN, JJ.]
Right to free legal services to a person accused, of an offence-Duty of the
State explained Co11Stitution of India, Articles 21 and 22.
Expressing displeasure over disregard of the decision of the Supreme Court
by the State of Bihar, the Court
HELD : (I) The right to free legal services is clearly an essential ingredient
c of reasonable, fair and just procedure· for a person accused of an offence and •
it is implicit in the guarantee of Article 21 and the State is under a constitutional
mandate to provide a lawyer to an accused person if the circumstances of the
case and the needs of justice so require, provided of course the accused person
does not object to the provision of such lawyer. The State should provide free f

legal aid to an. accused person who is unable to secure legal services on account
of indigence and \.Vhatever is necessary for this purpose has to be· done by the
D State. It cannot avoid its constitutional obligation to provide free legal services
to a poor accused hy pleading financial or administrative liability.
[412C-D, F-G]
Hussainara Khatoon v. State of Bihar, [19791 3 S.C.R. 532, reiterated.
JI.hem v. Malcolm, 377 F.· Supp. 995; Jackson v. Bishop. 404 F. Supp. 2d,
•
571, quoted with approval.
E (2) The State is under a constitutional obligation to provide free legal ser·
vices not only at the stage of trial but also at the stage when the accused is first
produced before the magistrate, as also when he is remanded from time to time.
[413C-D]
(3) But even this right to free legal services would be illusory for an indi-
gent accused unless the magistrate or the Sessions Judge before whom he is pro·
F duced informs him of such right. It would make a mockery of legal aid if it were
to be left to a poor ignorant and illiterate accused to ask for free legal services.
Legal aid would become merely a paper promise and it would fail of its purpose.
1be magistrate or the sessions judge before who·m the accused appears must be
held to be under an obligation to inform the accused that if he is unable to
engage the services of a lawyer on account of poverty or indigence, het is. entitled
to obtain free legal services at the cost of the State. Unless he is not willing
G to take advantage, every other State in the country should make provision for
grant of free legal services. to an accused who is unable to engage a lawyer on
account of reasons such as poverty, indigence or incommunicado situation. The
only qualification would be that the offence charged against the accused is such
that on conviction it 'vould result in a sentence of imprisonment! and is of such
a nature that the circumstances of the case and the needs of soCial justice require
that he should be given free legal representation. There may be cases involving
B offences such ns economic offences or offences against law prohibiting prostitution
or child abuse and the like, where· social justice may require that free legal
services need not be provided by the State. [413D, E-F, H, 414A-BJ
408
•

•
• KHATRI v. BIHAR (Bhagwati, J.) 409
•
(4) The State and its police authorities should see to it that the constitutional, A
and legal requirement to produce an arrested person before a judicial magistrate
within 24 hours of the arrest is scrupulously observed. [414C·D]

( 5) The provision inhibiting detention without remand is a very healthy
provision which enables the magistrates to keep check over the police investiga·
tion and it is necessary that the magistrates should try to enforce this require~
ment and where it is found to be disobeyed come down· heavily upo~ the police. B
[414F-G]

ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Writ Petition No. 5670 of 1980.
(Under Article 32 of the Constitution)
Mrs. K. Hingorani and Miss Rekha Tiwari for the Petitioner.
• K. G. Bhagat and D. Goburdhan for the Respondent. c
The Order of the Court was delivered by
•
BHAGWATI, J .-This case has now come before us after service
of notice on the Slate of Bihar. When this case was taken up for
hearing by us on 2nd December, 1980, we expressed our displeasure D
that the State of Bihar had not chosen to appear in answer to the
I notice, but this expression of displeasure was made by us on the
r' assumption that the notice was served on the State of Bihar. We are
however informed by Mr. K. G. Bhagat, learned advocate, appearing
i on behalf of the Slate of Bihar that the notice of the writ petition was
served upon the State only on 6th December, 1980 and that is the E
reason why it was not possible for the State to appear before us on
2nd December, 1980. We accept this explanation offered by Mr.
K. G. Bhagat and exonerate the State of Bihar from remissness in
appearing before the Court on 2nd December, 1980.

The State has filed before us a counter affidavit sworn by F
Tarkeshwar Pa,i;.shad, Under Secretary, Home (Police) Department
I of the State Government giving variou.§ particulars required by us by
our order dated 2nd December, 1980. We have also before us the

Il . counter affidavit filed by Jitendra Narain Singh, Assistant Jailer,
Bhagalpur Central Jail, on behalf of the State and this affidavit gives
certain other particulars required by us. The State has also in addi-
tion to these particulars, filed statements giving various particulars
in regard to the blinded prisoners drawn from the records of the
judicial magistrates dealing with their cases'. The District and Sessions
G

I • Judge has also addressed a letter to the Registrar (Judicial) of this
Court stating that for the reasons given in his letler, no inspection

l of the Bhagalpur Central Jail has been carried out by the District
and Sessions Judge in the year 1980. The Registrar (Jtidicial) has
also furnished· to us copies of the statements of the blinded prisoners
H

I
410 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1981] 2 S.C.R. •

A and B. L. Das, former Superintendent of the Bhagalpur Central Jail,
recorded by ,him pursuant to the order of this Court dated 1st Decem- '
ber, 1980. Full and detailed arguments have beeu advanced before
us on the basis of the particulars contained in these documents, but
we do not, at this stage, propose to deal with the arguments in regard
to each of the blinded prisoners and we shall examine only the broad
B contentions advanced before us, leaving the arguments in regard to
each specific blinded prisoner to be dealt with at a later stage when
the writ petition again comes up for hearing.

Before we deal with the main contentions urged before us on __,
behalf of the parties, we must dispose of one serious question which •
-
c raises a rather difficult problem and which ha~ to be resolved with
some immediacy. The problem is not so much a legal problem as a
human one and it arises because the blinded prisoners who are under-
going treatment in the Rajendra Prashad Ophthalmic Institute, New
Delhi are likely to be discharged from that Institute since their vision
D is so totally impaired that it is not possible to restore it by any medical
or surgical treatment, and the question is wherever they can go.
Mrs. Hingorani, on behalf of the blinded prisoners, expressed the
apprehension that it may not be safe for them to go back to Bhagalpur,
particularly when investigation into the offences of blinding was still
in progress and some arrangement should, therefore, be made for
E housing them in New Delhi at the cost of the State. We cannot
definitely state that the apprehension expressed by Mrs. Hingora:ni is
totally unfounded nor can we say a! the present stage that it is justi-
fied, but we feel that at least until the next date of hearing, it would
be desirable not to send the blinded prisoners back to Bhagalpur.
We would, therefore, suggest that the blinded prisoners who are dis-
F charged from the Rajendra Parshad Ophthalmic Institute, New Delhi
should be kept in the Home which is being run. by Jhe Blind Relief ¥
Association of Delhi on the Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg, New Delhi
and the State of Bihar should bear the cost of their boarding and
lodging in that Home. We hope and trust and, in fact, we would
strongly recommend that the Blind Relief Association of Delhi will
G accept these blinded prisoners in the Home run by them and look)
after them. until the next hearing of the petition. The State of Bihar
will pay by way of advance or otherwise as may be required the
costs, charges and expenses of maintainiog the blinded prisoners in
such Home.
t

B The other question raised by Mrs. Hingorani on behalf of the
blinded prisoners was whether the State was liable to pay compensa-
tion to the blinded prisoners for violation of their Fundamental Right
• KHATRI v. BIHAR (Bhagwati, J.) 411

under Article 21 of the Constitution. She contended that the blinded A
' prisoners were deprived of their eye sight by the Police Officers who
were Government servant acting on behalf of the State and since this
constituted a violation of the constitutional right under Article 21,
the State was liable to pay compensation to the blinded prisoners.
The liability to compensate a person deprived of his life or personal
liberty otherwise than in accordance with procedure established by B
law was, according to Mrs. Hingorani, implicit in Article 21. Mr.
K. G. Bhagat on behalf of the State, however, contended that it was
not yet established that the blinding of the prisoners was done by the
Police and that the investigation was in progress and he further urged
that even if blinding was done by the police and there was violation
' of the constitutional right enshrined in Article 21, the State could c
not be held liable to pay co.nsation to the persons wronged. These
rival arguments raised a question of great constitutional importance
as to what relief can a court give for violation of the constitutional
right guaranteed in Article 21. The court can certainly injunct the
Stale from depriving a person of his life or personal liberty except
D
in accordance with procedure established by law, but if life or personal
liberty is violated otherwise than in accordance with such procedure,
is the court helpless to grant relief to the person who has suffered
such deppvation ? Why should the court not be prepared to forge
new tools and devise new remedies for the purpose of vindicating
the most precious of the precious Fundamental Right to life and E
personal liberty. These were the issues raised before us on the con-
tention of Mrs. Hingorani, and to our mind, they are issues of the
gravest constitutional importance involving as they do, the exploration
cf a new dimension of the right to life and personal liberty. We,
therefore, intimated to the counsel appearing on behalf of the parties
that we would hear detailed arguments on these issues at the next F
hearing of the writ petition and proceed to lay dowu the correct im-
plications of the constitutional right in Article 21 in the light of the
dynamic constitutional jurisprudence which we are evolving in this
Court.

That takes us to one other important issue which arises in this G
case. It is clear from the particulars supplied by the State from the
records of the various judicial magistrates dealing with the blinded
prisoners from time to time that, neither at the time when the blinded
prisoners were produced for the first time before the judicial magis-
trate nor at the, time when the remand orders were passed, was any
legal representation available to most of the blinded prisoners. The H
records of the judicial magistrates show that no legal representation
was provided to the blinded prisoners, because none of them asked
•
412 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1981) 2 S.C.R. •
A for it nor did the judicial magistrates enquire from the blinded pri-
soners produced before them either initially or at the time of remand
whether they wanted any legal representation at State cost. The only
excuse for not providing legal representation to the blinded prisoners
at the cost of the State was that none of the blinded prisoners asked
for it. The result was that barring two or three blinded prisoners
B who managed to get a lawyer to represent them at the later stages
of remand, most of the blinded prisoners were not represented by any
lawyers and save a few who were released on bail, and that too after
being in jail for quite some time, the rest of them continued to lan-
guish in jail. It is difficult to understand how this state of affairs
c could be permitted to continue despLte the decision of this Court in •
Hussainara Khatonn's case('). This Court has pointed out in
Hussainara Khatoon's case (supra) which was decided as far back
as 9th March, 1979 that the right to free legal services is clearly an
essential ingredient of reasonable, fair and just procedure for a person
accused of an offence and it must be held implicit in the guarantee
D of Article 21 and the State is under a constitutional mandate to pro-
vide a lawyer to an accused person if the circumstances of the case
and the needs of justice so require, provided of course the accused
person does not object to the provision of such lawyer. It is un-
fortunate that though this Court declared the right to legal aid as
a Fundamental Right of an accused person by a process of judicial
E construction of Article 21, most of the States in the country have not
taken note of this decision and provided free legal services to a person
accused of an offence. We regret this disregard of the decision of
the highest court in the land by many of the States despite the consti-
tutional declaration in Article 141 that the law declared by this COurt
shall be binding through-out the territory of India. Mr. K. G.
F Bhagat on behalf of the Stale agreed that in view of the decision of
this Court the State was bonnd to provide free legal services to an
indigent accused but he suggested that the State might find it difficult
to do so owing to financial constraints. We may point out to the
State of Bihar that it cannot avoid its constitutional obligation to
provide free legal services to a poor accused by pleading financial or
G administrative inability. The State is under a constitutional mandate
to provide free legal aid to an accused person who is unable to secure •
legal services on account of indigenous and whatever is necessary
for bis purpose has to be done by the State. The State may have
its financial constraints and its priorities in expenditure bnt, as pointed
out by the conrt in Rhem· v. Malcolm. (•) "the la\\'. does not permit
H
(I) 'fi979] 3 SCR. 532
(2) 377 F. SuPP. 995
• KHATRI v. BIHAR (Bhagwati, J.) 413

any Government to deprive its citizens of constitutional rights on a A
plea of poverty" and to quote the words of Justice Blackmum in
Jackson vs. Bishop, 404 F. Supp. 2d, 571: "humane considerations
and constitutional requirements are not in this day to be measured
by dollar considerations." Moreover, this constitutional obligation
to provide free legal services to an indigent accused does not arise
only when the lrial commences but also attaches when the accused B
is for the first time produced before the magistrate. It is elementary
that the jeopardy to his personal liberty arises as soon as a person
is arrested and produced before a magislrate, for it is at that stage
that he gets the first opportunity to apply for bail and obtain his
• release as also to resist remand to police or jail custody. That is the
stage at which an accused person needs competent legal advice and
c
representation and no procedure can be said to be reasonable, fair
• and just which denies legal advice and representation to him at this
stage. We must, therefore, hold that the State is under a constitutional
obligation to provide free legal services to an i'ndigent accused not only
at the stage of trial but also at the stage when he is first produced be- D
fore the magistrate as also when he is remanded from time to time.

But even this right to free legal services would be illusory for an
•
indigent accused unless the magistrate or the Sessions Judge before
whom he is produced informs him of such right. It is common
knowledge that about 70 per cent of the people in the rural areas E
are illiterate and even more than that percentage of people are not
aware of the rights conferred upon them by law. There is so much
lack of legal awareness that it has always been recognised as one of
the principal items of the programm.e of the legal aid movement in
this country to promote legal literacy. It would make a mockery of
legal aid if it were to be left to a poor ignorant and illiterate accused F
to ask for free legal services. Legal aid would become merely a paper
promise and it would fail of its purpose. The magistrate or the ses-
sions judge before whom the accused appears must be held to be
under an obligation to inform the accused that if he is unable to en-
gage the services of a lawyer on account of poverty or indigence, he
is entitled to obtain free legal services at the cost of the State. Un- G
fortunately, the judicial magistrates failed to discharge this obligation
in the case of the blinded prisoners and they merely stated that no
legal reprsentation was asked for by the blinded priso'ners and hence
none was provided. We would, therefore, direct the magistrates and
• Session Judges in the country to inform every accused who appears
H
before them and who is not represented by a lawyer on account of his
poverty or indigence that be is entitled to free legal services at the
• cost of the Stllte. Unless he is not willing to take advantage every
414 SUPREME 'COURT REPORTS [1981] 2 S.C.R.

A other State in the country to make provision for grant of
free legal services to an accused who is unable to engage a ,
lawyer on account of reasons such as poverty, indigence or incom-
municado situation. The only qualification would be that the offence
charged against the accused is such that, on conviction, it would result
in a sentence of imprisoll!Ilent and is of such a nature that the cir-
B cumstances of the case and the needs of social justice require that he
should be given free legal representation. There may be cases invol-
ving offences such as economic offences or offences against law prohi-
biting prostitution or child abuse and the like, where social justice
may require thal free legal services need not be provided by the State. -1
c There are two other irregularities appearing from the record to •
which we think it is necessary to refer. In the first place
in a few cases the accused persons do not appear to have been pro-
duced before the Judicial Magistrates within 24 hours of their arrest
a; required by Art. 22 of the Constitution. We do not wish to ex-
press any definite opinion in regard to this irregularity which prima
D facie appears to have occurred in a few cases, but we would stron-
gly urg~ upon the State and its police authorities to see that this
constitutional and legal requirement to produce an arrested person be-
fore a Judicial Magistrate within 24 hours of the arrest must be scru-
pulously observed. It is also clear from the particulars furnished to
us from the records of the Judicial Magistrates that in some cases par-
E ticularly those relating to Patel Sahu, Raman Bind, Sha!igram
Singh and a few others the accused persons were not pro-
duced before the Judical Magistrates subsequent to their first pro-
duction and they continued to remain in jail without any remand or-
ders being passed by the JuAical Magistrates. This was plainly cont-
rary to law. It is difficult to understand how the State continued to
detain these accused persons in jail without any remand orders. We
hope and trust that the State Government will inquire as to why
this irregularity was allowed to be perpetrated and will see to it
that in future no such violations of the law are permitted to be com-
•
mitted by the administrators of the law. The provision inhibiting
G detention without remand is a very healthy provision which enables
the Magistrates to keep check over the police investigation and
it is necessary that the Magistrates should try to enforce this require-
ment and where it is found to be disobeyed, come down heavily upon
the police.
We also cannot help expressing our unhappiness at the lack of •
H concern shown by the judicial magistrates in not enquiring from the
blinded prisoners, when they were first produced before the judicial
magistrates and thereafter from time tg time for the purpose of remand, •
• KHATRI v. BIHAR (Bhagwati, !.) 415

as to how they had received injuries in the eyes. It is true that A
most of the blinded prisoners have said in their statements
before the Registrar that they were not actually produced before the
judicial magistrates at any time, but we cannot, without further in-
quiry in that behalf, accept the ex parte statement of the blinded pri-
soners. Their statements may be true or may not be true; it is a
matter which may require investigation. But one thing is clear B
that in the case of almost all tlie blinded prisoners, the for-
warding report sent by the Police Officer In Charge stated that the
accused had sustained injuries and yet the judicial magistrates did not
't- care to enquire as to how injuries had been caused. This can give
• rise only to two inferences; either the blinded prisoners were not physi- c
cally produced before the judicial magistrates and the judicial
magistrates mechanically signed the orders of remand or they did
not bother to enquire even if they found that the prisoners
before them had received in.juries in the eyes. It is also regrettable
that no inspection of the Central Jail, Bhagalpur was carried out by
the Distdct & Sessions Judge at any time during the year 1980. We D
would request the High Court to look into these matters closely and
ensure that such remissness on the part of the judicial officers does
not occur in the future.
We would also like to advert to one more matter bef~re we close
and that is rather a serious matter. It appears from the record that
one blinded prisoner by the name of Umesh Yadav sent a petition to E
the District and Sessions Judge, Bhagalpur, on 30th July, 1980 com-
plaining that he had been blillded by Shri B. K. Sharma, District
Superintendent of Police and sinee he had no money to prosecute this
police officer, be should be provided a lawyer at Government expense
so that he might be able to bring the police atrocities before the court
and seek justice. Ten other blinded prisoners also made a similar F
petition and all these petitions were forwarded to the District &
Sessions Judge on 30th July, 1980. The District & Sessions Judge by
his letter dated 5th August, 1980, addressed to the Superintendent of
the Bhagalpur Central Jail stated that there was no provision in the
Code of Criminal Procedure under which legal assistance could be
provided to the blinded prisoners who had made a petition to him and G
that he had forwarded their petitions to the chief judicial magistrate
for necessary action. The Chief Judicial Magistrate also expressed
his inability to do anything in the matter. It appears that the Superin-
tendent of the Bhagalpur Central Jail also sent the petitions of
these bliuded prisoners to the Inspector General of Prisons, Patna on
30th July, 1980 with a request that this matter should be brought to H
the notice of the State Goverrnne'nt. The Inspector General of Prisons
• forwarded these ·petitions to the Home Department. The Inspector
416 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1981] 2 S.C.R.
A General of Prisons was also informed by three blinded pri-
soners on 9th September 1980 when he visited the Banka Jail that •
they had been blinded by the police and the Inspector General of
Prisons observed i'n his inspection note that it would be necessary to
place the matter before the Government so that the police atrocities
may be stopped. The facts disclose a very disturbing state of affairs.
B In the first place we find it difficult to appreciate why the Chief Judi-
cial Magistrate to whom the petitions of these blinded prisoners had
been forwarded by the District & Sessions Judge did not act upon the
complaint contained in these petitions and either take cognizance of
the offence revealed in these petitions or order investigation by the
higher police officers. The informatio_n appearing in these peti- •
c tions disclosed very serious offences alleged to have been com~
mitted by the Police and the Chief Judicial Magistrate should
not have non-chalantly ignored these petitions and expressed his
inability to do anything in the matter. But apart from that, one
thing is certain that within a few days after 30th July 80 the
Home Department did come to know from the Inspector General
D
of Prisons that according to the blinded prisoners who had sent
their petitions, they had been blinded by the Police, and from the
inspection note of the Inspector General of Police it would
seem reasonable to assume that he must have brought the matter
to the no\ice of the Government. We should like to know from the
Inspector General of Prisons as to who was the individual or which
was the department of the State Government to whose notice he
brought this matter and what steps did the State Govermnent
take on receipt of the petitions of the blinded prisoners forwarded by
the Inspector General of Prisons as also on the mattter being brought
to their attention by the Inspector General of Prisons as observed by
F him in his inspection note. We should like the State Government to
inform us clearly and precisely as to what steps they took after 30th
July, 1980 to bring the guilty to book and to stop recurrence of such
atrocities. We want to have this information because we should
like to satisfy ourselves whether the blindings which took place in
October 1980 coHld have been prevented by the State Government by
G taking appropriate steps on receipt of information in regard to the
complaint of the blinded prisoners from the Inspector General 0f
Prisons.
We would direct the State Govetmnent to furnish U6 full and
detailed particulars in this behalf before the next hearing of the
writ petition.
The writ petition will now be taken up for further hearing on 6th
January, 1981.
s. R. Petition adjourned. •