The earliest legal aid movement was started in the year 1851 when there was an enactment introduced in france for providing legal assistance to the indigent. In britain the effort of the state to provide legal services to the poor and needy goes back to 1944, when lord chancellor, viscount simon appointed the rushcliffe committee headed by lord rushcliffe to enquire about the existing facilities in england and wales for giving legal aid advice to the poor. 1 this committee also made the desirable recommendations ensuring that the persons in need of the legal advice are provided the same by the state. The recommendations of the rushcliffe committee were submitted to british parliament, which resulted in the enactment of legal aid and advice act, 1949. In 1945, the rushcliffe committee report was brought to the attention of the government of india. The credit for drawing the attention of the government of india to this important question goes to the bombay legal aid society who invited the attention of the government of india to the report of the rushcliffe committee. The bombay legal aid society in their letter 2 suggested the appointment of a similar committee in india to examine the problem of legal aid.

In 1946, the provincial government was of the opinion that the provisions for the grant of legal aid in civil cases were sufficient but the same for the criminal cases needed to be liberalized. After the correspondence between the government of india and the provincial government the resolution was passed in the bombay legislative council and the bombay state assembly. Justice nh bhagwati 3 to consider the question of grant of legal aid in civil and criminal proceedings to poor persons, persons of limited means and the persons of backward classes to make justice easily accessible to these persons.

The committee threw responsibility on state to provide free legal aid for those who could not have access to the courts of law due to scarcity of means and guidance. In the same year 1949 , the government of west bengal also set up a committee on 'legal aid and legal advice' under the chairmanship of sir arthur trevor harries 5 . The report of the committee could not be implemented due to lack of requisite funds. Our writers can help get your essay back on track, take a look at our services to learn more about how we can help. Essay writing service essay marking service place an order since 1952, the government of india also started addressing to the question of legal aid for the poor in various conferences of law ministers and law commissions. The first law commission, 1958 in its fourteenth report 6 presented a detailed thought of legal aid with a strong plea to implement the bhagwati and harries reports.

The state government in a conference of the state law ministers expressed their inability to allocate funds for the purpose of the legal aid schemes. The third all india lawyers conference in 1962, further considered the question of legal aid. It was suggested that legal aid was an obligation of both state and central government and for this purpose they should provide funds. In 1970, the national conference was convened in new delhhi on 'legal aid and legal advice'. This conference emphasised that it was constitutional obligation of the state to make provision for legal aid to the weaker sections having no means.

Justice p.n bhagwati 8 was the chairman of the legal aid committee which was appointed by the government of gujarat for the first time for suggesting ways and means of providing free legal aid and advice to the poor and weaker section of the community. The aim of the committee was to make recommendations so as to render legal advice more easily available and to make justice more easily accessible to such persons, including recommendations on the question of encouragements and financial assistance to institutions engaged in the work of such legal aid 9 . P.n bhagwati observed even while retaining the adversary system, some changes may be effected whereby the judge is given a greater participatory role in the trail so as to place poor, as far as possible, on a footing of equality with the rich in the administration of justice. 10 the focus of the committee was the indigent person seeking to access justice. The report stated that there can be no rule of law unless the common man irrespective of the fact whether he is rich or poor is able to claim and justify to the rights given to him by the law.

The poor must be placed in the same position as the rich by means of adequate legal service programme. It stated that the inequality between the rich and the poor in administration of the justice can be removed by establishing and developing effective system of the legal aid programme. Legal aid and advice should be regarded not as a matter of charity or bounty but as a matter of right. The court, while taking a very restrictive interpretation of statutory provisions giving a person the right to lawyer, opined that this was, a privilege given to accused and it is his duty to ask for a lawyer if he wants to engage one or get his relations to engage one for him.

The only duty cast on the magistrate is to afford him the necessary opportunity to do so. Even in capital punishment cases the early supreme court seemed relentless when it declared that it cannot be laid down in every capital case where the accused is unrepresented the trial is vitiated. Who wrote this essay request removal example essays to revive the programme, the government of india formed an expert committee for legal aid in 1972, under the chairmanship of justice krishna iyer 14 . The committee submitted a report in 1973 on legal aid known as the processionals justice to poor 15 .