In Bangladesh, litigants have to spend a lot of money to get justice or to enforce their rights that have been breached. The reason is, in civil suits each litigant has to pay a prescribed court fee to commence his proceeding. In addition to this, he/she will also need to appoint a lawyer who will proceed the suit on behalf of him/her before the court. Apart from this, there are many other costs and fees involved in a court case, eg collecting and copying necessary documents, serving the notice/summons, adjournment fees, fees to appoint commission, etc. Hence enforcement of legal rights or getting justice is expensive.
Many poor villagers of our country cannot seek legal remedy due to their financial crises. A popular perception exists in our society that one needs money to get legal remedy. Many people cannot even think of coming to the Supreme Court because of heavy fees of those lawyers and huge costs of court fees and other expenses. Consequently, in many circumstances common people are deprived from getting justice only for lack of financial ability.
To become a welfare state and to resolve this problem, our parliament had enacted a law entitled the Legal Aid Act in 2000 to provide free legal support to the people of this land. The government has already made rule under this Act and constituted National Legal Aid Providing Committee. A district legal aid committee is also formed in every district under the national committee to disseminate legal aid for the poor. Now the committee extends to upazila, and to some extent to unions.
Who are eligible to get free legal aid
Only financially defeated persons are entitled to get free of cost legal aid under the Act. As per the provision of this law the following persons are eligible to get free legal aid from the government:
The person who earns less than Tk50,000 in a year
Disabled, partially disabled or unemployed freedom fighters whose income is not more than Tk75,000 in a year
Person who gets old-age allowance or VGD card holder poor mother
Abducted children/women or acid victim children/women
Poor widow, women abandoned by husbands and marginal women
Unemployed and poor disabled persons
The person who cannot establish his legal right before the court for lack of money
The person who is detained in jail without trial and who is unable to defend himself
Person declared insolvent by competent court
Persons 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 forms to apply for legal aid is available there and any eligible person can collect an application form from the legal aid office. 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 upazila office of national women forum, 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 for seeking legal aid addressing 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 scrutinising the application, the authority will appoint a lawyer on behalf of the petitioner to conduct his/her case for free of cost. The government will pay the honorarium to the advocate appointed for the case instead of the litigant. If district committee is declined to provide legal aid then the aggrieved appellant can file an appeal before the national committee within 60 days from the date of the decision of the district committee. In addition to this, there are three dedicated contact numbers, ie 01761222222-4 from which any interested person can get more information about free legal aid service. In addition, a pauper (an 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 the proceeding of his/her case. 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 costs to conclude a legal proceeding. Usually legal aid is allowed to conduct suit relating to custody and 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.
Moreover, legal aid may also be awarded to maintain civil suits, eg 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 Article 27 of the Constitution. Hence mere enactment of a law to provide legal aid is not sufficient to guarantee equality and to protect legal rights of marginal people and it is also not the last task for them. Rather, implementation of the provisions of the enacted law has to be ensured for the commoners to get justice and to uphold the true spirit of the constitution.
