Fair Trial Fellowship

About the fellowship

The Fair Trial Fellowship (“the Fellowship”) is an opportunity for young lawyers and social workers to assist in providing quality legal representation to undertrial prisoners. The Fellowship will train and mentor a group of young professionals to work in collaboration with the State Legal Services Authority towards ensuring fair trial for undertrial prisoners at both pre-trial and trial stages. The Fellowship is being currently rolled out for work in Nagpur and Pune Central prisons.

Nearly 70% of India’s prison population are undertrial prisoners and there is widespread agreement that a large proportion of that population should not be in prison. The Fellowship is designed with the understanding that providing good quality and competent legal representation for undertrial prisoners at the early stages of their trial or at the pre-trial stage can ensure the realisation of rights and protections inbuilt in the law.

The Fellowship is based on the core understanding that the existing legal aid system implemented through the NALSA and its subsidiary bodies has the greatest outreach amongst persons requiring free legal aid in custody. Thus, providing assistance, in terms of qualified personnel and technical resources to the existing system, is a much needed step towards providing the best possible legal representation to the undertrial prisoners. 

The Fellowship has been instituted with the following objectives:

To provide quality legal representation to undertrial prisoners and handhold the inmates through the legal proceedings.

To provide support to District Legal Services Authority and strengthen mechanisms for providing free legal aid to persons in custody.

To train, mentor and build capacities of young professionals for improving quality of socio-legal services within the Criminal Justice System in the district.

Who we are looking for

• Applicants For Legal Fellowship Must Fulfill The Following Eligibility Criteria:
• Minimum of one year experience of practicing at trial court level
• Registration as a practicing advocate (Sanad) with Bar Council of any state in India
• Proficiency in reading, writing and speaking Marathi is essential
• Ability to read, write and speak English
• Familiarity with the use of MS-Office, emails and the internet 
• Prior work experience in criminal litigation and/or work with the District Legal Services Authority is desirable.

Applicants For Social Work Fellowship Must Fulfill The Following Eligibility Criteria:

• Post-graduate qualification in social work (M.A. in Social Work/MSW) or any other Helping Professions/Social Science/Humanities subject or related areas from a Central/Deemed/State-Recognised University
• Minimum of one year experience (full time) in intervention work at the grassroot level.
• Proficiency in reading, writing and speaking Marathi is essential
• Ability to read, write and speak English
• Familiarity with the use of MS-Office, emails and the internet 
• Prior work experience within institutions in the criminal justice system is desirable.

What we expect from you

 Role of Legal Fellows

• Visit prison with the duty counsels of the DLSA and provide legal counselling to inmates requiring legal aid.
• Co-ordinate with DLSA and authorities from Prison Department to ensure allocation of DLSA Panel Lawyer for undertrials who do not have any legal representation.
• Brief and assist panel lawyer of the DLSA assigned on a case during court hearings at both pre-trial and trial stage.
• Regular Prison visits to seek instructions from undertrial client on behalf of the DLSA Panel Lawyers.

Role of Social Work Fellows

• Visit the Prisons, interact with undertrial prisoners, identify individuals who need legal aid from the DLSA and support them in writing applications to DLSA.
• Identify undertrial prisoners entitled for bail/early release and refer such cases to the DLSA and the Prison Authorities. 
• Socio-legal case work interventions and handhold undertrial prisoners through the legal proceedings at both pre-trial and trial stage.
• Home visits and work with families of undertrials in gathering information/documents relevant to their case.
• Co-ordinate with other authorities if required for gathering relevant documents like age proof, address proof, medical certificates etc. 
• Identifying special needs of undertrials including pregnancy, claims for juvenility, disability, terminal illnesses, mental health issues etc. and organise assistance including legal assistance

For more information please check the Link