Indians languishing in foreign jails due to lack of free legal aid

Chennai:


Many Indian workers working abroad are silently languishing in jails or are being exploited by their sponsors due to lack of free legal aid in foreign countries, say legal experts.



“While every citizen has right to free legal aid under Article 21, 22 and 39 A of constitution, there is no procedure to provide legal aid in foreign countries,” says High Court advocate M Pari while ruing the plight of Indian workers languishing in Middle East nations jails or blue collared workers being denied their rights in Malaysia



Interestingly, the Expert Committees on Legal Aid in its recommendations has suggested the creation of a Corporation to provide legal aid to Indian citizens that still has not been implemented for more than three decades.



Even the Madras High Court has observed that large number of Indian labour working in many foreign countries and the ever increasing Indian diaspora face hardship due to disputes arising out of employment, matrimonial and property issues and felt Indians could hardly afford the high cost of litigation in these countries.



In its judgement on March 2010, the High Court judge Justice K Chandru has observed that the Bar Councils of India and the State Bar Councils must establish Legal Aid Funds and provide assistance to Indian workers for fighting their cases abroad by entering into necessary correspondence with their counterpart lawyers abroad and if necessary finance their litigation in foreign courts.



Former State Legal Services Authority member V Kannadasan says Indian embassies lack awareness in this issue and hardly approach National Legal Services Authority in providing legal aid to Indian citizens abroad. He says National Legal Services Authority can coordinate with the lawyers in foreign countries and bear the expenses of Indians there. “However, till now NLSA hasn’t come to the aid for Indian workers abroad,” he says while highlighting the plight of his client who is languishing in a Saudi jail since September 2009 without legal aid.



“My client got a job of driver in Saudi Arabia. He was arrested while his vehicle was involved in a minor accident resulting in minor scratches to a car in 209. Now he is in jail without legal assistance,” says Kannadasan.



Advocate Pari, who is fighting a case related to Indian workers kept as bonded labourers in Malaysia, alleges that while crores, which are being allotted to legal services authority by the Indian government, is being used in collecting money from the clients of foreign banks nothing has been done to improve the plight of Indian workers caught in a legal tangle. “Why not spend it on Indian workers abroad who pump in millions of rupees as foreign exchange,” he says



Bernard D Samy, coordinator of Arunodhaya Migrant Workers, says most of the workers who leave Indian shores illiterate or semi-literate and end up as undocumented in foreign countries as their visas would have expired while stressing on the need for Indian government to tie-up with civil society groups to promote legal aid to its citizens. He also says many lawyers are shy of taking up the issue as there is not enough evidence to proceed against the erring companies due to lack of contractual papers or valid permits