Principal District and Sessions Judge (PDJ) of the Palamau civil courts, KK Srivastava advised the prisoners of the central jail Daltonganj, to exercise their legal right to appeal in the event of conviction.
Srivastava said, “Every convict has this right and for this, the legal services authority will lend all possible help. I have this information that some prisoners have not gone in appeal against conviction.” The PDJ was the chief speaker in the legal literacy campaign held today (Sunday) in the central jail.
Srivastava was accompanied by judicial officers namely GK Dubey (district judge 1) JP Singh (district judge 5) R Dayal (district judge 7) Uttam Anand (railway judicial magistrate, NK Verma (sub divisional judicial magistrate) BK Pandey (munsif) and KK Mishra (judicial magistrate).
The PDJ Srivastava and munsif BK Pandey spoke on the ill effects of witchcraft and legal measures to deal with it. There are provisions of 3 months and 6 months imprisonment with a fine of rupees 1,000 and 2,200 or both respectively. The district and sessions judge 5 JP Singh who spoke on plea bargaining asked the prisoners to recite the scriptures of lord Krishna for the comfort of their agony in jail.
The secretary of the Palamu district legal services authority, KK Jha said efforts are on to launch ‘e mulakat’ of the prisoners with their kin and members of the family this August.A senior woman lawyer Veena Mishra laid stress on resolution of legal conflict through mediation. Jha informed that last year 26 prisoners took the services of the lawyer free while this July 19 have so far taken NK Verma the judicial magistrate spoke at length on the right of a person who gets arrested by the police. Four lawyers visit the central jail Daltonganj every week. One of them is a lady lawyer Sudha.
A convict Mundrika Singh who has served 14 years and 7 months in the jail here and continues to be here pleaded for spread of education among the prisoners so that once out from here they can lead a decent life. The jail superintendent U K Kushwaha gave the vote of thanks.