It's the duty of trial court to inform accused of right to representation: Supreme Court

Apex court says the order will be communicated to the Chief Justices of all High Courts to enable suitable instructions are issued in this regard to all trial courts

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said it is duty of the trial court to inform an accused of a right to representation and their entitlement to a legal aid counsel.

The trial courts would record the offer made to the accused in this regard, the response of the accused and also the action taken thereupon in their orders, before commencing examination of the witnesses, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and K Vinod Chandran has said.

Emphasising that this procedure required to be adopted and put in practice scrupulously, the top court said that this order would be communicated to the Chief Justices of all the High Courts to enable suitable instructions are issued in this regard to all the concerned trial courts within the State.

The court passed its order on February 5, 2026 while allowing an appeal filed by Reginamary Chellamani against the Madras High Court's order of July 24, 2025, rejecting her bail plea in relation to a case lodged under the NDPS Act.

Having noted that the appellant, Reginamary Chellamani, has been in custody for four years, one month and 28 days as on date, and identically situated accused already got bail, the court directed for her release on bail too.

In the case, the court found the appellant did not cross examine the witnesses at the initial stage and it was only after she engaged her own counsel and her application for re-examining those witnesses was allowed.

The court thus issued the direction for scrupulously complying with the procedure for making available a counsel for the accused, highlighting that it is incumbent upon the trial courts dealing with criminal proceedings to inform the accused of their right to legal representation and their entitlement to be represented by legal aid counsel in the event they cannot afford a counsel.