Mumbai, April 2: Your Honour, this “court” is the defendant.

Press Council chairman Markandey Katju is working on plans to set up an NGO called Court of Last Resort, an organisation to help long-imprisoned undertrials or those who have been “unjustly” incarcerated to reverse the “cycle of hate” that injustice breeds.

The former Supreme Court judge, who had sought a pardon for actor Sanjay Dutt, has been inspired by American lawyer-turned-novelist Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of the fictional crime solver Perry Mason.

“The concept of this idea has come from an organisation founded way back in 1948 by the eminent American criminal lawyer Erle Stanley Gardner, who later wrote the Perry Mason novels. In his book The Court of Last Resort, Erle Stanley Gardner mentions about the organisation which he set up consisting mainly of lawyers, who took up cases of persons whom they thought were wrongly accused or unjustly convicted,” according to a statement.

Katju explained why he was setting up his organisation. “It has been felt for quite some time that injustice is being done to a large number of people who have been languishing in jail either as undertrials whose cases have not been heard for several years, or who have unjustly remained incarcerated, because the police have fabricated evidence against them or for want of proper legal assistance or who have had to spend many years in jail and (were) ultimately found innocent by the court,” he said in a blog today.

The post came close on the heels of Katju and Mumbai-based lawyer Majeed Memon, who had earlier represented Sanjay, appealing to the President for pardon for the actor and fellow Mumbai blasts accused Zaibunissa Kazi.

Sanjay was sentenced last month to serve out his term after a 20-year trial.

Asked when he planned to formally launch his organisation, Katju said: “We are still finalising some things. We will soon announce this formally at a news conference.”

Minutes after he posted the blog, many people, quite a few of them Muslims, welcomed the initiative and offered to join Katju, who will be the organisation’s chief patron. Memon, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and social activist Asif Azmi will help him.

The effort appeared to have touched a chord after Katju referred to the case of Aamir, who was 17 when he was arrested and spent 14 years in jail before being found innocent.