Cuttack, July 23: Supreme Court judge and National Legal Services Authority (Nalsa) chairman Justice Dipak Misra today exhorted superintendents of jails across the state to ensure that no undertrial/convict remained "unrepresented".

Justice Misra directed them to prepare a list of advocates who represented the undertrials and the convicts to allow the Odisha State Legal Services Authority to facilitate communication between them and their counsels.

Currently, over 15,500 prisoners, including 3,589 convicts, are lodged in 91 jails across the state.

Misra issued the direction while inaugurating a video conferencing facility at Nyaya Sanjog - a legal assistance establishment at the headquarters of the state legal services authority here.

He interacted with the superintendents of Special Jail (Bhubaneswar), Circle Jail (Choudwar), Sambalpur Jail and Keonjhar jail where Justice Misra asked whether inmates were adequately represented. He also asked if the convicts preferred appeals before higher forums.

The Nalsa chairman also directed the state legal services authority to ensure that bail applications of undertrials were preferred at least up to high court level. He said he expected all jail superintendents to submit a compliance report to the state legal services authority.

Orissa High Court chief justice and state legal services authority patron-in-chief, Justice Vineet Saran, and its executive chairman Justice Indrajit Mohanty were present at the ceremony.

Later, Justice Misra inaugurated a sensitisation programme for secretaries of district legal services authorities, paralegal volunteers and panel of lawyers of legal services at the Odisha Judicial Academy.

The state legal services authority's deputy secretary Deepak Ranjan Sahoo said the sensitisation programme underscored the roles of all legal volunteers.

There are 5,829 paralegal volunteers in the state, who operate in the front offices of the district legal services authorities and work in the legal aid clinics under them.