348. Petition of appeals and applications of a judicial nature.
(1)Any convicted criminal prisoner lawfully entitled to submit a petition of appeal desires to do so, or desires to file any application of a judicial nature, whether for revision or otherwise, shall be granted every facility to submit such petition or application to the Court concerned, including the following facilities: -(a)An application by a prisoner for a copy of the judgment or order shall, at once, be forwarded to the Court by which the judgment or order was passed (and any application subsequently received from a prisoner who has been convicted at the same trial may not be forwarded unless the applicant wishes to have a copy for his personal use).(b)A prisoner's friend or counsel shall be allowed to communicate with the prisoner for the purpose of assisting him in drawing the petition of appeal or application.(c)The Superintendent shall make the necessary arrangement for having the petition of appeal or application written out for a prisoner who cannot write or who has no friends or agents who can draw up the petition for him.(2)A petition of appeal shall be accompanied by -(a)a certified copy of the judgement or order appealed against,(b)a copy of the register of petitions wherein all information starting from the date on which the prisoner expresses his desire to file an appeal, till the date of receipt of the order of the appellate Court disposing off the appeal, all such dates on which action is taken during the entire process shall be entered and attested by the Superintendent or the Assistant Superintendent. This would also include dates on which requisition for copy of the judgement is sent, date of receipt of the copy of the judgement, the date of delivery of the copy of the judgement to the prisoner or other nominated party and date of receipt of appeal from the prisoner.(3)An application for revision shall be accompanied by -(a)a certified copy of the judgement or order sought to be revised;(b)a certified copy of the judgement or order of the trial Court if the judgement sought to be revised happens to be a judgement or order passed by the lower Court in its appellate or revisional jurisdiction;(c)a copy of the register of petitions as mentioned in sub rule (2) (b).(4)The Superintendent shall apply for necessary copies as required by sub-rules (2) and (3) and arrange for the submission of the petition of appeal or application within the prescribed time along with the necessary accompaniments.(5)A petition of appeal or an application duly made by a prisoner shall be countersigned by the Superintendent, and subject to the provisions of sub-rule (4), forward it without delay to the Court concerned with all the relevant documents.(6)Before forwarding a prisoner's appeal or application, the Superintendent shall himself ascertain, after verifying all the information in the Register of Petitions as mentioned in sub-rule (2) (b) and after questioning the prisoner or obtaining information from the prison in which he was confined prior to his transfer to the prison in which he is confined at the time of the application, whether any appeal or application has previously been filed by the prisoner in the same matter either through the prison authorities or independently thereof (through some agent or lawyer acting on his behalf), and if he has made any such appeal or application, how it has been disposed of and how the present appeal or application is competent. The Superintendent shall after ascertaining these facts, make an endorsement to that effect on the petition of appeal or application in his own hand and record the result of the inquiry and shall also mention the number of the case on the Magistrate's file, if quoted on the warrant.(7)Where a prisoner, whose petition of appeal or revision application is to be forwarded to the High Court or, as the case may be, to the Supreme Court, desires to be released on bail, a prayer to that effect shall be included in the memorandum of appeal or, as the case may be, in the revision application.
