The main goal was to help legal aid lawyers to find solutions to unnecessary and long detentions in police and judicial custody of undertrial people. The course attempts to «… refine courtroom practices towards reaching the high goal of rule of law». The focus was on impacts of incarceration on the prisoner, by discussing and lecturing on due process treatment, strengthening legal aid services, and effective legal interventions by advocates. With the Indian Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C.) as its starting point, the course aimed to increase the lawyers’ procedural knowledge on fair trial, minimizing pre-trial detention, and other crucial parts of legal administration.

Some of the female lawyers discussing.

The welcome address was held by Secretary in DLSA, Mr. Tan Singh Charan. Thereafter, Ms. Sana Das, Coordinator in CHRI, read out a message from Hon’ble Justice Ajay Rastogi, Chairperson of Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority (RSLSA), which was also part of the reading material handed out to the participants. Mr. Tan Singh Charan then started the first session of the workshop by talking about the importance of providing the accused with a legal aid lawyer. He was followed by Hon’ble Justice Mr Govind Mathur, Judge Rajasthan High Court & Chairman of Rajasthan High Court Legal Services Committee, who emphasized more about various methodology to improve court and legal aid practices to prevent unnecessary detention. Among other things he referred to the Cr.P.C. section 437, which states in what situations bail may be taken in case of non-bailable offenses, and section 49 and 50, which states that (”The arrested person shall not be subjected to more restraint than is necessary to prevent his escape” and that a “person arrested (is) to be informed of grounds of arrest and of right to bail”.

One of the speakers was Hon’ble Mr. Justice Gobind Mathur, Judge Rajasthan High Court.

Mr. R. K. Saxena, former Inspector General, Rajasthan Prisons and Honorary Consultant with CHRI also contributed to the session, who talked about alternatives to imprisonment in bailable and non-bailable offenses. The participants questions and comments were effectively answered and heard. Mr. Saxena also pointed out how the inequality before law contradicts with the ideal of equality before the law, and referred to undersection 39A in the Indian Constitution, which deals with equal justice and free legal aid. It claims that:

”The State shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice, on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid, by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities.”

Mr. R.K. Saxena sharing his knowledge and experience.

The day continued with an introduction of the training by Mr. Ajay Verma, Advocate  representing IBJ India. He talked about general issues lawyers are facing, and screened a movie from the client-lawyer role play held in Jodhpur Central Jail 04th-06th October. This was followed by an active and fruitful discussion from both sides on issues regarding client-lawyer relationship, speedy trial and pre-trial justice.

Day 2 of the workshop begun with all of the lawyers introduced themselves, their name, where they are practicing and for how many years they have been practicing. Ajay Verma held a session on illegalities in the criminal justice system and also focused on prisoners’ rights. Thereafter, an interactive game was played,  led by Ms. Abha Joshi, Advocate and Ms. Sugandha Shankar, CHRI. The lawyers were asked about which problems they themselves had been facing in prison. The last session of the day was led by Ms. Abha Joshi, and followed by a panel discussion on arrest, and especially section 41 in the Cr.P.C. which states when the police may arrest without warrant.

Teamwork

On the third and last day of the workshop, the first session was led by Ms. Abha Joshi on the topic of arrest, bail and remand, bailable offenses and cognizable and non-cognizable offenses, supplemented with Ajay Verma and the rest of the panels contributions and points. In her presentation, Ms. Abha Joshi focused on sections 167 Cr.P.C., “Procedure when investigation cannot be completed in twenty four hours”, Section 70,  which deals with forms of warrants of arrest and duration, section 41, regarding arrest of persons, and sections 43, 44, and 55, regarding procedures of arrest. In the following session the game «my favourite lawyer, my favourite client» was played. Then, some time was spent on discussing legal aid solutions, for example legal aid developments and ethics of the advocates profession.

Answering questions, from left to right: Mr. Ajay Verma, Mr. Bora, Mr. Tan Singh, Mr. R.K. Saxena.

Overall the training was successful, and the participants expressed satisfaction over the panel and the topics in focus. They also requested more senior lawyers to speak in future events, a feedback we appreciate and will follow up. It is important to underline the importance of these kind of programs as legal aid is an important part of the administration of justice, and we are looking forward to more fruitful lawyer trainings in the near future.

Hon'ble Mr. Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul

The first day of the training continued with introduction of the 102 Legal Aids Lawyers from all the nine Districts of Delhi, followed by introduction of Mr. Ajay Verma, Fellow IBJ India & Ms. Kellie Krake, Training Director Geneva IBJ & Miss Deja Vishny Public Defender Trainer Wisconsin Public Defenders Office, USA. It dealt with teachings given by Kellie and Deja on the role of lawyers. Kellie noted down that we are here to take you beyond the law to practice to make it work for your client. Deja took over and started discussing what should the lawyers do, she emphasized on the attitude of empathy v.  Warriors should be the attitude in every lawyer. According to her, as a public defender one should have passion and perseverance in order to get justice.

IBJ Founder Karen Tse and Kellie Krake

The day continued and the post lunch session articulated Client-Lawyer Interaction by Hon’ble Ms. Justice Gita Mittal Judge Delhi High Court & Mr. Ajay Verma. Justice Mittal stressed that access to justice is the most basic human right, client interaction is essential to get factual information to get the desired result and as a lawyer, it is our duty to respect our clients and dignity of individual. Ajay focused on the common problem being faced by clients is that they feel they are not being heard. He laid down the point that “poor should not get poor justice’. The closing session of the 1^st day was taken by Kellie and Deja on Trial Strategy, and according to Deja one should focus on developing the theory of the case; theory should take into account all the positive points of the case so that it will be easier and faster in providing justice to the client.

The Second day of the workshop began with a quick review of the previous day, and focused on Bail Provisions, Admissibility of Evidence obtained during Investigation and Evidence obtained during Trail and Assessing Evidence and Confession. In particular Hon’ble Mr. Justice R.C Chopra (Retd) Member, National Legal Service Authority associated with Legal Aid for 25yrs, gave some suggestions on Bail Provisions.  He advised against giving high and false hopes to their client.

Hon'ble Mr. Justice J.R. Midha

It was followed by Justice J.R Midha, Judge, Delhi High Court; He shared his views on the entire criminal justice system, and as per his view criminal system should focus more on providing justice to the accused, discovery of truth is the guiding principle for any trial.

The session continued and Mr. K.K.Sud, Senior Advocate, took over, he spoke about crimes. According to him, petty crimes are being committed due to poverty and illiteracy among the people. He also recommended that for such workshops to be meaningful, they should include Judicial Officers, and also said that remuneration of the legal aids lawyers should be increased and one should study the difficulties faced by jail visiting advocates. He also emphasized that such workshops should serve as a platform for senior lawyers to help legal aid lawyers. The day ended with the session by Kellie and Deja on the topic of assessing evidence and confession. She focused on the point that confession is primarily obtained by torture, so we as a lawyer should fight against torture by police, she laid down some important points as to how a lawyer can fight against torture by police more effectively.  Mock trial was also part of the session, wherein lawyers were asked to cross-examine the Magistrate who took the statement of the accused. Lastly, Deja showcased the Chapter Method of cross-examination and highlighted the points that should be considered while cross-examining a witness.

Mr. Sidharth Luthra, Senior Advocate

The last day of the training program began at 10a.m by an address by Mr. Sidharth Luthra, Senior advocate & Member, Delhi State Legal Service Authority. He discussed about the provisions of Examination of Prosecution and Defense Witnesses and he referred to three kinds of examination i.e. examination in-chief, cross-examination, re-examination. He made us realize how lawyers can be a strong support to criminal justice system, and his enthusiasm and passion was reflected in his stories.

After a short tea break, Hon’ble Justice Dr. S. Muralidhar, Judge Delhi High Court, a recognized face in the Legal Fraternity and Mr. Sushil Kumar, Senior Advocate took up the closing arguments of the defense. Mr. Sushil Kumar shared some of his personal experience with clients and participants felt that the information given by him was very good and will be very useful in future. Justice Muralidhar talked about various skills as to how a lawyer can communicate to the judge, a lawyer should not run away from the weakness of the case and difficulties of the closing arguments, preparation and conferencing with the client is very important before closing the arguments.

Hon'ble Dr. Justice S. Muralidhar, Ms. Asha Menon, Mr. Sushil Kumar, Ms. Kellie Krake

After lunch the workshop resumed with the final session on reflection on what was learned and developed during the three long days .This visioning exercise was conducted by Kellie and Ajay wherein the focus was on the Indian Legal system after 2025. This encouraged and motivated participants to take what they learned during the training and utilize it effectively in their respective practices.

Participants

The training program concluded on an inspiring note given by our diligent Judges, Justice Gita Mittal, Justice R.C. Chopra (Retd.) and Mr. Neeraj Kumar, IPS, Director General (Delhi Prison). Mr. Kumar talked about various social activities being held in the prison in order to provide economical up gradation and at least to fulfill their basic necessities of life, some mental activities such as yogas and meditation is also being conducted to provide mental relaxation. He ended on a note that consultation between the prison authorities and lawyers is required, so the infrastructure can be improved.

Hon'ble Mr. Justice R.C. Chopra (Retd.), Hon'ble Ms. Justice Gita Mittal, Mr. Neeraj Kumar, DG (Prisons)

On the whole, participants left saying they would recommend the training to others because it was interesting and beneficial and they themselves are likely to attend another IBJ conference if given the opportunity to do so. The training concluded with the distribution of post survey forms which provided their feedback about the training Programme. The workshop was an effort to provide lawyers with all the knowledge and techniques, so that they will provide effective representation to their clients.

Justice Gita Mittal, Justice R.C. Chopra, Ms. Asha Menon, Mr. Neeraj Kumar, Kellie Krake, Deja Vishny, Ajay Verma, IBJ India Staff & Interns & Participants