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

The session began with a brief introduction of IBJ and its Duty Lawyers Project by Mr. Ajay Verma. He moderated the discussions that followed and briefly touched upon the topics for the day’s session – bail as a right, juvenile justice, case laws pertaining to bail, and the importance of client-lawyer interaction.

There were about 350 undertrial prisoners who had gathered for the session. Most of them were first time offenders with detention periods ranging between 4 days to 11 months. The ones in detention for a longer period were accused of serious offences such as drug trafficking, dowry death and murder.

Mr. Verma began by asking two very basic questions to the prisoners. He asked how many inmates did not have lawyers and how many had not applied for bail. About 20 prisoners said they did not have a lawyer, and about an equal number of inmates said they hadn’t filed for bail at the time. Those who had not filed for bail either did not know that they were eligible for bail or they did not have a lawyer who could file a bail application on their behalf.

Mr. Verma emphasized on the right to bail in bailable and other petty offenses.  He also made it clear that if the police or the prosecution had failed to file charges within the stipulated time-frame (60-90 days from the date of arrest), then the accused had a right to file for bail. Upon hearing Mr. Verma’s presentation on right to bail, a few inmates began to inquire about the nature of their offences and their eligibility for bail. Among those present, there were also five foreign nationals (from Nigeria) for whom a separate question and answer session was conducted in English.

Mr. Avinindar Singh alluded to a recent Supreme Court judgment on the right to bail and answered some of the questions related to bailable and non-bailable offences, fair trial and the court’s role in granting bail to the defendant. Ajay Verma steered the talk towards the efficacy of client-lawyer interaction and said that interaction is key to the success of any case. He laid the onus on the clients as much as the lawyers to ensure there’s a fair trial.

The workshop began with a formal introduction of all involved, the trainers, coordinators as well as the participants. With introductions out of the way, the discussion began with how the prisoners perceive the concept of law, and the answer that stood out was that it’s all a ‘khilwad’ (a joke). Another aspect that was covered before venturing into the field of nitty-gritty of law was the relationship they shared with their lawyers. This activity was carried out through a quawali session, wherein, the prisoners were divided in 2 groups as clients and lawyers and were asked to give voice to their grievances. The most common complaint that was given was that no lawyer wishes to hear their side of the story and most interaction they have had was with the ‘munshiji’ (Lawyers’ assistants) and not the lawyers themselves. Also, even though these lawyers were private counsels and not the legal aid lawyers, everyone felt that their case was not being given due importance and maybe even felt cheated. Thus, this information was stored away to be used in other workshops for the lawyers so as to tell them the client’s side of the story.

At one point, Mr O.R. Rohin, Superintendent of Jaipur District Jail, also came in and discussed the difficulties that are encountered by the prisoners. Once the groundwork was established, it was time to move on to the basic purpose of the workshop, as they were informed about the concept of bail, and the difference between bailable and non-bailable offence. As the participants also asked about the concept of parole and furlough, the same was also explained to them at length.

The second day of the workshop dealt with life in prison and for this purpose, the prisoners were asked to fill a questionnaire, and a copy of which was also given to the Assistant Jailor. One of the shocking aspects that was revealed by the prisoners was that the practice of handcuffing the prisoners is still prevalent despite various judgments by the Supreme Courts prohibiting this practice. One of the prisoners shared his experience, wherein two prisoners had health problems and they were handcuffed and the feet were tied together, and were kept on the same hospital bed. When one of the trainers referred to the case of Prem Shakar Shukla v. Delhi Administration, one of the prisoners mentioned that he has read the case, but sadly enough the ratio is still not followed. The day ended on a lighter note, with participants asked to prepare a skit on the topics provided to them, such as groupism, caste system, religious intolerance; and the same was judged by declaring prisoners from Alwar Jail as winners.

The last day of the workshop began with recapitulation of previous days’ events, and then moving on to the provisions of bail once again. The method of counting days of remand, whether 60 or 90 was explained to them, and they were also informed that if the chargesheet is not filed within the specified time period, they have a right to bail. Other relevant provisions of Code of Criminal Procedure were discussed along with Parole. It was explained there are two types of Parole – Regular and Emergency, and the same are laid out in Prison Rules. They were also informed about the way to draft a bail application and a RTI application. Lastly, various acts that are considered offences in jails were explained and the punishment for the same were also told to them.

The day concluded by giving participation certificates to the prisoners, and the same was handed by the Sunail Kumar Malhotra, Additional Director General (Prisons), Rajasthan. Mr. Malhotra also provided Criminal Manuals for every prison. The team members were given Bhagwad Gita as a mark of appreciation, and lastly the prisoners presented the team members with letters expressing their gratitude for the workshop. This workshop, though started with few hiccups, ended on a successful note, thus emphasizing the need to conduct more workshops of such nature in the future. IBJ also intends to get in touch with the authorities to see if the suggestions have been carried out by them.