Q. What, according to you, does the art of Criminal Defence comprise? How should a fresh lawyer deal with its challenges?
A. Essentially, for a defense lawyer, the skills lie at the trial court. Usually, fresh graduates or law students aspire to work at the constitutional courts. However, if you really wish to pursue criminal litigation and be a successful defense advocate, you need to excel at trials. Primarily that’s the reason we saw legends like the Late Ram Jethmalani conducting cross-examinations throughout his illustrious career even after being a Designate Senior Advocate and the foremost authority on criminal law. Also, even if the eventual aim is to work at the constitutional courts at the criminal side, it always helps if you have excelled at trial courts because you can appreciate the evidence and discrepancies in the case in a much better way.
One needs to constantly keep in mind that understanding the nuances of criminal trials is a lengthy process, and one needs to be patient through the process and appreciate every stage of the trial.
Q. What are the do’s and dont’s that an average student should adopt to excel in academics?
A. First and foremost, I can understand that as a student it seems like an uphill task to study every angle of every subject since Law is a vast field. However, what needs to be noted is that understanding the critical aspects of any subject is essential and those concepts should be genuinely understood to a level where you can implement them during practice. So, as a student, it helps to concentrate more on concepts than on procedure since fortunately or unfortunately most of the exam patterns focus on that. As a future advocate, be rest assured that understanding procedural law too is extremely critical. If someone is up for it, the ideal way is to study the concepts from the books and learn the procedural law from experience by way of internships. This all-round development reflects in the exams and helps you to excel at academics.
Q. Being one of the youngest Advocates in India to have been conferred with Ph.D. in Law, what advice would you like to give to our readers to ace their interview?
A. I had been conferred the Doctorate in Law on the topic of Malicious Prosecution. Being conferred with a Doctorate is all about contributing something new to the field of Law. Therefore, it is very necessary that before you appear for your interview you are very thorough with what is the present situation across the globe regarding the topic you have chosen. Practical experiences helped me a lot since eventually even thorough academicians rely on field reports and census to make suggestions. Since I had a long experience of litigation, it helped me to figure out the loopholes in the topic and research around it so as to contribute new concepts to the field. This overall awareness of the topic, both academic and practical, helps while you appear for the interview.
Q. What, do you believe, are the most essential stages of Criminal Litigation?
A. Broadly speaking, bails and trials form the most essential stages of criminal litigation. Bail, in itself, has multiple stages i.e. pre-arrest/anticipatory bail, custody remand on the arrest of the accused, and eventually regular bail for the release of the accused from custody. From the practical perspective, for young lawyers especially, all these 3 stages become important stages to earn money via professional fees. Personal liberty is very dear to every individual and hence these stages are considered to be very crucial even by the clients, and thus it has good earning potential for all diligent lawyers.
Likewise, trial also has various important stages. After the charge sheet has been filed, every lawyer should peruse the entire charge sheet so as to explore the feasibility of filing a discharge application for their clients. If the accused is not discharged from the offense, the trial would commence. In such a scenario, cross-examination is the main focus be it of eyewitnesses or expert witnesses. In my experience, what has helped in a fruitful cross-examination is a thorough reading of every paragraph and page of the charge sheet and thorough application of prevalent case laws to the tentative line of defense in your mind. Once this line of action is clear in your mind, you know exactly what do you want out of your cross-examination. From seniors at the Bar as well as by experience, one thing that I have learned and is extremely crucial in cross-examinations is that you should know exactly when to stop.
Q. As a commercial litigator, do you believe the introduction of ADR will soon replace litigation in commercial disputes?
A. In my opinion, it should ideally replace litigation at least in majority disputes; since commercial litigation is usually a fallout of unfulfilled contracts or ego wars. However, practically speaking, it won’t happen anytime soon.
Firstly, all the options under ADR have not been adequately explored. The focus has mainly been towards Arbitration, which now is majorly being abused to delay the proceedings. On the other hand, other modes of ADR like negotiations and mediations have taken a backseat and haven’t been explored by many and as such have not been carved out as practice areas. Personally I believe it has extremely high potential in the future, both as a niche practice area as well as a practical solution for commercial disputes.
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