Justice in Delhi

The aftermath of the gang rape and murder of the physiotherapy student in Delhi – now known to be Jyoti Singh Pandey - has shown many deficiencies both in Indian civil society and the criminal justice system.

In an interview in today’s (UK) Times, Awindra Pandey – who was with the victim when they were both attacked – said ‘everything was a failure that day’. Even after they had been thrown off the bus, it took 20 minutes for anyone to stop and help. Mr Pandey said many people were watching as he tried to alert them, trying many cars, rickshaws and bikes, but no-one stopped. Even after the police eventually arrived, they argued about who should take the case. The police did not want to touch his friend, who was bleeding heavily, while waiting for the ambulance in case they got blood on their uniform.  Instead, Mr Pandey was asked to put a sheet, eventually obtained from a hotel, around her and put her in the van – despite the fact that he himself had a broken leg. Even once in the ambulance, it apparently drove past better equipped private clinics to take her to a government hospital, whose facilities Mr Pandey says were poor. He believes that she might have survived if the level of care in the government hospital had been better.

The rape and murder of Jyoti Singh Pandey, while in no way unusual in itself, has caused national and international outrage. But the refusal of the Indian Bar Association to allow any of its members to defend those accused will not aid justice, in a supposedly democratic country where the rule of law presides. The Bar Council in the UK has called on the Indian Bar to uphold high ethical standards and provide legal representation as a cornerstone of the right to a fair trial, no matter how horrendous the crime or the personal views of the lawyers (reported in ‘The Lawyer’ today). In the last couple of days, 2 lawyers have offered to defend 5 of the men, despite the condemnation of their legal colleagues.

Lawyer Sivaramjani Thambisetty has highlighted the flaws of Indian justice in her post yesterday on the LSE India blog: ‘Due process threatened? What the Delhi rape case reveals about justice in India’. In this, she argues a raft of measures are needed to facilitate access to justice for all sections of society. She comments that ‘The Supreme Court itself’ [in India] ‘has acknowledged that many convictions are unsafe, poverty is a significant factor and that the penalty has a “class bias and a colour bar”. The subjective criteria on which the sentence is imposed includes whether the case “shocks one’s conscience” or amounts to the “rarest of rare” circumstances. These are vague criteria masquerading as legal doctrine.’

The UK Bar Council has been accused of judging from afar and I am certainly wary of that. There may be a very real threat to the lawyers in India who volunteer or are put forward to represent the men accused. The UK is far from perfect: there is violence and discrimination against women here. Let’s hope that justice is done, whichever country, in accordance with the due process of law and not at the end of a lynch mob.

'Indian bar must represent Delhi gang rape defendants, says Bar council' - www.thelawyer.com, accessed 09/01/2013

Due process threatened?  What the Delhi rape case reveals about justice in India' - India at LSE blog, accessed 09/01/2013