Imagine for a moment what a fair trial looks like:
You receive a summons from a criminal court through registered post/cops. This is a case filed by someone you don’t know about something you did not do. You are extremely disturbed.
You reach out to your phone and call someone you trust, maybe your partner, a friend, family. You tell them what is happening. You are assured that it will be taken care of and you don’t need to worry. You are stressed and you want to eat. The woman who cooks for you makes you a meal that will take your mind off. Maybe you go for a walk in the park.
You finally find yourself with the number of a lawyer given to you by someone you trust implicitly. You call the lawyer and are given an appointment for that evening. You meet this lawyer who listens to you, takes down the details, supports you. They tell you not to worry. After all it is a simple matter of a quashing in the High Court or a discharge from the trial court or worse comes to worse an expedited trial since the law mandates that such criminal trials be completed within 6 months. You realise the lawyer fee is a bit much but you can afford it for peace of mind. He at the very least assures you a fair trial.
At Court
Your lawyer prepares you for court and tells you not to worry. In court you finally see the stranger who has pressed criminal charges against you. You try hard to understand why this is happening, who this man is and what this is all about. The Judge listens to your lawyer, accepts the paperwork submitted and gives you bail. You are served a copy of the papers so you are in the knowledge of the case brought against you.
On reading the court papers you realize that some of the documents are forged. You realize that facts averred to in the complaint don’t add up. You realize that there are false court documents. You want to be sure. You share this with your lawyer. They listen to you and tell you that it is good what you have done. This will be an easy case. They apply for certified copies of all the court papers. They receive it in 3 days.
Quashing
Your lawyer suggests that it would be in your best interest to move the High Court since it has all the ingredients needed for quashing of the criminal complaint. Within the week your lawyer has filed a Criminal Petition in the High Court. It is listed for hearing before a Bench within 3 days. You appear along with your lawyer in the High Court. The Bench affords your lawyer a considerate hearing. And stays the proceedings in the lower court. And issues notice to the opposite party.
At the next date of hearing you appear with your lawyer. The High Court comes to a finding that what the stranger has done to you is an abuse of the process of the court. The High Court quashes the criminal complaint and directs the Registrar to register an F.I.R. against the stranger. You are free. You wonder why so many people whine about the courts. It’s a breeze.
In the alternative the High Court decides that this is a matter for trial and vacates the stay order. You are crushed. But your lawyer tells you not to worry. Within a day of having received the order from the High Court your lawyer files a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court of India. It is to be listed before a Bench that very same week for hearing.
The Trial
You still have to continue with the trial court and you appear there. Your lawyer is with you. Your lawyer is like your buffer between anything thrown at you by the court or by the opposite lawyer. The stranger’s lawyer slanders you in court, your lawyer threatens criminal action and the Judge intervenes and ensures that the dignity and the decorum of the court is maintained. There will be no more personal attacks on you.
You are distraught. Even with a lawyer as your buffer you still feel the violence in your body. You drive back or take a cab, or the metro, or an auto and reach home. There is a hot meal waiting at home. Your house is clean. You can take all the time you want and put your feet up. Maybe you call a friend or maybe its your partner and you express the desire to go out. You maybe go watch a movie or go to a restaurant or go to a park anything to take your mind off from what you suffered that day. You come back home refreshed. You get a good night’s sleep.
Appellate Court
You lawyer appears in the Supreme Court and manages within 3 months to have the criminal complaint quashed. That’s a fair trial you say to yourself. And then your lawyer advises you to go after the stranger through criminal prosecution. Which you do. After all you don’t let someone off the hook for having done something so horrific to you. You do have a lawyer by your side who has fought at every step for you.
Right to a Fair Trial is for the Privileged
Now take it all away. Go the opposite way, to the extreme. Take away all your crutches. Add a couple of literal crutches. Add a family member who’s ill. Add other lives you are responsible for. Add a job that keeps your existence hand to mouth.
Now fight your case.
(And don’t expect to be treated like a person just because you are a woman, queer, disabled and appearing as a litigant in person.)
Right to a Fair Trial. Article 21. Fundamental Rights. The Constitution of India.
Not for us.
Requested Attribution:
Rashmi Munikempanna is a disabled woman currently appearing as party-in-person in the District courts, High Court of Karnataka and the Supreme Court of India. She chronicles her journey in the courts on cityofdis.in
