Relevance: GS Paper II, IV
Why has this issue cropped up?
The Rewari and Kosli Bar Associations in Haryana have passed resolutions that none of their members will defend the accused in the recent case of gang-rape of a teenage girl from Rewari district.
Is this resolution on justified?
- This resolution is wholly illegal, and goes against the decision of the Supreme Court in A.S. Mohammed Rafi v. State of Tamil Nadu (2010). That decision declared null and void a resolution of the Coimbatore Bar Association that none of its members will defend policemen who had allegedly assaulted some lawyers.
- Several Bar Associations in India have passed resolutions that their members would not defend persons accused of heinous crimes. The Supreme Court declared all such resolutions to be wholly illegal, against all traditions of the Bar, and against professional ethics.
- The court observed, “Every person, however wicked, depraved, vile, degenerate, perverted, loathsome, execrable, vicious or repulsive he may be regarded by society has a right to be defended in a court of law, and correspondingly it is the duty of the lawyer to defend him.”
The tradition
- Indian lawyers have defended the revolutionaries of Bengal during British rule, the Indian communists charged with waging war against the British King in the Meerut Conspiracy Case, the Razakars of Hyderabad, Sheikh Abdullah, the Indian National Army accused, the assassins of Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi, and in recent times Binayak Sen and Ajmal Kasab.
- No Indian lawyer of repute has shirked his duty to defend someone claiming that it would make him unpopular or that it was personally dangerous for him to do so.
Conclusion
The right-minded lawyers of Rewari and Kosli should defy the resolutions of their Bar Associations.
