Delhi High Court sets aside conviction, life sentence of murder accused due to lack of legal representation

The Delhi High Court recently set aside the conviction and life sentence of a man who went unrepresented by a lawyer in a 2018 case in which he was accused of strangling his wife to death. (Narender @ Lala vs. State of NCT of Delhi).A division bench of Justices Mukta Gupta and Anish Dayal observed that the accused was denied a fair trial as he was denied the opportunity of effective cross-examination of prosecution witnesses."The manner in which the trial is conducted, there was a serious denial of fair trial to the appellant. The appellant is required to be given an opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses i.e. the witnesses examined in the absence of the lawyer, or the lawyer having been appointed on the same day from the legal aid and asked to cross-examine the witnesses,"the Court said in its order.The Court noted that the legal aid counsel appointed for the appellant when his own counsel was unable to appear, was asked to cross-examine the witnesses on the same day that he was appointed."In the light of the facts noted above, this Court is of the considered opinion that there has been a grave miscarriage of justice to the appellant when a number of witnesses were examined when the appellant was not represented by a counsel and then when the legal aid counsel who was present in the Court was appointed on the same day was asked to cross-examine the witnesses," the order stated.Terming this a grave miscarriage of justice, the Court set aside his conviction and life sentence and remanded the matter back to the Trial Court for cross-examination of the concerned prosecution witnesses.The Additional Sessions Judge was directed to follow the due process of law and if required, record the statement of the appellant under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and permit leading of defence evidence..By way of background, the Court was considering an appeal against a judgment convicting the appellant for offences punishable under Section 302 IPC (murder) and the sentence of life imprisonment and fine of ₹10,000/- imposed on him. The main challenge of the appellant was that during the substantial course of the trial, he was not represented by a lawyer and hence the trial in the absence of a lawyer had seriously prejudiced him.Therefore, he sought a recall of all the prosecution witnesses so that he is ensured a fair trial..The High Court directed the Trial Court to expedite the trial and conclude the same, preferably within four months.The matter will be heard next on September 26, 2022, when the Superintendent of Tihar jail will produce the appellant before the Trial Court..Advocates Abhay Kumar and Rahul Ranjan appeared for the appellant and Additional Public Prosecutor Mukesh Kumar appeared for the State..[Read order]