Supreme Court Guides Young Lawyer How To Argue Criminal Appeal; Grants Acquittal

\”Hearing a plea against conviction for murder and sentence of life imprisonment, the Supreme Court on Tuesday explained court-craft and the art of argumentation to a young lawyer appearing for the petitioners- providing guidance as regards the portions of the court record to rely on and the submissions to formulate- and finally, passing an order for acquittal.

The Court even arranged for the petitioners\’ lawyer to be tutored by a Senior Advocate on how to argue a criminal appeal.

\”The bench of Justices D. Y. Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath was hearing two 2020 SLPs against a January, 2019 decision of the Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court on a criminal appeal by which the High Court upheld the July, 2008 judgment passed by the Sessions Judge, Badaun, whereby the SLP petitioners and certain others were convicted under Sections 148, 302/149 of IPC and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for two years under Section 148 of IPC and imprisonment for life under Sections 302/149 of IPC.\”

\”At the outset, when the advocate for the petitioners seemed to be fumbling with the submissions, Justice Surya Kant told him, \”Always remember the facts like a fiction-writer. It should be like you are telling a story to us, the narrative should be also like that\”
When the advocate sought to take the bench through the impugned judgment of the High Court, Justice Chandrachud observed, \”When you are in a criminal appeal against conviction, you must state your case without the High Court judgment. When you read a judgment, there may be a tendency to say that \’okay, these are the reasons for which the High Court said what it did\’. But that is what you have to overcome in the final hearing!…You don\’t want the judges to get in an affirmation state of mind. You want a completely unbiased and uninfluenced view of your matter…this is a matter of court craft, which you must remember even while arguing a first appeal before the High Court.\”

Source: www livelaw.in