Hello everybody. The next few posts will be about how a lawyer deals with complex criminal matters such as rape, right from the beginning when the victim walks into the lawyer's Chamber.
However, what is different about these posts is that they will be in the form of a story.
Meet A, a lawyer working in the District Courts in Saket, New Delhi. A woman walks into her Chamber one day and tells A that she has been raped. Follow A's journey as she navigates through the corridors of the District Court and read about how a criminal trial progresses in the real world.
Warning - The post contains explicit content and references to sexual assault/ abuse/ rape. It may act as a trigger so please proceed reading with caution and at your own risk.
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| Image Credits - http://images.mapsofindia.com/my-india/2014/12/rape-laws-in-india.jpg |
It started off as any ordinary day would in A’s office. She woke up early, cooked food for her son and herself, sent him to school and left for work. As she pulled out her white kurta, she realized the maid had washed it with the blue bed sheets and instead of white, it was a pale blue. She made a mental note to yell at the maid that weekend and pulled out a shirt instead, hurriedly proceeding with the rest of the chores before she hired an auto to the Saket District Court premises.
She exchanged pleasantries with several other lawyers before she finally made her way to her Chamber on the fourth floor, and by the time she had settled inside and gone through the files for that day, it was almost 9:55 am . She left the Chamber and hurried towards the Court. She could feel prying eyes glaring at her as she walked up to the Courtroom, but as she had done for the past five years, she ignored that feeling of being stared at and instead focused on her day ahead.
She had two matters listed for the day. In one of them, she had to seek instructions from a client who had managed to find time to relentlessly stalk women on the web, yet somehow, he did not have twenty seconds to instruct his advocate about the case. She would seek a date for that and bill his rich father, partly for her effort but mostly for dealing with his son. Her second matter was related to eviction of a tenant who had become particularly attached to the place and also particularly friendly with the local goons. Her client was a thin wiry man who had found no other alternative after months of pleading with the tenant had yielded no result and in the recent few months, no rent as well. It was a summary proceeding and the opposing counsel had filed a leave to defend, but as she was thinking about the possible outcomes of that day while entering the Courtroom, she saw that the Judge was on leave and the Reader was giving out dates for the next hearing.
Hoping she was just in time, “Akhil v Ram, June 5th” the Reader called out.
“Please give me another date in July” she shouted from the back, pushing her way to the front.
He was frowning, ‘Not in a good mood’, she thought. “It is my son’s summer vacation” she told him in a low voice. He grumbled and then said “July 6th”. “Thank you!” she told him, visibly relieved. The opposing counsel was nowhere to be seen.
She walked back to her Chamber in good spirits.
As she came closer, she noticed a woman standing outside. A few steps away from the door, it became clear that she was waiting for her.
“Can I help you?” asked A.
“Yes” the woman whispered.
A glanced at her outfit, a thin cotton kurta, a little faded but very clean and a shawl which was frayed at the edges, owing to years of wearing it.
She unlocked the Chamber and showed her inside. The woman sat, clasped her wrists and A waited for her to get comfortable. She had seen these things before, and she was pretty sure what it was.
The woman hesitated at first, and then said, in a low voice. “I need your help. C’s parents told me you helped their daughter immensely. I was raped.”
A reached to the drawer and pulled out a legal pad. There was a time for emotion and there was a time to be analytical and precise, while she hoped that this frail woman could answer the sensitive questions that she was about to ask her, given that what she underwent, allegedly underwent, the lawyer corrected the woman in her, is the most traumatic experience any human being could ever go through.
“When did this happen?” she asked her.
“One week ago.”
“When was the FIR filed?” asked A.
“One day later.”
“Do you have all the details of the FIR, such as the lodging no., name of the police station? Actually, any possible information that could help me take out a copy of the FIR”, insisted A.
The woman quickly pulled out a typed sheet of paper, well adjusted beneath her shawl and handed it over to A.
A heaved a sigh of relief as she bent forward to take it. It looked like a typed copy of the complaint, barely legible though, as handed over to the woman by the police. A had a cursory glance at it and jotted down all necessary details including the FIR number, concerned police station, specific sections of the IPC that had been invoked etc.
“Did you undergo a medical examination?” asked A.
“Yes, the police chaps took me to AIIMS for my MLC. The doctor there examined me and filed his report.”
A saw her lips quiver.
“What happened there?” she enquired gently.
“The doctor asked me to spread my legs and I don’t know what happened next. I had closed my eyes. I felt so ashamed. They then sent me to the bathroom to get them a sample of my urine. I have never been so mortified. They all knew something had happened, and they were all trying to help me, but I didn’t feel like I wanted to go through with it. The police guy (read Investigating Officer) accompanying me told me it was important, and there were a lot of other tests which I must undertake.”
‘Vaginal swabs and urine cultures’ thought A and made a note of it, so she could check the contents of the charge sheet which was now a part of the court record.
“What happened next?” enquired A.
“The police guys then asked me to give them all my clothes which I was wearing when the ra… when it happened. I was going to throw it away in disgust, but luckily, I hadn’t. They were at home and I gave it to them.”
“What did you give them?” asked A.
“My blue saree, a yellow blouse and a yellow petticoat, all unwashed.”
“And?” asked A, trying to keep the impatience from her voice and still trying to be as gentle as possible.
“A black bra and white panties.” she said in a low voice with her eyes downcast.
A wrote blue saree, yellow blouse, yellow petticoat, black bra and white panties on the pad, she would have to check the seizure memo and ensure that the police had mentioned all the garments with a detailed description of each in it.
“The police officer then told me that I had to make a statement before some judge next.”
“Was there anybody with you through the whole thing?” asked A.
“No.” said the woman “My family did not want anything to do with me after I married my husband because he belonged to a different caste, and he died a few years back.”
A saw that this woman was truly alone and a stab of pity went through her, only to be replaced with professional concern about confirming the contents of the Section 164 statement that the police had filed, as an integral part of the charge sheet.
End of Part One
Peering out from behind The Witness Stand:
Advocate Shriya Maini (Content Creator) is a young, bright, scholarly, advocate turned entrepreneur currently practicing at the Supreme Court of India, the Delhi High Court and the district courts at New Delhi. She specializes in dispute resolution and as an unabashed feminist, particularly enjoys criminal litigation. She is a graduate of Gujarat National Law University, India who then pursued the Bachelor of Civil Laws programme on a full scholarship (Dr. Mrs Ambruti Salve Scholarship) sponsored by Dr. Harish Salve, Senior Advocate from the University of Oxford, specializing in International Crime. As a recipient of the Oxford Global Justice Award 2015 for Public International Law, she assisted the President of the International Residual Mechanism for the Criminal Tribunals (MICT) at The Hague, Netherlands. She is now back in the Courts of Delhi, India to pursue her passion in litigation.
Ms. Chethana Venkataraghavan (Editor) is currently a fifth year law student at Gujarat National Law University. She was part of the team that won Surana and Surana Corporate Law Moot Court Competition, 2013 and the Philip.C.Jessup International Moot Court Competition, India Rounds, 2016. She was adjudged the Best Speaker of the Finals at the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition, Asia Pacific Rounds, 2014. She is passionate about blogging and is currently involved in an initiative – Examofsmile - that aims to reduce levels of stress and depression among law students across the country.
