Law vs conscience: Kasab defence a weak case

LAW AND BEHOLD: CNN-IBN panel debates if Ajmal Kasab should get a legal defence.

      

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Mohmmad Ajmal Amir Kasab - the only 26/11 terrorist to be captured alive – has now asked for legal aid.

His trial needs to start but lawyers in Mumbai have refused to take up his case and the Shiv Sena is openly attacking any lawyer who offers to defend him.

But top lawyers say however horrifying be the crime allegedly committed by any individual, India’s liberal constitutional democracy allows him the right of a fair trial. This right of the individual to defend himself, they say, is the very pivot of our democracy.

CNN-IBN debate on Face The Nation if Kasab is entitled to proper legal defence?

To debate the issue on the panel of experts were senior lawyer and Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani; senior lawyer Harish Salve; President Bombay Metropolitan Magistrate Court's Bar Association Rohini Wagh; and Shiv Sena MP from Rajya Sabha and senior journalist Bharat Kumar Raut.

Advocate Mahesh Deshmukh has now offered to defend Kasab - if Kasab gives his consent. Deshmukh is now seeking permission to meet him. The initial results of the SMS poll show that 35 per cent of those who voted in on the show say that Kasab should get legal aid but a majority - 65 per cent - said that he was not entitled to proper legal defence.

KASAB: A PARIAH FOR LAWYERS?

Reacting to a statement made by BJP MP and senior journalist, Arun Shourie that "best lawyers should not be made available to criminals, smugglers and terrorists. The fact that terrorists and smugglers get legal support from the best of our advocates makes their case stronger", Ram Jethmalani said that this was the most ridiculous statement that he had ever heard.