Chennai: It was a morning of anecdotes, interesting stories on cases and a lot of friendly banter between advocates and judges at the Tamilnadu Bar council buildings on Sunday. This was at an event to release a book on forensic science Scientific Evidence in Criminal Investigation by Madras HC advocate, C.E. Pratap — at which three High Court judges were present. “The choice is between not reading everything and becoming a successful lawyer and reading everything and becoming a successful author,” said Justice V. Ramasubramaniam, the chief guest for the event as the hall erupted in laughter.
The observation was made in jest to an earlier comment by Madras High Court advocates association president R.C. Paul Kanagaraj when he said that they did not even know the clauses in the Indian Evidences Act attributing it to the complex Victorian language. True to his style, the chief guest said, “I don’t know anything about scientific evidence or about criminal investigation. In my 32-year career, I have never handled criminal cases.”
Even before the laughter could subside, he quickly added, “The reason being, if I handle such cases, that would be the greatest crime,” However, he quickly noted the importance of scientific evidence with changing times and recalled the ‘Bhawal sanyasi’ case in which forensic evidences forced the judges to rule that the Sanyasi was the prince of Bhawal estate (now in Bangaldesh) who was presumed dead a decade ago.
Justice P.N.Prakash, in praising the book highlighted that a major part of it deals with forensic science and said how important the particular branch was for advocates.“In the Indian sub-continent, unlike other countries, confession to police is inadmissible. Thus our investigations has been accused centric and if the accused is a clever person, he can derail any investigation,’ he said expressing anguish that, “Best criminal lawyer nowadays is someone who can turn the witness hostile.”
Earlier, Paul Kanagaraj took the opportunity to take a jibe at sessions and civil court judges saying that there is no uniformity in their judgments and also alleged that judgments came at a price. Justice M.M.Sundresh, the author’s mentor, received the first copy of the book from the chief guest.
