The Supreme Court has appreciated the gesture of amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran and his junior Gaurav Agrawal in not accepting their legal fee in the Kasab case — Rs. 14. 5 lakh — and directed the Maharashtra government to distribute this amount equally in six weeks to the kin of 18 policemen and other security personnel killed in the 26/11 Mumbai carnage.
A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and C.K. Prasad, while upholding the death sentence awarded to Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab, had asked the Maharashtra government to pay Mr. Ramachandran and Mr. Agrawal Rs. 11 lakh and 3.50 lakh respectively as token remuneration for their valuable assistance to the court.
(Senior counsel Gopal Subramanium, who appeared for Maharashtra, accepted Re. 1 as token remuneration.)
After the judgment, Mr. Ramachandran and Mr. Agrawal filed a joint application requesting the court that their remuneration be given to the Supreme Court or Maharashtra legal services authority or any other body which could help poor and needy litigants. Accordingly, the Bench on Wednesday modified the earlier direction. It said, “We appreciate the high standards of professional ethics set by Mr. Raju Ramachandran and Mr. Agrawal.”
It’s Judicial Academy
The Bench also pointed out that what was referred to as ‘National Judicial Authority’ in its earlier judgment should read as the National Judicial Academy.
The relevant paragraph should read: “From the records of the case, he [trial judge M.L. Tahiliani] appears to be a stern, no-nonsense person. But he is a true flag-bearer of the rule of law in this country. The manner in which he conducted the trial proceedings and maintained the record is exemplary. We seriously recommend that the trial court records of this case be included in the curriculum of the National Judicial Academy and the judicial academies of the different States as a model for criminal trial proceedings.”
