Videos
ILI-Kerala State Unit | Online Lecture Series: Understanding Forensic Evidence, The Role Of Legal Professionals
Shreya Rastogi, Director of Death Penalty Litigation and Forensics recently shared her practical experience on the role of forensic evidence within the criminal justice system and how it must be examined as part of the series of online lectures hosted by the Indian Law Institute Kerala state unit.
Is It Time To Do Away With The Death Penalty In India?
The Indian criminal justice system is incapable of administering the death penalty fairly, says Anup Surendranath, Executive Director of Project 39A.
Why 2022 Was Significant For Capital Punishment In India | Article 14
There were 539 prisoners on death row in India in 2022, the largest number in 18 years, according to the annual death penalty report from Project 39A, a think tank and advocacy. This year the Supreme Court acknowledged the need to reexamine the framework for capital punishment for the first time since it was laid down in a landmark 1980 judgement. The lead researchers of the report on why 2022 was a landmark year for the death penalty.
Constitutional validity of the PMLA | P39A Criminal Law Blog
We have now concluded our extensive analysis of the PMLA judgment. The articles & podcasts on the P39A Criminal Law Blog have looked at multiple aspects of the judgment to understand its gaps & consequences for the rule of law.
Death row to acquittal - Support Momin, Sajid and Jaikam in rebuilding their lives
On 18th December 2021, Momin, Jaikam and Sajid walked out of Agra prison after being acquitted by the Supreme Court. They had spent 8 years in prison, including 6 on death row. They were wrongly convicted of murdering 6 members of a family. Their hard-earned savings were spent on fighting the case to prove their innocence. Their families had to borrow money, cut down trees and even lose their homes.
Mental Health and Criminal Law I Online Course | FutureLearn | Trailer
Project 39A in collaboration with Eleos Justice at Monash University has developed a course on forensic mental health and criminal justice. This four week course explores the legal and forensic mental health aspects in three broad areas - fitness to stand trial, the defense of insanity, and the role of mental health in capital punishment cases.
Decoding Forensics for Legal Professionals l Free online course l Trailer
Decoding Forensics for Legal Professionals is a six-week free online course curated by Project 39A in collaboration with Eleos Justice at Monash University. This interdisciplinary course on forensic science and law, explores the scientific concepts underlying forensic pathology, medical examination in cases of sexual offences, bite mark evidence and forensic DNA profiling.
Is Any Forensic Science 100% Foolproof | Online Course | Teaser
To learn more join ‘Decoding Forensics for Legal Professionals’, a free 6-week online course curated by Project 39A's forensics team Shreya Rastogi, Devina Sikdar & Devina Malaviya.
Does Insanity Excuse You From Criminal Responsibility | Online Course | Teaser
The Mental Health & Criminal Justice team at Project 39A, Maitreyi Misra and Soumya AK have developed a free self-paced 4 week online course ‘Forensic Mental Health and Criminal Justice’.
The P39A Criminal Law Blog completes one year!
[4th Annual Lecture] Looking Beyond the Crime: BioPsychoSocial Insights for Criminal Law
The 4th Project 39A Annual Lecture on Criminal Law will be delivered by Dr. Pratima Murthy, Director and Professor of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bangalore. The lecture will reflect on cutting edge interdisciplinary research on biological, psychological, and sociological factors that influence crime and criminality.
क्या मानसिक रोगी व्यक्ति को फांसी दी जानी चाहिए?
डेथवर्थी, भारत में मौत की सजा पाने वाले कैदियों की मनोसामाजिक वास्तविकताओं पर अपनी तरह की पहली रिपोर्ट है, जिसमें पाया गया है की मौत की सजा की पीड़ाओं से भुगतने वाले अधिकांश कैदियां बरी हो जाते हैं या उनकी सजा कम हो जाती है।
19th World Day Against the Death Penalty: In conversation with Justice Madan B Lokur
Should a person with mental illness be executed?
Deathworthy, a first of its kind report on the psychosocial realities of death row prisoners in India, finds that a majority of prisoners languish on death row only to be acquitted or have their sentence commuted.
The Dissenter as Criminal: Reflections on Dissent and the Law
The lecture reflects on the theoretical roots of the idea of treating dissenters as potential threats to the state, and the legal strategies used to control them. It provides a broader perspective on the current crisis of liberal constitutionalism in India and its implications for criminal and constitutional law alike.
Who is the Perpetrator: An Exploration of Sexual Violence in India
Why is the death penalty failing in India?
The death penalty is an arbitrary, unjust and barbaric form of revenge, employed by a broken criminal justice system. It is a punishment reserved for the socially and economically marginalised. It is anything but justice.
Things you must know about Forensic Science and Criminal Law | Project 39A
What is forensic science? How should law evaluate forensic evidence? Did Dr Salunke in CID lie to us about forensic science? Shreya Rastogi and Devina Sikdar answer these questions and more in a fun and engaging vodcast on ‘Forensic Science and Criminal Law’.
Custodial Violence in Indian Cinema | Vetrimaaran, Hansal Mehta & Anushka Shah | Project 39A
We have accustomed ourselves to police violence in cinema. But what are the implications of these representations when we see police brutality in real life? Bennicks & Jayaraj's murder reveal the banality of police violence in India. Project 39A curated a conversation on custodial violence in Indian cinema between Hansal Mehta, Vetrimaaran & Anushka Shah.
Panel Discussion: Legal Aid and the Criminal Justice System.
Project 39A organised a panel discussion titled The Difficulty of Equal Justice: Legal Aid and the Criminal Justice System on October 17, 2019 in Bangalore. The panel comprising Justice Madan B Lokur (Former Judge, Supreme Court of India), Professor Vijay Raghavan ( Professor, Centre for Criminology and Justice, TISS), Adv. Aarti Mundkur (Advocate, Bangalore), Adv. Monica Sakhrani (Senior Advisor, Fair Trial Fellowship, Project39A, NLU Delhi), and Dr. Anup Surendranath (Executive Director, Project 39A, NLU Delhi) discussed the state of legal aid in India by locating it within the larger criminal justice system. Among discussion on various aspects of the legal aid system, the panel delved into the structural problems within the system and the concerns around the quality of lawyering in legal aid cases.
40 Years of Death Penalty Sentencing: The Uncertain Legacy of Bachan Singh
Project 39A organised a conversation with Senior Advocate Rebecca John on May 15, 2020 on the occasion of 40 years of the Indian Supreme Court Constitution Bench decision in Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab (1980) which laid down what is popularly known as the 'rarest of rare' sentencing framework to guide judicial discretion available to sentencing courts in capital cases. The conversation covered controversial legal developments, death penalty litigation strategies, lessons and questions that arise from the most recent executions, and the findings from our trial court study of death sentence judgments from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Delhi covering a 16-year period from 2000 to 2015.
40 years after Bachan Singh - Death Penalty Sentencing in India
It has been 40 years since the Supreme Court in May 1980 upheld the constitutional validity of the death penalty in India and laid down a framework on deciding which individuals deserve death. But what has happened to this framework in the 40 years since the decision in Bachan Singh? Judicial confusion and arbitrariness afflicting death penalty sentencing seem to have only aggravated in the last 4 decades.
Panel Discussion: Judicial Attitudes towards the Death Penalty
Project 39A organised an event in Bangalore on September 19, 2019 on Judicial Attitudes Towards the Criminal Justice System and the Death Penalty. The discussion was based on Matters of Judgment (an opinion study conducted with 60 former Indian Supreme Court judges by Project 39A) and a similar study with 30 trial court judges in Bangladesh. The panelists were Justice Gopala Gowda (Former Judge, Supreme Court of India), Prof. Carolyn Hoyle (Professor, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford) Mr. Saul Lehrfreund (Co-executive Director, Death Penalty Project, UK) Dr. Mahabub-ur. Rahman (Professor, Department of Law, Dhaka University) and Dr. Anup Surendranath (Professor of Law and Executive Director, Project 39A, NLU Delhi).
Second Annual Lecture 2019: Carceral Politics of Sexual Violence by Dr. Prabha Kotiswaran
Project 39A hosted Dr. Prabha Kotiswaran to deliver the 2nd edition of its Annual Lecture in Criminal Law on 22nd November 2019 , to initiate re-thinking on carceral approaches of the state towards crimes against women. The lecture is relevant given the increasingly carceral responses evident in a wave of recent laws (both passed and proposed) dealing with rape, sexual assault, child sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, trafficking, surrogacy and triple talaq, to name a few. Dr. Kotiswaran effectively uses the case studies of the legal framework around rape and trafficking to discuss the processes and implications of punitive projects of the state in response to sexual violence.
Interview with Julian McMahon (Capital Defence Lawyer)
Project 39A interviewed Julian McMahon at the 7th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Brussels, Belgium in March 2019. Julian McMahon is a senior criminal lawyer in Australia and has represented many persons across jurisdictions in death penalty cases, the most well-known is that of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran of the Bali 9.
Global Migration of Bachan Singh's Rarest of Rare Framework (17 September, 2019)
The panel discussion on 17th September 2019 at the India International Centre organised by Project 39A, National Law University, Delhi on the 'Global Migration of Bachan Singh's Rarest of Rare Framework' with panelists Adv. Siddhartha Dave [Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India], Prof. Carolyn Hoyle [Professor of Criminology, University of Oxford] , Mr. Saul Lehrfreund [ Co-founder, Death Penalty Project, UK] and Dr. Anup Surendranath [Executive Director, Project 39A]. The discussion is centered around the evolution of the rarest of rare doctrine in death penalty sentencing and its application in Indian Courts and other Commonwealth jurisdictions.
The 39A Podcast [Episode 4]: Dr. Soumitra Pathare on Mental Health and Criminal Justice
In this episode of the 39A Podcast, Maitreyi Misra from Project 39A, National Law University, Delhi, interviews Dr. Soumitra Pathare, consultant psychiatrist and Director, Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy, ILS, Pune. In this conversation, we explore the criminal justice system's misconceived approach to issues of mental health and the misconceptions surrounding persons with mental illness implicated in it.
The 39A Podcast [Episode 3]: In Conversation with Justice Kurian Joseph on the Death Penalty
In this episode of the 39A Podcast, Dr. Anup Surendranath from Project 39A, National Law University, Delhi, interviews Justice Kurian Joseph, former judge of the Supreme Court of India between March 2013 and November 2018. In this conversation, we use the last judgment that Justice Joseph delivered as a judge of the Supreme Court to reflect on the administration of the death penalty in India.
The 39A Podcast [Episode 2] - Bollywood's Law and Justice
In this episode of the 39A Podcast, we interview film critic and journalist, Tanul Thakur who discusses Bollywood’s depiction of law and justice. We discuss the idea of the justice system as represented in mainstream Hindi cinema - what the ‘system’ means to people and who is seen as part of it. We discuss how ‘justice’ plays out in Bollywood. How different is it from legal justice? Finally, we discuss the larger impact of commonly used visual narratives and the contemporary social discourse that it seems to reflect.
Police Torture in India: The Ryan School Case
In September 2017 Ashok Kumar was arrested for the alleged murder of Pradyuman in the Ryan School Case. He initially confessed to the crime before the media the next day after his arrest. Ashok Kumar was subsequently given a clean chit by the Central Bureau of Investigation. In this video, Ashok Kumar’s lawyer talks about the torture meted out that led to the confession and the impact that it continues to have on him till date.
Inaugural Annual Lecture: Crime, Punishment and Justice in India (2018)
In an attempt to facilitate the discourse on criminal law development, Project 39A hosted its inaugural criminal law lecture on 28th September, 2018. Justice S. Muralidhar (Judge, Delhi High Court) spoke about ‘Crime, Punishment and Justice in India: The Trajectories of Criminal Law in India and introductory remarks were given by Dr. Menaka Guruswamy (Advocate, Supreme Court of India).
Realities of Child Sexual Abuse in India
Dr. Shekhar P. Seshadri, Professor, Department of Child and Adolscent Psychiatry, National Institutie of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore introduces us to the various facets of child sexual abuse in India. Dr. Seshadri discusses different forms of child sexual abuse and the conspiracy of silence around it. In this video, Dr. Seshadri also explains the trauma of abuse and the process of healing of a child.
The Philosophy of Prison and Punishment
Professor Vijay Raghavan, Centre for Criminology and Justice, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai responds to popular conceptions about prisons in India. Drawing on over 25 years of experience engaging with the criminal justice system, Professor Raghavan provides an interesting take on issues of reformation, prison expenditure & the overall conditions of prisoners in India.
The 39A Podcast [Episode 1] - Beggary, torture, insanity and Burari
CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE: EXPERIENCING (IN)JUSTICE IN INDIA
In 2018, India saw the issue of sexual violence against young children come into the limelight after a series of cases were highlighted by the media. In response, the Government amended existing laws to introduce harsher punishments, including the death penalty for rape of a girl child of 12 and below. While the move appears to have populist appeal, it is imperative we look at the realities of Child Sexual Violence in India and respond accordingly. This video brings forth the realities of child victims while interacting with the criminal justice system in the pursuit of "justice".
HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND TO CHILD SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN INDIA?
Child rights activists, survivors of child sexual violence and their family members, mental health professionals, lawyers, and policemen discuss the response needed to the increase in sexual violence against children.