In light of Supreme Court's recent judgment upholding various provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 Shivani Misra of Project 39A speaks to Senior Advocate Aman Lekhi on what the Supreme Court could have done differently while balancing the rights of the individual against the State's power. 

Visit https://p39ablog.com/2022/07/27/pmla-explained/

The Supreme Court's PMLA Judgment: The Paths Not Taken

In light of the recent Supreme Court judgement in Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary, Harsh Srivastava speaks to Arshdeep Singh Khurana about navigating future money-laundering cases from the perspective of a defence lawyer. Mr. Singh represented a number of petitioners in this case, and has an extensive legal practice in the courts of New Delhi, and Punjab and Haryana.

The Supreme Court’s PMLA Judgement: Insights for Defence Lawyers

In this episode of the 39A Podcast, Aditya Mehta speaks to Senior Advocate Aabad Ponda about the limits of the recent Supreme Court judgement in addressing an accused’s right against self-incrimination. 

Access our exclusive coverage of the PMLA judgement here -  www.p39ablog.com/2022/07/27/pmla-explained/

The Supreme Court’s PMLA judgement: Undermining the right against self-incrimination?

The widely critiqued Supreme Court decision in Vijay Mandanlal Chaudhary is pending review. In this context, Shri Singh and Maneka Khanna discuss broader issues with the Supreme Court’s judgement and the money laundering law, particularly, the grave implications of a special law devoid of clarity, certainty and workability. Mr Singh is a criminal defence lawyer, with extensive experience litigating white-collar crimes and offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

The Supreme Court’s PMLA judgement: Perspectives on the frailties of the PMLA

In this episode of the 39A Podcast, Neetika Vishwanath is in conversation with Kirsten Han, journalist and anti-depth penalty activist based in Singapore. In the backdrop of an alarming rate of executions in Singapore in 2022, Kirsten gives the listeners a first-hand account. The Podcast discusses the anti-drug trafficking law in Singapore, the 2012 amendment and its problematic implementation, discriminatory use of the death penalty, and hefty fines on death penalty lawyers. Kirsten also reflects on Singaporean government’s unverified assumption that the death penalty deters the use of drugs.

The Mandatory Death Penalty for Drug-Trafficking in Singapore: Effective or Excessive?

In this podcast, Project 39A's Director (Sentencing) Neetika Vishwanath speaks to Dr. Mayur Suresh (Senior Lecturer, SOAS University of London) on his recently published book 'Terror Trials: Life and Law in Delhi's Courts'. The book is an ethnographic study of Delhi's Tis Hazari court over 14 months during which Dr. Suresh followed 18 terrorism trials. In this conversation, Dr. Suresh reflects on the relevance of ethnography as a method of legal research and the value of studying everyday life in trial courts. Looking beyond the exceptionalism framework in academia that is often used to describe terrorism laws and trials, ethnography allowed Dr. Suresh to capture ways in which terror accused use legal procedures and technicalities to engage with the law.

Terror Trials: Life and Law in Delhi’s Courts

Dr. Penelope Tong (Fieldwork Supervisor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences) discusses her doctoral research on the needs of families of murder victims in Mumbai, with Baljeet Kaur (former senior mitigation investigator at P39A).

Dr. Tong’s research finds that most cases of murder arise due to escalation of interpersonal conflicts, particularly in socio-economically impoverished communities. Though the police are often approached at the first instance of strained interpersonal dynamics, they are ill-equipped to resolve and prevent further conflict. Further, in the aftermath of murder, victims’ families are forced to navigate emotional distress, alienation and an inaccessible legal system. For victims’ families to heal and move forward, a holistic recognition of their needs and a conception of justice that goes beyond punishing the offender, is required. 

Can the criminal justice system, as it stands today, address such complex needs and treat families of victims justly? In this podcast, Dr. Penelope Tong and Baljeet Kaur discuss the need for the criminal justice system to expand its imagination of justice for families of murder victims.

Piecemeal justice: Inadequacy of equating punishment with justice for victims’ families

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. 

Tanul Thakur interviewed by Ruchi Chaudhury, Project 39A.
Producer: Priya Naresh
Technical Assistance: Baldev Singh

Works that aided research for this episode:
‘Vigilantism and Mob Justice Are Glorified by Bollywood and That Is a Big Problem’ (The Wire) by Anushka Shah
‘Portrayal of Police Torture In Hindi Films and Television Serials and its impact on Children’ (CEHAT & CVICT) by Kiran Shaheen
‘The politics of India’s conventional cinema’ (1999) by Fareed Kazmi

39A Podcast - Bollywood's Law and Justice [Episode 2]

Project 39A is a criminal justice organisation based out of National Law University, Delhi, which provides pro-bono legal representation and engages in research on a variety of criminal justice issues. The 39A Podcast is our endeavour to make contemporary issues in criminal justice accessible. You can read more about us on our website, and follow us on social media

39A Podcast - Bollywood's Law and Justice [Episode 2]

Project 39A, NLU Delhi

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