Suspects’ Rights in India: Comparative Law and the Right to Legal Assistance as Drivers for Reform

This book examines the procedural, cultural, and institutional framework of custodial interrogation in India. It explores theoretical and practical perspectives on custodial interrogation practices in India which have been in urgent need for reform and critiques the systemic failure on the part of the police in India to implement suspects’ rights uniformly.

This volume,

― Analyses the Indian framework of custodial interrogation to identify its fundamental flaws, and emphasises on the need for having a lawyer present during custodial interrogation;

― Demonstrates significant evidence on state of suspects’ rights in India through comparative law methodologies with a focus on common law scholarship and jurisprudence, more particularly England and Wales, and supplemented by vital empirical research through key interviews with related institutional parties;

― Discusses emerging, seminal jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights on applications of the right to fair trial at the custodial interrogation stage, especially shedding light on modern applications of the right to legal assistance in England and Wales, and radical Strasbourg-inspired reforms in other European jurisdictions;

― Highlights the right to legal assistance as one of the viable solutions to break the culture of police lawlessness at this critical stage of the criminal process.

An invigorating study, this book is aimed at enriching data and hypothesis for academics, policy makers, civil society organizations, and students working in the area of law and legal studies, police and policing, citizenship, and political science.

Prejal Shah is presently working as a Lecturer in law at the University of Lincoln, UK. Her current research involves custodial legal assistance during police interrogation during COVID-19 in a comparative perspective.