Book Release "Chaff and Grain (Guilt, Innocense And The Dilemmas Of Justice)" By Vivek Sood

The event progressed with a panel discussion on the dilemmas faced by the India Criminal Justice System. It was anchored by Senior Advocate Ms. Rebecca Mammen John. The panel consisted of several dignitaries including Senior Advocates Mr. Vikas Singh, Mr. Mohit Mathur, Mr. Siddharth Dave and the author himself, Mr. Vivek Sood. During the panel, Ms. Rebecca asked the panellists their views on several questions and also illustrated the facts of cases she has been involved with, to keep the audience engaged and gripped with the ongoing session.

Some of the pertinent questions on which Ms. John threw light were:

• Is there justice in our justice system?
• In your experience, do you also feel that the criminal justice system suffers because courts do not ultimately stand up enough for the rights of the citizens?
• Isn’t it time where we talk about false cases, we focus on the one area that we are somehow hesitant to talk about and those are cases where state shows its power on innocent citizens and ensures that they are incarcerated for years on end?
• When do you think someone will look at the all India pendency and decide that some of these cases just have to be closed?
• What is this fetish we have with creating more and more courts for corruption matters and special courts for MPs and MlAs? Why are we not prioritising the cases where people have suffered, where human body is involved? And why are we looking at these big-ticket cases and allocating one judge for one case?

The panel discussion was followed by the unveiling of the book and address by the chief guest and the Guest of honour. In his address to the public Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani talked about the art of writing and also mentioned about his willingness to write a book as well. He also mentioned the quality of law which attracted him to the profession.

“When I switched to law, one of the predominance was the topicality and the immediate relevance and the relatability of the subject of law. As opposed to a career in science where you would be sitting in a laboratory by yourself and nobody shares anything with you, you don’t share anything with anyone, its not live. As opposed to that, law, I found, with the little exposure I had, was a live profession. And that major reason for switching from science to law, for me remains true even today.” He said.

Regarding the book, he mentioned “I commend the rhythm of his writing and it makes for an easy read. But he does more that that. Vivek answers some of the most commonly asked questions on the criminal justice system in his typical simple comprehensive manner and he also makes some suggestions going forward…”

Finally, Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri, the chief guest, addressed the gathering and mentioned the cases discussed in the panel. He also highlighted several dynamic issues of the criminal justice system in our country.

This book is full of crime stories such as Aarushi, Nirbhaya, Jessica Lal, Priyadarshini Mattoo, Telgi, Arnab Goswami, Amish Devgan, Hyderabad fake encounters and many more. The book is for lawyers, judges, legislators, and law enforcement policymakers as well as general readers interested in the subject.