Abbas Kazmi is new counsel

A day after Anjali Waghmare’s appointment as Mohammed Ajmal Amir’s lawyer was revoked, Abbas Kazmi has been asked to represent him.

In what is perhaps a first, Kazmi, a private lawyer, has been appointed a legal aid counsel though he is not part of the legal aid panel. This means he will be paid more than what lawyers on the panel get. A legal aid panel is meant to provide free legal services to those who do not have the means to employ a lawyer. Lawyers on the panel are paid by the state.

Observing that the legal aid fees (Rs900 per case) were not reasonable, additional sessions judge ML Tahiliyani ordered that the state government “is expected to grant reasonable fees to the advocate”. The fee was last revised in October 1997.

An experienced criminal trial lawyer, Kazmi, 54, has appeared for the accused in the 1993 Bombay blasts case, the 1997 Gulshan Kumar murder case, and the case against alleged Indian Mujahideen operatives last year.

Judge Tahiliyani quoted from a Bombay High Court judgment which set aside a conviction in a murder trial because the accused was not represented. The order said it was not possible for senior lawyers to appear as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in all matters.