Gangrape; counsel for accused absent, court appoints amicus

The repeated failure of one of the counsel for the accused to appear in the trial of the December 16 gangrape case prompted the fast-track court here to appoint an amicus curiae in the case.
The court said there was a need for appointment of amicus curiae to represent Mukesh, one of the six accused as his counsel M L Sharma is not appearing regularly in the trial being conducted on day-to-day basis.
Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna said "I feel appropriate to appoint amicus curiae to assist the court in future".
"I had inquired from the accused Mukesh yesterday if he intends to have any other lawyer from Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and he replied in negative.

"Looking at the fact that the counsel of accused Mukesh, M L Sharma is not appearing regularly and that since the trial is being conducted on a day-to-day basis, I feel it appropriate to appoint amicus curiae to assist the court in future in case such situation arises," the judge said in its five-page order.
The judge, has appointed Advocate Rajeev Jain as an amicus curiae to assist the court in future.
Advocate Sharma, who is defending accused Mukesh, was for the last three days reportedly stuck in the Supreme Court or at the Delhi High Court for hearing of the matter related to same cases.

Sharma today arrived ahead of the scheduled time of the hearing to inform the court that he could not be present on account of another hearing at the Delhi High Court and was told by the judge to be present when the hearing began.