Fitness to Stand Trial in India: The Legacy of Machal Lalung

Abstract

The tragic detention of Machal Lalung in Assam in north eastern India for over 54 years after he was found unfit to stand trial on a minor charge of assault is sobering and confronting. He was kept in a psychiatric hospital for over 26 years and then, when found fit for release, remitted to a prison where he served another 28 years until he was released, an old man of 77. There are many lessons to be learned by institutions in all countries that deal with persons who have the potential to be out of sight and whose circumstances may not be subject to public awareness and effective monitoring. Complacency, prejudice and wrong assumptions can easily lead to liberty being compromised and even forfeited, thereby generating tragic outcomes for vulnerable persons.

Key words:

• fitness to stand trial
• hospitalization
• jail
• complacency
• miscarriage of justice

Notes

1. See eg SB Math, ‘Fitness to Stand Trial’ <http://www.nimhans.kar.nic.in/prison/chapter_11-f__stand_trial.pdf> accessed 10 May 2014.

2. See DR Nambi, ‘Legal Aspects of Psychiatry’ <http://www.cnsindia.com/depression/medical_professional/educational/for_you/pdf/legal_aspects_of_psychiatry.pdf> accessed 10 May 2014.

3. See A Bartlett and G McGauley, Forensic Mental Health: Concepts, Systems and Practice (OUP, 2009), p 376.

4. See D Nath, ‘A Miscarriage of Justice’ <http://www.tifr.res.in/~tss/?p=363> accessed 10 May 2014.

5. A Khosa and SG Kashyap, ‘Who Will Pay for Destroying 54 Years of this Man?’ (13 October 2005) Indian Express (Bombay) <http://www.unipune.ac.in/snc/cssh/HumanRights/01%20STATE%20DEMOCRACY%20AND%20LAW/47.pdf> accessed 10 May 2014.

6. S Bhaumik, ‘Cash Award for 50-Year Jail Error’ (11 January 2006) BBC News <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4601414.stm> accessed 10 May 2014.

7. R Venkataraman, ‘Apex Court Livid Over Dispur Delay in Lalung Case’ (2 December 2005) The Telegraph (Calcutta) <http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051203/asp/northeast/story_5551951.asp> accessed 10 May 2014.

8. ‘Probe 54-Year Incarceration in Hospital, Court Tells Assam’ The Hindu (10 January 2006) <http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/probe-54year-incarceration-in-hospital-court-tells-assam/article3237702.ece> accessed 10 May 2014.

9. ‘Man Sent Home After 5 Decades in Mental Asylum’ DNA (16 October 2005) <http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-man-sent-home-after-five-decades-in-mental-asylum> accessed 10 May 2014.

10. ‘Man Released After 5 Decades in Mental Asylum’ (16 October 2005) Express India: <http://expressindia.indianexpress.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=56709> accessed 10 May 2014.

11. B Das, ‘Half-Century in Mental Asylum a Mistake’ (18 October 2005) Island Mix <http://www.islandmix.com/backchat/f11/half-century-mental-asylum-mistake-106242/> accessed 10 May 2014.

12. Re Illegal Detention of Machal Lalung v Union of India, Supreme Court of India, 24 October 2007.

13. Ibid, at [2].

14. Ibid, at [2].

15. Ibid, at [8].

16. Shortly afterwards the NHRC took up the cases of four other men awaiting trial in Assam: Khalilur Rehman who had been in custody for 35 years, Anil Kumar Burman for 33 years, and Sonamani Deb for 32 years, while Parbati Mallik had been detained in a psychiatric unit for 32 years: see P Zora, ‘Fifty-Four Years in Jail Without Trial: The Plight of Prison Inmates in India’ <https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2005/08/indi-a26.html> accessed 10 May 2014.

17. See ‘50 Years Ago, They Put Him in an Asylum and Forgot All About Him’ (11 September 2007) <http://zeenews.india.com/news/newspapers/50-yrs-ago-they-put-him-in-an-asylum-and-forgot-all-about-him-indian-express_394114.html> accessed 10 May 2014.

18. A Sharma, ‘Freedom at the Edge’ (18 May 2007) <http://archive.today/Q98G> accessed 10 May 2014.

19. S Talukdar, ‘A Lifetime in Illegal Detention’ (1 July 2007) The Hindu <http://www.hindu.com/2007/07/01/stories/2007070156291000.htm> accessed 10 May 2014.

20. Akhu Chingangbam, ‘Ballad of Machang Lalung’ <https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150108748297798> accessed 10 May 2014.

21. See I Freckelton, ‘Madness, Migration and Misfortune: The Challenge of the Bleak Tale of Cornelia Rau’ (2005) 12(1) Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 1; L Crowley-Cyr, ‘Mental Illness and Indefinite Detention at the Minister's Pleasure’ (2005) 9 University of Western Sydney Law Review 53.