“The Trial Process becomes very Alien”: Lawyers’ Imagination of the Legal Process in Contemporary Delhi

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Asian Journal of Law and Society

Abstract

How do lawyers understand legality in contemporary India? We examine the experiences of lawyers in Delhi, who defend people accused under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), statutes increasingly deployed to target dissent and minority groups. Drawing on in-depth interviews, these trials produce a sense of normlessness— where foundational assumptions about rules, processes, and institutional roles collapse. Lawyers describe an “alien” legal world marked by unpredictability, an absence of established procedure, and blurred boundaries between judges, prosecutors, and police. While ordinary cases retain a sense of normality, UAPA and PMLA cases destabilise imaginations of the legal process, compelling lawyers to speculate on motives and majoritarian influences. We explore how lawyers respond through insistence on procedural norms and strategies to mitigate harm to clients. These narratives illuminate the transformation of legality into a contingent, shape-shifting form of power, challenging deterministic accounts of authoritarian legality

DOI

10.1017/als.2026.10045

Publication Date

2026

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS