“Don’t practice criminal law, you’ll be dealing with rapes, murders and similar cases.”

“Why do you want to practice criminal law? Your clients will be habitual pickpockets thieves, blackmailers, etc.”

“If you want to be successful in criminal litigation, you’ll have to be an amazing orator and talk about justice and jails.”

“Criminal litigation is all about the Criminal Procedure Code and you don’t need to know civil or corporate law.”

“Criminal Litigation? You are in for standing in trial courts and high courts and ensuring your clients don’t go to jail.”

“If you want corporate clients, you should practice only in big cities where major corporations require criminal litigators to defend their employees.”

Do the above statements sound familiar?

Yes?

But unfortunately, they only reveal half of the picture of criminal litigation practice. Seldom do people associate a thriving criminal lawyer with corporate clients who are securing their business interests and not dealing with personal conflict.

In fact, when I first told my parents about criminal litigation and taking corporate clients, they thought I was either bluffing or talking about those who have committed hardcore crimes in their individual capacity.

Most of the lawyers and law students associate a thriving criminal practice with corporate clients to either getting bails for those clients or saving them from high-value scams and frauds.

They believe that if they want to be a successful criminal lawyer, there is absolutely no nexus of their practice to civil law, let alone corporate law. They are often ignorant of the provisions of Companies Act, Copyrights Act, Trade Marks Act, Goods and Service Tax, Income Tax, etc.

To add to that, there is this strong belief that if you are practising in a small city, there is no way you are going to set up a criminal practice.

However, ask any entrepreneur who is running a business across cities for a long period of time, and you will realise that he/she would have to take service of criminal lawyers for securing their interest.

Anyone worth their salt in litigation would vouch that civil laws are often slow and ineffective in deterring individuals from committing acts that need to be stopped immediately owing to continuous financial loss. Not only police investigations have a huge psychological impact on the offender, but the investigations and the pace make them more lucrative to get relief in a quicker manner.

In today’s article, we are going to discuss five skills and areas of practice that will not only help you to service corporate clients but will substantially upgrade your practice to financially lucrative areas with very less competition.

Penal Proceedings under Goods and Services Tax

A brief skimming through newspaper reports (example here and here) on any given day will reveal the nationwide drive by GST authorities to prosecute professionals including CEOs and Chartered Accountants under the penal provisions of the Goods and Services Tax Acts.

Since the introduction of GST, most of the taxpayers have struggled to understand and comply with its provisions. They are often unaware of the penal provisions associated with lack of compliance and then find themselves behind the bars.

For instance, issuing fake invoices, or submitting false information while registering under GST, or not submitting GST to the government within prescribed time empowers the GST authorities to file criminal complaints against the erring individuals.

This is further aggravated by the fact that knowledge of most chartered accountants and traditional tax practitioners claiming expertise is restricted to compliance and the software, without understanding the implications and seriousness of adverse proceedings.

In fact, they fail to understand the wide powers in the hands of officers for inspection, audit, search, seizure and confiscation assisted by technology and data analysis (read here). Unlike the erstwhile Income Tax laws, the GST arrest provisions are complemented by the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code (here).

This results in a situation where chartered accountants and traditional tax practitioners are trained in accountancy & tax laws, but not in the intricacies of criminal procedures are not able to service their clients in this regard.

Thus, this leaves a void for criminal lawyers who understand the basic provisions of GST in servicing these clients with bail applications and prosecutions under the GST. In fact, since this is a recently introduced law, you will face very less competition in developing your practice, irrespective of the experience.

Penal Proceedings under Trademarks and Copyright Act

It is very common for companies to face situations of infringement and passing off. Furthermore, with the growing reliance of companies on their websites, there are increasing instances of their website data being compromised and copied by other companies, using similar domains.

While the law has provided mechanisms to deal with above mentioned situations through injunction suits under the Trademarks Act,1999 and Copyrights Act, 1957, they are often slow and leave a lot to be desired when such counterfeiting and copying are happening with malafide intention to destroy the reputation of the company.

In this regard, Section 102 and 103 of the Trademarks Act, 1999 provides for imprisonment upto three years. Similarly, Section 63 of the Copyrights Act, 1957 provides for imprisonment upto three years as well.

It is to be noted that these proceedings are completely independent from civil proceedings and provide enhanced protection of search and seizure. In fact, Section 63 and 64 of Copyrights Act, 1957 is one of the most stringent provisions that can be relied upon to not only immediately seize the infringing copy, but punish the offender as well.

In fact, the best part about proceedings under Copyrights Act, 1957, unlike the Trademarks Act, 1999 is the complete authority given to investigating officers to seize the goods, without approaching either the registrar or magistrate, making it easily one of the most effective remedies.

Thus, any criminal lawyer with a good understanding of the ingredients of the above offences, and ability to draft effective complaints will always have the upper hand in such cases against other lawyers.

Penal provisions under Legal Metrology Act, 2009

Have you ever heard of petrol pumps or other shops short selling the products by using faulty weights and measures?

Well, such acts are punishable with imprisonment under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009. It is a law that provides and regulates the standards for weights and measures, also laying down guidelines for trade and commerce in commodities involving weights and measures.

The proceedings under this Act are pretty straightforward, quasi criminal in nature and override provisions of Indian Penal Code, 1860 as well. These offences include tampering with packaging, faulty packaging, falsification of weights, not displaying MRP, etc.

In fact legal metrology officers are notorious for raids before festivals, fining shops and often initiating criminal prosecution as well in case of serious offences. In the case of companies, a contravention of the provisions of the Legal Metrology Act can make a director of a company liable as well.

Penal provisions under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006

You must have heard of raids being conducted by FSSAI officers before Diwali and other important festivals and booking several people, while cancelling their licenses to carry on the businesses. (Read here, here and here)

It is regular for FSSAI officials to file criminal complaints in addition to imposing penalties (example here) against individuals involved in selling foods and products that are dangerous for human consumption. This includes punishment for obstructing, impersonating, intimidating and threatening or assaulting a food safety officer in order to enforce the law at the ground level.

Recently, the FSSAI has proposed an amendment to the law, enhancing the punishment upto life imprisonment, like all major economies.

In fact, non compliance of provisions of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 also attracts proceedings under Section 188, 272, 273 and 328 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Thus, it is imperative to have a good understanding of both the Food Safety and Standards Act and general criminal procedural and substantive law.

Criminal Defamation under Indian Penal Code, 1860

You must have heard of cases where a rival firm under a fake identity or an angry customer has posted fake reviews with malafide intention to harm the reputation of a company. This often results in severely harming the reputation of the company and often destroying the entire business.

In these cases, it is more important for the client to immediately cease publication of the offending material rather than get involved in long civil proceedings seeking damages. More often, filing a suit for criminal defamation in these cases often have a very strong deterrence value in stopping repeat offences by other individuals.

In these cases, it is important that you understand the complete procedure right from drafting a private complaint, to the issue of summons and finally, the standard of proof required in proving these offences. In fact, one needs to have a strong grip not only on the theoretical aspects of the law, but also on what are the practical considerations one must take into account before advising their client.

You may ask us then, how do I learn these practical considerations and procedures to advise clients?

Well, we follow a socratic approach in our criminal litigation course, where we give you real-time factual case studies and ask you to draft bail applications, complaints, FIRs under the Indian Penal Code, 1860 as well as several other special legislations.

We teach you enough so that you can go back and learn on your own about the laws that we do not cover in our course. To add to that, you will have a network of hundreds of criminal lawyers across the country practising in different specialisation areas and our faculty with more than a decade of experience, in case you get stuck somewhere.

We are conducting a workshop on how to draft a bail application to show you glimpse of our stunning Sunday classes. Here is where you can register for the workshop: https://lawsikho.com/draftbailapplication.

If you want to be notified about other workshops and webinars conducted by LawSikho on Criminal Law, please join the Telegram or WhatsApp group below:

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WhatsApp Group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/B9K4PjTwplnEj8Z9q8gXec

Students of Lawsikho courses regularly produce writing assignments and work on practical exercises as a part of their coursework and develop themselves in real-life practical skills.

LawSikho has created a telegram group for exchanging legal knowledge, referrals, and various opportunities. You can click on this link and join:

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Can I use my criminal litigation skills to serve corporate clients