Siddharth Luthra

Early life and education

Luthra studied sciences at Delhi Public School, RK Puram, followed by a BA in mathematics from Hindu College, Delhi in 1987. He graduated in law in 1990 from LLB Campus Law Centre, Delhi University. He then went to the University of Cambridge to pursue an MPhil in Criminology. He is a fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust.

Career

One of the top criminal lawyers in the country, Luthra has been practicing law for over two decades. He joined the bar in 1991 and started working at Bhasin & Co where he practiced civil law. In 1993, he started working at his father's chamber but continued practicing civil law. He also taught law at the Delhi University in 1996-97.

After his father passed away in 1997, Luthra reinvented himself as a criminal lawyer under the mentorship of late Senior Advocate P R Vakil and took over his father’s practice.

Tehelka Case

In 2002, Luthra represented Tehelka Magazine before the Justice Venkataswami Commission which was constituted in the aftermath of the Operation West End sting operation. During the proceddings of the commission he cross-examined the then Union Defence Minister George Fernandes.

Senior Advocate

Luthra represented the Government of India in the High Court of Delhi from 2004 to 2007 as a Senior Panel Counsel. He was designated as a Senior Advocate, a position that is conferred on merit to exceptional lawyers by the judges of the high court, in 2007. He moved his practice from the Delhi High Court to the Supreme Court of India in 2010.

Justice Soumitra Sen Case

Luthra was appointed by the Government of India in 2009 as a counsel to assist the Judges Inquiry Committee in the Justice Soumitra Sen Case. The committee found Justice Sen guilty of misbehaviour under Article 124(4) (read with proviso (b) to Article 217(1)) of the Constitution of India.

Facebook Case

In December 2011, Luthra was hired by Facebook for a criminal trial initiated by journalist Vinay Rai against 21 social networking sites in India including Facebook, Google and Yahoo.

Tenure as Additional Solicitor General

In 2012, the Manmohan Singh government appointed Luthra to the post of the Additional Solicitor General (ASG). One of the biggest cases in his tenure as ASG was the proposed release of the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The Tamil Nadu government had proposed to remit the sentence of life for the seven convicted for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi release them after their death penalty was commuted to sentence of life by the Supreme Court in 2014. The then Attorney General of India, late senior advocate Goolam Essaji Vahanvati, the then Solicitor General senior advocate Mohan Parasaran and Luthra swiftly moved a writ petition to the Supreme Court on behalf of the Union Government challenging the power of the Tamil Nadu government to remit the sentences of the convicted Sriharan alias Murugan and six others. The remittance was put on hold by the Supreme Court which in a later sentence in December 2015, held that a state government has no suo motu power to remit sentences of persons who were convicted under a central Law and cases investigated by the CBI.

Luthra also represented Central Bureau of Investigation, India, in the Dr. Subramanian Swamy vs Director, CBI, case in 2013-14 in which the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (‘the DSPE Act’) was at issue. A Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice R.M. Lodha and Justices A.K. Patnaik, S J Mukhopadhaya, Dipak Misra and F M Ibrahim Kalifulla held that Section 6A of the DSPE Act that granted protection to joint secretary and above officers from facing even a preliminary inquiry by the CBI in corruption cases, was violative of Article 14 of the consititution and thus constitutionally invalid, a decision that was welcomed by the CBI.

Recent Cases

Luthra represented WhatsApp in a public interest litigation case filed against it in September 2016 in the Delhi High Court by two students regarding its new privacy policy.

Luthra is currently representing the Union Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley in the criminal defamation lawsuit filed by him against the Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal. Arun Jaitley has also filed a civil defamation case against Arvind Kejriwal. The Supreme Court in November 2016 declined Kejriwal’s appeal to stay the criminal defamation proceedings.

In 2016, Luthra represented the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu in the 2015 Cash For Vote Scam case. On 9 December 2016, the Hyderabad High Court set aside the order passed by the Special Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court that directed the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau to conduct a probe into Mr Naidu's role in the cash for vote scam case.

Luthra also served as the special public prosecuter in the Nirbhaya gang rape case. The final verdict on the case was delivered by the Supreme Court on 5 May 2017, where it upheld the death sentence for all the four convicts that were sentenced to death by the trial court in September 2013.

As Amicus Curiae

In addition to his litigation work, Luthra is assisting the Supreme Court of India as amicus curiae in the matter of criminalisation of politics which is due to be heard by the constitution bench of the Supreme Court. The said matter was referred to a constitution bench of the Supreme Court by a bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and R K Agrawal examining an appeal filed by the Uttar Pradesh government challenging Allahabad High Court order for constituting a committee of eminent persons to suggest ways and means to check criminalization of politics. Luthra told the bench that the police and the Central Bureau of Investigation should be made immune to political influence so that the criminal trials against politicians can be expedited.

Contributions

Luthra contributed to the Prevention of Bribery of Foreign Public Officials and Officials of Public International Organisations—A Study and Proposed Amendments report and the Amendments to Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 – Provisions Relating to Bail report released by the Law Commission of India in August 2015 and May 2017 respectively.

Honours

Luthra was conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Law by Amity University, India, in 2015.

K.K. Luthra Memorial Moot Court

Luthra and the Delhi University Campus Law Centre organise the K.K. Luthra Memorial Moot Court, an international moot court competition every year in memory of Luthra's late father Mr. K.K. Luthra.

Links to Articles

1. Put the victim at the centre of the justice system

2. Crime and Sentencing

3. Epiloguge for Climate Change - Law, Policy and Governance, Usha Tandon (Editor)

4. A Feminist Critique of Indian Law

5. Single Mothers, Absent Fathers and the Best Interests of the Child: Drawing a Fine Balance in the ABC Case

6. The Speed of Justice

7. Right to Silence

8. The Power of a Short Message

9. Is it Time to Revisit K.M. Mathew Case?