Legal Analysis of Competency to Stand Trial in Pakistan

Authors

  • Ali Ajmal LL.M. University Law College, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
  • Faiza Rasool Research Scholar, Institute of Applied Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47205/jdss.2023(4-III)73

Keywords:

Competence, Criminal, Evaluation, Mental, Trial

Abstract

The competence to stand trial is a legal concept that determines that a person having a mental disorder cannot be proceeded against in a criminal trial. Adjudicating such a person who is incapable of understanding the legal proceedings and assisting his attorney would violate his right to a fair trial. The incompetency to proceed results in the postponement of a trial subject to the fulfillment of certain criteria. The competency evaluation of an accused taking the plea of incompetency to stand trial is a sine qua non. This paper analyzes the law on the competency to stand trial in Pakistan using the doctrinal legal analysis approach. The findings of this paper suggest that the relevant law must be amended considering modern development in the field of mental health and law. Furthermore, there is a need to build the professional capacity of judges, lawyers, psychiatrists, psychologists, jail personnel, and interdisciplinary researchers.

Vol. 4 No. 3 (2023): July to September

Downloads

Published

2023-09-13

Details

    Abstract Views: 107
    PDF Downloads: 76

How to Cite

Ajmal, A., & Rasool, F. (2023). Legal Analysis of Competency to Stand Trial in Pakistan. Journal of Development and Social Sciences, 4(3), 795–801. https://doi.org/10.47205/jdss.2023(4-III)73

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 3 (2023): July to September

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Open Access

ORIENTS SOCIAL RESEARCH CONSULTANCY (OSRC) & Journal of Development and Social Sciences (JDSS) adheres to Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License. The authors submitting and publishing in JDSS agree to the copyright policy under creative common license 4.0 (Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International license). Under this license, the authors published in JDSS retain the copyright including publishing rights of their scholarly work and agree to let others remix, tweak, and build upon their work non-commercially. All other authors using the content of JDSS are required to cite author(s) and publisher in their work. Therefore, ORIENTS SOCIAL RESEARCH CONSULTANCY (OSRC) & Journal of Development and Social Sciences (JDSS) follow an Open Access Policy for copyright and licensing.

Creative Commons License 

Signatory of DORA