May I have your liberty to write Your Lordships?

 

My lord, i have enough reason to believe that your Lordships has long forgotten the role of the judiciary in democratic set up. I don't want rather not in a position to give sermon regarding what you can do. I have identified some areas which your Lordship shall not use their proprietary.

 

1.) My Lords you are not a professor of English. Any Lawyer while assisting the Court is more concerned about law than language. In any case it is not the duty of the court to take viva voce of the lawyers. The Courts of law is not a class room of any college where students enrol to make themselves Shakespeare. The court room is different from a lecture room.

 

2.) My lord, You are not our Moral Science teacher. Don't preach us for moralities and all. The law is devoid of morals. The law is an objective subject. We have already passed with flying colours the subject of Moral Science while we were in our secondary school.

 

3.) My lord, sometimes i feel shy rather conscious while assisting your good office. The reason is your constant advice regarding our physical appearance.

An- tie SOCIAL!!!

Isn't it an Irony that we call it a Social Media by which we are becoming more and more unsocial? What is Social? According to Dictionaries Social means, "relating to or involving activities in which people spend time talking to each other or doing enjoyable things with each other."  We forgot how to talk while we are physically and in real time together. Around the globe scientists are giving a signal that Virtual world will kill the real world. We will lose our voice. We need microphone, speaker and screen for conversation. We feel shy and even irritated if we have to make a face to face conversation. We will forget gestures at all.

Nonverbal communication will also become dead as we prefer screen over skin. Don't you feel that Smart phone has made us all socially dumb! A child doesn't know and has not experienced the smile on his father's face when he gets back from his office and sees his child waiting for him the father most probably, is on Smartphone. The opposite situation may also arise when the father gets back home his child is playing on Smartphone. Even when the family is having dinner or lunch they all just mechanically, have their food without even having a glance on their food.  

Slowly and Steadily more and more people become aware about the value of real conversation. Let's hope we become ‘More-Smart’ by dumping the use of Smartphone while we are accompanied by our loved once. 


(Picture Source: Google Images)

Haajir Ho - 2.

When I joined the court in 2010 my senior told me that whenever you are in the court room always have your eyes on the Judge/bench so that you can understand how he is reacting and behaving in a given case/situation. It will help you when you get a chance to argue before him. OBSERVE is the message!

Accordingly, I started observing the Judges which has helped me immensely to ascertain What to argue, when to argue, what not to argue, which line of argument particular judge hates etcetera. The Court Craftsmanship or the Art of Advocacy is effective communication to the canvas of the mind through the artwork of four brushes, effective speaking, effective writing, effective reading and effective listening. Nowadays, Smartphone captivates your attention from the arguments and you fail to listen what the Opponent is canvassing.

In 2011 I went abroad for my higher studies. I came back and what I have seen in the courtroom gave me a shock and surprise. In the Court Room where a division bench nested only the Senior Judge and a lawyer were physically and mentally present in that court room all other including respondent lawyers, Bench Clerk, Legal Assistant, Stenographer, Government Pleader all were busy on Screen. They are not at all interested in court room proceedings. The respondent lawyer even didn’t respond to the Judge at the first instance when the judge raised a query to him it was a petitioner lawyer who drew his attention towards the judge!

 

Haajir Ho - 1.

In the Mid August the Air condition system of the High Court of Gujarat failed hence, we were living a nightmare with perspired Lawyer's UNIFORM i.e. Black suit, Robe and Collar band! No, ventilation point for our body to get in or get out our body heat!!! No, we the lawyers are not the only VICTIMS of this Natural Surroundings! Honorable Judges were living the worst nightmare. Though, the registry did arrange pedestal fans for the court rooms but, they are just mute spectator of our agony. Sometimes the total number of these fans outnumbers the total strength of advocates in a particular court room! 

As the temperament running high of the lawyers so as the JUDGES'. It was the Court where Service Matters and allied matters listed for adjudication. A Party-in -Person appeared for his case and started canvassing rather, narrating the troubles in life he is facing as he believes that all the solution for his troubles lie at the doorstep of High Court. The Judge who takes/ hears the matters is thorough Gentleman and Man of knowledge. She became to make the party in person aware, a Law Professor. She slowly and firmly tried to explain the Jurisdiction under Article 226. The Party in Person ain't impress with the lecturing skill of the Judge and he did not allow the Judge cum Professor to speak by raising the voice of his arguments. Everything has its own limit so as the Judge's patient. It is one of that situation where the passion of the litigant won at the cost of the patient of the Judge. Suddenly, he attains the highest pitch of his voice and pose a question to the Judge "If I won’t get justice here from the High Court then where should I go?" the Judge readily answered the question by saying, 'Go to UP (Uttar Pardesh)!' The Judge was emotionally carried away! In fact, the petitioner is hailing from UP which makes those words more cruel. 

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We are back to normalcy. The Air Conditioned Court rooms make our lives more peaceful. we again started surfing the net and try to make ourselves more updated than we are updated few seconds ago. In this exercise of keeping ourselves updated I found out an article "Won't hear you in person because you might turn emotional "- CJI. Being a lawyer I was quite happy as nowadays there is an influx of Part-in-Person with whom we the lawyer rub shoulders. Professionally and economically its not an ideal situation for any lawyer.

Avoiding the above mentioned thoughts, a law student in me somehow managed to desert his slumber and presented me a set of questions, why does CJI believes that only Party in person can turn emotional? does to turn emotional a crime? Can Judge and Lawyer turn emotional while addressing the Court? Is there any law/convention which expressly prohibits the Party in Person to turn emotional while arguing? Does it not amount to violation of principle of Natural Justice? Does it not tantamount to violation of fundamental rights of Party in Person?