ADDRESS OF
HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE G.B.
PATTANAIK, JUDGE,
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA,
DELIVERED ON 04.05.2002
ON THE OCCASION OF INAUGURATION
OF FIRST FOUNDATION COURSE (2002)
OF NEWLY APPOINTED OFFICERS OF DELHI
JUDICIAL SERVICE
I am happy to be amongst you this morning to
inaugurate the courses meant for the new entrants as Magistrates in this
City. It has been felt all along that
there should be a judicial academy in each State for the purpose
of training the new entrants as to what they would do and what they ought not
to do in a Courtroom, while trying matters before them. It is also intended to have refreshers course
to those who are already in service, so that they will be acquainted with the
up-to date legal position on a particular subject. This academy in this city is first of its
kind and aims at promoting “quality Judges”.
It has been the feeling amongst the judicial fraternity that it is very
important to have quality judges, specially at a time
when young lawyers are joining the service.
Very often, young lawyers on being appointed as magistrates, feel that
they have been conferred with abundant powers and they also misuse the same in
exercising those powers. The training
course will train the incumbents as to how a magistrate should exercise his
powers. You are aware that recently in
the Judgment delivered by the Supreme Court, the requirement of three years’
minimum practice for being appointed as a magistrate has been dispensed with
and, therefore, when a fresh law graduate would enter the judiciary, it would
be imperative that he should be well trained, as he would be dealing with the
life and liberty of the individual as well as the property of an individual,
while dealing with civil cases. A lawyer
on being appointed as a Judicial Officer gets frustrated when he finds that his
income reduces considerably. He gets
tempted to adopt unfair means to have the same standard of life, as his friend
in the Bar is leading and such temptation ultimately leads to disastrous
consequences. I would, therefore request
you to have the principle of “Simple Living and High Thinking” as your
motto. A great thinker has stated that a
contented mind is a continual feast. If
you are contented with what you have, then you always have a smooth life. The moment you start competing with somebody
else, then you do not know where you are ultimately led to. You should always think what you have
achieved, which million others in the country do not have and never think what
many others including your contemporaries have, which you do not have. If you adopt this standard, then I can assure
you that you will always lead a very comfortable and respectable living in the
society. Sincerity is always rewarded in
life. It should, therefore, be your duty
to discharge your obligations, required of you as the Presiding Officer of a
Court, as sincerely and as honestly as possible. The democracy would survive by co-ordination
and efficient function of its three organs, Legislature, Executive and
Judiciary. In the last fifty years, for
the conduct and attitude of the Legislative and Executive, the common man has
been illusioned and the faith and trust of citizens on these two organs has
been diminishing. But so far as
judiciary is concerned, the country men still have reposed faith and trust,
notwithstanding there has been erosion in the judiciary. It would, therefore, be your endeavor and
foremost duty to see that faith and trust, which a citizen has reposed on you,
is not tarnished in any manner by your conduct.
Some of the qualities of a “good Judge” are: a patient hearing, a gentle behavior, a
thorough, analysis of the issues involved and a conclusion to be arrived at
conscientiously on the materials produced by either sides. Each one of you, therefore, should try to emulate
these qualities, so that you can pass on as a very good judicial officer. Society expects many things from you in the
matter of dispensation of justice. In a
nutshell, my advice to you would be to conduct yourself in such a manner so
that you do not disappoint the society what it expects from you. I know, often a Judicial Officer faces the
financial crunches in managing his affairs, but you should try to resolve such
difficulty by proper planning of your resources rather than get frustrated on
that score and then behave in an erratic manner. We have been trying to ameliorate your
service conditions by suitable directions from time to time and I have no doubt
that service condition of a judicial officer today is much better than what it
was a decade back, when compared with a fellow administrative officer. The Union Law Minister Mr. Jaitley, who is
present here, is very favorably disposed of towards this and the country facing
with severe financial shortage, all that is possible is being done. No service can give you the same amount of
money, as you can earn in a business or in a profession like legal
profession. But to ‘earn only’ should
not be the motto in your life. Apart
from discharging your onerous duty faithfully and conscientiously, without any
fear or favour, you should try also to do some social service, if
possible. That would keep you very happy
and also the society would be benefited by that.
Today,
a major problem, which we face in dispensation of justice, is the delay in
disposal of the matters. For such delay,
the reasons are manifold and one of the reasons is a very few Courts for every
million inhabitants. India has the
lowest ratio of Judicial officers being 10 for one million, whereas United
States of America has 117 Judicial Officers per million. The Supreme Court in a recent judgment has
directed the State Governments to increase the Judge strength five times, so as
to have a ratio of 50 per million. Even
in several States, the existing Judge strength is not filled up always and
vacancies remain unfilled for a considerable period. Lack of infrastructural facilities is yet
another cause, which causes hindrance in quick disposal of cases by a Judicial
Officer, but notwithstanding these difficulties, you will have to strive hard
and put in all your efforts to dispose of the matters early, so that the
litigant public is not harassed by protraction of litigation for years
together. It is in this connection; you
will have to tackle successfully by refusing the prayer for adjournment times
without number on being merely asked for.
Your friends in the Bar may often come to you to exhibit their
familiarity with you to the litigant public.
You will have to be careful in that respect and as far as practicable,
you will have to exhibit a detached way of life. Sometimes when a Judicial Officer becomes
very strict and does not accede to the request of the lawyers in the matter of
grant of Bail or in the matter of grant of any interim relief, the Presiding
Officer is maligned through anonymous or pseudonymous letters but so long as
you have discharged your duty conscientiously without being influenced by any
extraneous considerations or pressure, you need not bother for such anonymous
or pseudonymous letters, as your superior is there to protect you. At times, you may often get a request from a
colleague of yours in matters pending before you, but you have to say “No” to
that request gently but forcefully. One thing I must tell you that every Judicial
Officer builds up his reputation one way or the other and that reputation
spreads like a fire amongst the litigant public. From my experience I can tell you that the
assessment of the litigant public with regard to the reputation of a judicial
officer very often is accurate. You
should, therefore, conduct yourself in a manner so that your reputation amongst
the litigant public would be one of a “good Judicial Officer”. As the Presiding Officer of the Court, you
must exercise full control over the Bench Clerk and you must fix up your diary or
at least check up the same, if it is prepared by some body else so that you can
regulate the proceedings of a particular day smoothly. You should come prepared with the matter,
which is before you by doing some homework, so that you can record evidence or
appreciate the arguments advanced by the parties not as a novice but as one who
has already mastered the facts. Law is a
vast subject and the Judge made law very fast changes on account of different
interpretations given to different provisions of the Statues. You will have to apprise yourself with the
recent Judgments and for that you must spend sometime for going through some of
the Law Journals. Deciding a case and
writing of Judgment for a Judicial Officer is like appearing in an examination,
as your Judgment will be tested in a higher forum in appeal and not the
arguments of the lawyer.
No comments:
Post a Comment