In a significant observation, Supreme Court Justice PS Narasimha said on Saturday said that Judges must try to resist the temptation to speak beyond what they write in their judgments, particularly in the age of social media where every word is reported. He added that judges must resist the temptation of speaking more, particularly after retirement.
“We seem to have moved away (from restraint in speech) with social media and requirement to speak so much. Every word gets reported in the news, and sitting judges might get attracted. And worse is post retirement, judges think that 'time has come when I have to talk now', as if it is a full time talk. I think that’s not the way the system should work," he noted.
It is the judgment which must speak and not the judge, Justice Narasimha said while lauding his colleague Justice AS Chandurkar for being one such judge who lets his judgments speak for him."I believe that justice dispensation requires disappearance of a judge. Judge should not be seen, judge has no business to be there in the process, except that he decides. His personality as an individual … all this is unnecessary. Judge does nothing more than he decides, and he disappears. He (Justice Chandurkar) is a judge who has disappeared, but his decisions only speak and they speak volumes," Justice Narasimha said.
Justice Narasimha was speaking at a felicitation ceremony organised by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court Bar Association for Justice Chandurkar.In his address, Justice Narasimha reflected on how the legal profession constantly grapples with two values - speech and truth. For lawyers, speech is essential in advocacy, while for judges, it finds expression in written judgments, Justice Narasimha said. The challenge lies in ensuring that both advocacy and judging remain instruments for uncovering truth.
“The decipherment of truth is the purpose and object of the judiciary, and the means of finding that truth is through dialogue, through argument before the court," he noted.He stressed that restraint must guide both lawyers and judges on how much they need to speak. He observed that for lawyers, this means there should be brevity in arguments. He added that for judges, it means there should be precision in judgments.
Justice Narasimha underlined that the discipline of restraint should always be the guiding principle.“Measured speech, measured talk - think before you say. See if (what you are saying) actually leads to truth and whether than speech leads to prosperity to one and all," he said.He observed that Justice Chandurkar exemplified these values of restraint. He recalled how in one arbitration dispute, his colleague delivered a crisp judgment excluding all irrelevant facts and focusing only on what mattered.In his ensuing address, Justice Chandurkar turned to his own journey from the Bar to the Bench. He said that no matter how far one rises in the legal profession, ties with the parent Bar remain permanent.
Follow us
