(Part 1) Have standards of Supreme Court gone down in last 20 Years?

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In 1982, I was in Junagadh District Court in Gujarat. I used to read Supreme Court Judgements. It looked as if they were as good as Gods.

Even a simple post card to a Supreme Court Judge was being treated as writ petition! Wow!…

The compassion was readable in every pages of law reports.

I moved to practice in Supreme Court. Today, I discussed this issue with a 82 Year old Senior Advocate.

He said, up to 1990, Supreme Court Judges were as good as Gods. Thereafter….. he left remaining sentence incomplete.

After one or two minutes, he recounted his recent experience.

One day, he had seven cases listed for admission in Supreme Court before different Judges.

Three case were completely bogus. Four cases were really good and justice was required to be done in these four cases.

However, he lost all four good cases, and in his three bogus cases, Supreme Court issued notice.

“In fact, in this way, I actually lost all seven cases.” He sighed.

Then he said, he has seen enough.

I said, I am 58 age. I have also seen enough.

He laughed and said,”You have seen nothing.”

He was once a Chief Justice of a High Court. I think his views deserve respect.

(Part 1 complete)

Haresh Raichura
12/4/13

‘Be the Change you want to see in the world’ means, if I wish to change the world, I have to begin by changing myself.

Haste by Judges to dispose off cases speedily is actually KILLING justice.

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This is a long subject. I am trying to say what I want to say in brief. The arrears of cases are actually weighing too much on mind of judges and public.
The consequent, it looks as if some judges have developed “Speedily Disposal Oriented” outlook.
I have seen that, hasty decision making process leads to miscarriage of justice and have seen clients suffering a lot.
“Decision Making” and “Judging” are two different process. Judging essentially involves, Contemplation Process which certainly takes time.
Silver lining is this, that some judges, including Chief Justice of India Justice Kabir, are not disposal-oriented judges. They deliberate, contemplate and then judge. The quality of judgements is more important than quantity of justice.
Haresh Raichura
12/4/2013