HAS RHETORIC ANY PLACE IN COURT?

This is the fifth post in the series ‘Command Over Language is an Asset’.

This painting depicting a lecture in a knight academy, illustrates rhetoric. It was painted by Pieter Isaacsz or Reinhold Timm for Rosenborg Castle as part of a series of seven paintings depicting the seven independent arts.  Picture Courtesy Wikipedia

Command Over Language Is An Asset

One Sentence Changed The Fate।। Advocate General taught English To Me।। Misfortune of Being Opposed by KL Misra ।। Present Evolves Out Of The Past।।  Has Rhetoric Any Place In Court।। Ruling May Not Choke My Intelligence।। Well Read Person - Best Prepared For Law।।

After my first post of the series, a friend questioned, if rhetoric has any place in today’s scenario of overburdened and impatient judges. My answer, 

"I do not remember anytime in my legal career spanning 50 years, when judges were not overburdened. They were always overburdened and will always be. 

The post doesn't recommend rhetoric but recommends command over language - wrong pronunciation, wrong grammar, wrong form of address - really hits not only the judges but the people sitting in the court. A common occurrence in courts nowadays."

Correct pronunciation, grammar, form of address takes one far.

Sometimes rhetoric is required to lift the courage and morale of the judges as well but one has to understand the timing and situation. 

I have good experience of Allahabad as well as Chhattisgarh High Court. Now I get the experience of Supreme Court. It is pleasure to hear many lawyers but many a times, one hears words with wrong pronunciation and language that is full of grammatical mistakes that is inexcusable for a lawyer. This is very easy to improve and should be done by every lawyer. Let me tell you what I did.

My father was a die hard RSS worker, Kchetra Sanghchalak, and Hindi lover. He earned enough to send us to any school in India but chose to send us to Hindi medium schools as any other Indian child was sent. This surely put us in some disadvantage as unlike present scenario, every competition at that time was held in English. 

My mother was well educated. At the time of her marriage on Basant Panchami in 1939, she was a student of XI^th class and my father was studying at Lucknow University. She joined him there. 

She passed Intermediate in 1940 and my father completed his MA LLB. My father started his law practice at Banda. She joined a hostel in Benaras Hindu University. She completed her graduation in 1942 and law in 1944, scoring highest marks in English in her graduation. She was also first woman law graduate from that University. 

She understood the importance of English. Whatever my knowledge of English is, it is because of her.

In our childhood, we only had permission see English films. I saw my first Hindi film when I was attending second year of my law degree. 

We used to get one English and one Hindi newspaper and almost all English and Hindi magazines. Every evening after we came back from our game sessions, my mother ensured that we read aloud English paper and magazines. She would correct our pronunciation and explain the meaning of difficult words. 

She also encouraged us to listen to BBC English and Hindi programmes. A practice that I still follow. Nowadays, my morning tea time is spent listening BBC to Hindi as well as English news.

I used to hear AIR as well as Door-Darshan news as well. News anchor had perfect pronunciation at that time  but it is no longer true. I stopped hearing them. 

This is what aspiring lawyers should also do. Read one good newspaper regularly, read good magazines,  read classics and listen to BBC.

After I became a lawyer and my father came back from detention, he started correcting my drafting. He would often point out my grammatical mistakes. I realised, I have to improve my English grammar. I purchased Cambridge English Grammar books. It has great advantage. The left hand page explains the rule; the right hand page has exercises on the same rule; and end page has answers. One does not require any tutor to improve one’s  grammar.  They are good ones, do read them. 

I also read many such books to improve my grammar. 

I had read some judgements of Lord Denning: I appreciated some but not all. He seemed to be somewhat biased. He was the last judge to have life peerage but ultimately had to resign for his comments/ views. 

I visited every World Book Fair at New Delhi, since its inception. However, in the beginning of this century, discontinued doing so: my son left for US and I became busy as a judge. 

In the world book fair in early 1980’s, I saw a book titled ‘Discipline of Law’ by Lord Denning. I purchased it and thoroughly enjoyed it; especially its language. 

There after I purchased every book written by Lord Denning including his autobiography ‘My Family Story’ and read every judgement written by him. 

In my opinion, Lord Denning is the finest writer of English language: simple short sentences; judgements are like story telling; one can read everything written by him without needing to consult any dictionary. He is the one, whose language should be emulated and not of Justice Krishna Iyer's. 

Many are great fans of Justice Krishna Iyer’s language but personally I think his language is an example how things may not be written. He was a great judge: one of the best that we ever had. But he lost a chance to make lasting contribution due to his language: I have my doubts if anyone fully understands his language. Let me tell you one of the instance.

My father was detained during emergency under MISA. We had filed Habeas Corpus petition for his release. The State raised a preliminary objection regarding maintainability of the petition. It was decided as preliminary point. 

We won the point before the High Court in Virendra Kumar Singh Chaudhary Vs DM Allahabad 1976 Nirnay Patrika 855 but lost it before the Supreme Court in ADM Jabalpur v. Shiv Kant Shukla AIR 1976 SC 1207 (the Habeas Corpus case). 

During arguments of the Habeas Corpus case in the Supreme Court, a few judgements of Justice Krishna Iyer were cited. They were in our favour. However, they used some words that were not part of any dictionary. Justice Ray asked Shanti Bhusan if he could explain their meaning. 

Shanti Bhusan, with mischievous smile, said that he was educated in a Hindi Medium school and perhaps convent educated Attorney General could explain.

Niren De was sitting in the court. He got up and with serious expression vehemently denied knowing their meaning. The result was that the court refused to consider the rulings. 

This is the reason that Justice Iyer’s contribution to jurisprudence has been lost due to his language. Follow his compassion but avoid his language. Follow Lord Denning’s English: read everything written by him. This will take you far.

Avoid Legalese - Adopt Plain English: use short simple sentences in active voice; avoid negatives; break the continuous text with paragraphs; Punctuate carefully; without using Latin, foreign or difficult words; write to express and not to impress.

#Rhetoric #Law #LanguageImprovement