ADVICE TO YOUNG JUDGES

Judges Have Difficult Job

This is the first post of the series about the advice to young judges on whose shoulders lie to rekindle the judiciary and restore the faith of the people.

ADVICE TO YOUNG JUDGES

Judges Have Difficult Job।। ।। Be Open Till The End।।

One of the early conferences in the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal (NJA) was on its role as well as on the role of the State Judicial Academies. Every director and the judge in-charge of the State Judicial Academy was invited. At that time,  Alla Raham (elevated as the High Court judge afterwards) was the Director of the Judicial Training Research Institute, Lucknow (JTRI). There was no judge in-charge, and I was nominated by the Chief Justice to attend the same. Later, I looked after the JTRI as its unofficial in-charge for many years.

The conclusions of the conference at NJA were sent to the High Courts to consider and implement them.  Later, Vikram Nath J. (now a judge of the Supreme Court) and myself, were requested to draw a plan for the JTRI that we did. Among the other points emerging out of the conference at NJA and reiterated by us was that the trainee judges should be encouraged to read books other than law textbooks. Among the other books, was a book titled ‘Judges’ written by David Pannick, a British barrister. The book begins, 

“Judges do not have an easy job. They repeatedly do what the rest of us seek to avoid: make decisions. They carry out this function in public. Rabelais’s judge Bridlegoose decided cases by throwing dice (See End Not: 1). Most judges obey the job requirement that they ‘must not spin a coin or consult an astrologer but must give reason for their decision' (See End Not: 2).”

This is how the book ends: 

“Those who sit in judgment over their fellow citizens have an extremely difficult task to perform. … 

It is unlikely that men and women will ever cease to wound, cheat, and damage each other. There will always be a need for judges to resolve their disputes in an orderly manner. As people grow ever less willing to accept unreservedly the demands of authority, the judiciary, like other public institution will be subjected to a growing amount of critical analysis. The way in which ‘Judge & Co’ (See End Not: 3).  is run is a matter of public interest and will increasingly become a matter of public debate.”

In fact, it has become matter of public debate. 

Judiciary is facing two challenges: delay in deciding cases and losing its credibility. The first one requires more judges and the second one - better judges.  Let’s talk about virtues that make good judges.

End Note-1: François Rabelais was a French writer of sixteenth century. Among the other books, he wrote 'The Five Books of the Lives and Deeds of Gargantua and Pantagruel', often shortened to Gargantua and Pantagruel, a pentalogy of novels about the adventures of two giants, Gargantua and his son Pantagruel. Judge  Bridlegoose is in the third book of this pentalogy. He is tried for delivering an erroneous judgment in a tax case, which he reached by throwing dice.

End Note-2: Lord Diplock in R v. Deputy Industrial Injuries Commission ex parte Moore [1905] 1 QB 488 

End Note-3: Jeremy Bentham term for the judiciary: ‘The Works of Jeremy Bentham’ (ed. Bowring 1843) Volume-5 page 396 

AdviceToYoungJudges #GoodJudge #Judges #DavidPannick