SHARPENING THE AXE

Allahabad High Court - picture from the centenary volume

(Paper with some suggestions circulated by Justice Yatindra Singh, Judge Allahabd High Court for reducing pendency at the High court level in the 'National Consultation for Strengthening the Judiciary Towards Reducing Pendency', organised by Department of Justice, Government of India and the Indian Law Institute on 24, 25th October 2009, at New Delhi.
Click here to download the article in the pdf format.)

 Abraham Lincoln once said,

'If you have eight hours to chop down a tree then spend six hours sharpening the axe.'

It is good that we are sharpening our axe today. Arrears cannot be reduced unless we set a goal, have a plan, and work according to that plan. Here are some suggestions.

GOOD SEED, MAKES A GOOD CROP

{Summary: This paper explains moral and legal implications of open format and suggests ways to implement it.

This text of Talk was to be delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh on August 26, 2009 in the Third International Open Document Format User Workshop organised by SERPRO (Federal Service for Data Processing - Ministry of Finance, Brazil) and Caixa Econômica Federal in collaboration with the OpenDocument Format Alliance (ODF Alliance), at Brasilia, Brazil. However due to unavoidable circumstances, he could not participate in the workshop but this text was sent for circulation.

To read it in Portuguese (titled as 'Uma Boa Semente Faz Uma Boa Colheita') in pdf format - click here}

If there is any country that I wanted to visit in 2009, it is Brazil. And there is a reason for the same.

Charles Darwin in 1881

About 175 years ago, on 27th Dec 1831, HMS Beagle started its second voyage. Aboard was a naturalist, born on 12th Feb 1809. The first important stop of Beagle was at Bahia, a north eastern part of Brazil. The naturalist was struck by the beauty of the Brazilian forests. In 1939, he published his memoirs—'The Voyage of the Beagle'. He wrote, 

'BAHIA, OR SAN SALVADOR. BRAZIL, 29thFeb.—The day has past delightfully. Delight itself, however, is a weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist who, for the first time, has wandered by himself in a Brazilian forest. The elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the foliage, but above all the general luxuriance of the vegetation, filled me with admiration. A most paradoxical mixture of sound and silence pervades the shady parts of the wood. The noise from the insects is so loud, that it may be heard even in a vessel anchored several hundred yards from the shore; yet within the recesses of the forest a universal silence appears to reign. To a person fond of natural history, such a day as this brings with it a deeper pleasure than he can ever hope to experience again.'

So much awe-stricken was he, that he started his own journey: a journey that changed the World; changed our thinking how we came about. The young naturalist was Charles Robert Darwin, one of the greatest scientist of all times. And irrespective of faith, his theory on 'The Origin of Species' changed perception of our origin. The World over, this year is being celebrated as his bi-centenary birth year. It is for this reason that I wanted to be in Brazil, to see the beauty of the country that inspired him to take that extraordinary journey.

Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to be in Brazil in this memorable year.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE LEGAL PROFESSION

The three generation in legal profession

(Summary: This paper explains how information technology may be used by the persons pursuing legal profession.

This was read by Justice Yatindra Singh, judge Allahabad High Court Allahabad at Kerala Law Academy Trivandum on 12.3.09 and before Karnataka Judicial Academy Bangalore on 23.3.2008.)

OPEN FORMAT, OPEN SOURCE AND THE ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT

{This talk was to be delivered in the convention held on 26-28 December 2008 in Calcutta by the Institute for Open Technology and Applications, a society formed under Department of Information Technology, Government of West Bengal (IOTA) to create awareness to create awareness in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). However due to unavoidable circumstances it could not be done but was circulated in the convention.}

We, at the Allahabad High Court, not only use but advocate open source software (OSS) and open formats. Many raise the question,

'Why is it so? Why do you do it?'

Let me take this opportunity to explain it. 

SCIENCE FICTION: THE PIED PIPER OF SCIENCE

(Summary: The paper explains, science fiction, historical background, and its importance in the field of science.
This paper was to be read by Justice Yatindra Singh at Varanasi on 13.112008 in the first ever national discussion on 'Science Fiction: Past, present, Future' organised by National Council of Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) New Delhi. However due to unavoidable circumstances it could not be read but was circulated.) 

In the thirteenth century, 130 children disappeared in Hamlin, Germany.  It is not clear,

1. If this was in 1212 or 1260, or 1284 or any other year;
2. If they died or were killed or just went away to another place;
3. What was the reason for their disappearance.

However, Hamlin town  records this incident. The 'Donat', the Hamlin book of statutes, contains  references to it. The tragic incident was also recorded in the stained window of the market church. It was destroyed in 1660 but on the basis of surviving descriptions, it has been reconstructed by Hans Dobbertin (historian).  Around sixteenth century, a  tale was added to it:

From Wikipedia

'The town of Hamlin was suffering from a rat infestation. A man dressed in pied garments (the pied piper) appeared, offering them a solution. The people promised to pay him for his services. He played a musical pipe to lure away the rats and drowned them into the Weser river. However  the people refused to pay him. The man left the town angrily. 
The pipe piper returned on St. John's Day.  While the inhabitants of Hamlin were in the church, he played his pipe again. This time, instead of rats, the tune attracted the children. One hundred and thirty boys and girls followed him out of the town and were never seen again. Two children, a lame, and a deaf were left behind to tell the tale.'

Some say that the pied piper was the devil himself; some accept this story as an explanation to the tragic incident. Leaving the dark aspect of the tale, the pied piper  was a master musician, who could attract anyone with his tunes.  So is the case with science fiction: they not only create interest in science but make us aware about different possibilities.

BE THE CHANGE – YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD

(Summary: This paper not only provides legal implications of open format but also explains its advantages, problems and how to make them more popular.

Text of Talk delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh on 09.10.2008 in the Second International Open Document Format User Workshop organised by the E-Documentation committee chaired by South Africa's Department of Home Affairs in collaboration with ODF Alliance at Pretoria.)

It is honour and priviledge, to participate in the 2nd ODF workshop, and to be in South Africa – a country that Indians owe a lot.

One hundred and fifteen years ago (1893), a young 23 years old Indian barrister, took his maiden but fateful South African train journey from Durban. He was coming to Pretoria to defend a legal case. He could not complete the journey that night: he was thrown out of his first class compartment at Peter Maritzburg, despite the fact he had first class compartment ticket. His only fault was that he was coloured. He spent that cold winter night at the railway station but started his journey from Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi to Mahatma Gandhi. It was during his 21 years stay here at South Africa that he realised importance of human dignity and started struggle against racial descrimination; It was here that he realised importance of non-violence (Satyagrah) and started quest for our independence.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to visit this wonderful country that I always wanted to visit.

WHERE CAN PENGUINS FLY?

(Summary: This paper explains what is open source and open format; why they should be used; and talks about some good open source programmes that run on Windows.

Text of Talk delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh on 20.09.2008 on the Software Freedom Day at the University of Allahabad, Allahabad.)

Two of my finest years have been spent roaming around the corridors of the science faculty of the Allahabad University. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to renew those memories. I am happy to be here to talk about open source,  open formats, and some popular open source programmes  on windows.

Mahatma Gandhi's   philosophy was,

'Means are more important than the end:  it is only with the right means that the desired end will follow.'

To the charge that  'means are after all means', he would say,

‘Means, after all, are everything’.