Brevity a virtue, Supreme Court on 60-page remand order of Himachal Pradesh High Court

In a short judgment passed today, the Supreme Court observed that brevity is a virtue which should be adhered to by courts while writing judgments. A Bench of Justices AM Sapre and Indu Malhotra made this observation in an appeal against a judgment of Himachal Pradesh High Court..In the case, the High court had remanded the matter back to the first Appellate Court to decide the first appeal and cross objection afresh on merits in accordance with law..The Supreme Court concurred with the same holding that the said order does not warrant any interference..However, as a parting observation, it noted that the High Court had passed a long order running up to 60 pages for remanding the matter back to the First Appellate Court. This in its opinion was not required..“Before parting, we cannot resist observing that having rightly formed an opinion to remand the case to the First Appellate Court, there was no need for the High Court to devote 60 pages in writing the impugned order. In our view, it was not required.”.When the High Court was only remanding the matter, the examination should have been confined only to the issue of remand and not beyond it. There was no need to cite several decisions and that too in detail..“Brevity being a virtue, it must be observed as far as possible while expressing an opinion”, the Court noted before dismissing the appeal..Read the judgment below.