Without them, Court would be a failure during the pandemic: Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw hails role of court staff, registry, law researchers

In his last address as a sitting Delhi High Court Judge, Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw on Thursday spoke about the hidden contributions of the registry and staff of the Court as well as legal researchers to ensure smooth functioning of the Court. .Without their support, court system would have been a failure during the pandemic, Justice Endlaw said. ."I had never paid much attention to the staff and the registry. But one realized that whatever we are doing, whatever praise all of you have showered on my work today - that praise, without all that support staff, is meaningless. This Court has a tradition of honouring judges, lawyers. But till now I have not noticed any tradition of honouring these two facets of the court system without which our Court (would have been) a failure during the pandemic," he said. .Justice Endlaw was speaking at a farewell event organised by the Delhi High Court on the occasion of his retirement..He observed that the Registry is the backbone of the Court. He recalled how after the pandemic set in, the registry officers were crucial to the functioning of judges.."The lawyers were there, judges were there. Delhi High Court was very fortunate, there was the virtual platform. But none of us were able to work because, what I realized was, the backbone of Court was missing ... Not all of us were very adept at handling the computer system, so one rang up the computer branch staff, and they were always helpful. Whatever work one has done, most of it would not have been possible or the quality and quantity one tried to achieve would not have been possible without the staff", he said..Referring to legal clerks and law researchers, he spoke of their invaluable role when it comes to assisting in proofreading and compiling research on which the judgments are ultimately based on. ."I was fortunate that in 2008 when I joined, at about that time only, this system was developed of providing law researchers. It started with one or two. That has had a large contribution to judgments which one delivers ... Without all the legal research, one could not come up with the proposition that one wanted to develop or base the decision on," he said. .In thanking all present during the virtual farewell reference for their praises, Justice Endlaw went on to remark,"I very humbly accept the praises which each one of you has very kindly said for my work. But I receive it not only for myself but also on behalf of all the law researchers who over the years have worked with me, the personal staff attached to me. I accept it on behalf of all of them and use this platform to also convey my gratitude to each one of them for contributing to whatever work one has been able to achieve.".The virtual farewell was also attended by Chief Justice DN Patel, Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) President Mohit Mathur, ASG Chetan Sharma, Santosh Tripathi and the Bar Council of Delhi Chairman, Ramesh Gupta, among others..[Read a live account of the event]