Court judgments should be in language which can be understood not only by lawyers but also citizens who approach courts: Supreme Court

An incomprehensible judgment by the Himachal Pradesh High Court prompted the Supreme Court to make some pertinent observations on the purpose of courts writing judgments (State Bank of India v. Ajay Kumar Sood)..The purpose of judgments, the top court said on March 12, is to convey the basis and reasons for its decision not only to lawyers but also to citizens who approach courts for remedy.Judgments written in incomprehensible language does disservice to the cause of ensuring accessible and understandable justice to citizens, a Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah said..“The purpose of writing a judgment is to communicate the basis of the decision not only to the members of the Bar, who appear in the case and to others to whom it serves as a precedent but above all, to provide meaning to citizens who approach courts for pursuing their remedies under the law. Such orders of the High Court as in the present case do dis-service to the cause of ensuring accessible and understandable justice to citizens,” the order passed by the Supreme Court said..The Himachal Pradesh High Court, by its order dated November 27, 2020, had affirmed the order of the Central Government Industrial Tribunal (CGIT). The CGIT, while coming to the conclusion that the first charge of misconduct against the respondent was proved, interfered with the penalty of dismissal only on the ground that it was harsh and disproportionate to the misconduct. Hence, the penalty of dismissal was modified to that of compulsory retirement..When the appeal against the High Court judgment came up before Supreme Court, the top court observed that the High Court had written a judgment spanning over eighteen pages but the same was “incomprehensible”..“The reasons set out in the judgment of the Division Bench of the High Court dated 27 November 2020 dismissing the petition filed by the petitioners under Article 226 of the Constitution, span over eighteen pages but are incomprehensible,” the Supreme Court noted in its judgment..It then proceeded to extract the relevant portions of the High Court judgment which could not be deciphered.Nevertheless, the apex court said that since the High Court had affirmed the award of the CGIT, the top court has been able to arrive at an understanding of the basic facts from the order of the CGIT..“From the record of the Court, more particularly the award of the CGIT, it emerges that though a serious charge of misconduct was held to be established against the respondent, it has been interfered with and the High Court has dismissed the petition under Article 226,” the Supreme Court said..Prima facie, in our view, a serious act of misconduct stands established from the evidentiary findings contained in paragraphs 16 and 17 of the award of the CGIT, it added.The Supreme Court, therefore, issued notice and also ordered that no coercive steps shall be taken against the petitioners on the basis of the award of the CGIT dated July 9, 2019..In April 2017, a Supreme Court Bench of Justices Madan Lokur and Deepak Gupta had set aside a judgment of the Himachal Pradesh High Court because of the convoluted English used in the judgment. We will have to set it aside because one cannot understand this,” the Supreme Court had said when remanding the matter back to the High Court for re-drafting the judgment. In another instance, a Bench of Justices AM Sapre and Indu Malhotra of Supreme Court had in December 2018, taken exception to the fact that the Himachal Pradesh High Court had devoted 60 pages to write an order for remanding a matter back to the first appellate court. “Brevity being a virtue, it must be observed as far as possible while expressing an opinion," the Supreme Court had noted in its order while hearing the appeal against High Court order. .[Read Supreme Court order]

Court judgments should be in language which can be understood not only by lawyers but also citizens who approach courts: Supreme Court

Bar & Bench

Related Stories