CJI Ramana Stresses On Need For Simple Judgments And Accurate Legal Reporting

The Chief Justice of India, N.V. Ramana, was invited as the Chief Guest for the launch of "Supreme Court Cases (SCC) Pre '69" by the Eastern Book Company. While addressing the gathering, CJI Ramana propagated for simpler language to be used by judges while writing judgements. He stated that the reasoning and conclusion of a judgement must be clear so that the consumer of justice knows the end result of a given proceeding. He also accentuated upon the need of accurate legal reporting. 

The CJI, in his address, highlighted the importance of law reporting and stated that the same was necessary as the people of the country needed to know what was happening. He stated that citizens of the nation should access the law which is decided by courts. While underscoring the importance of such reporting being accurate, CJI Ramana said–

"Now we have 24x7 channels, before we even complete sentence we are seeing breaking news. There is a need for accurate reporting. Otherwise people are confused. Majority of the reporters don't know what is an order, proceedings, judgment or oral observations! It is very unfortunate...Suppose a judge asks a negative question- immediately it is reported. There is a need to give an accurate and honest reporting."

CJI Ramana also remarked that the most important thing to be taken into consideration while reporting was that the public at large understands the facts, law decided and how the law was applied.

While speaking on the contribution made by the Malik family (who found EBC and SCC), he stated that what SCC and EBC had achieved was owing to the hard word and contribution of three generations of the Malik family. He requested Mr. Surendra Malik to start "day-to-day reporting of the Supreme Court" to enlighten readers with accurate reporting of everything that happened in the Supreme Court, which would help them get a good understanding of the court. 

However, CJI Ramana also highlighted two issues with SCC and EBC. The first issue, as per him, was that of pricing, which made legal journals inaccessible to lawyers practicing law at a grass root level and in rural areas. While elaborating upon the same, he stated that–

"You know that the background of the rural lawyers- their income is very minimal. They cannot afford legal journals. Please find a solution to provide access to them. They are the grassroot level lawyers."

The second issue he highlighted was that of the lack of reporting of important judgements in regional languages. He stated that the same was necessary to make legal knowledge accessible to everyone. He requested EBC to try introducing at least selective judgments in regional languages.

Before concluding his address, CJI Ramana propagated for two things. He stated that it was essential for lawyers to know constitutional provisions. CJI Ramana highlighted that even after 75 years of independence, only certain people were aware of their constitutional rights. He said that–

"They must know what the constitution says, how to implement rights and duties."

As an advice to judges, CJI Ramana propagated for simpler language to be used while writing judgements. He opined that–

"I feel after 22 years as a judge, we need to think about writing judgments. I request all fraternity members- try to be simple in judgments. The consumer of justice must know what is the end result. That is more interesting. Reasoning and conclusion must be clear."

Following this, he congratulated SCC for the launch and concluded his address. 

Supreme Court judge Justice BV Nagarathna also spoke at the book launch event.