Ansari expresses concern over delay in court judgements

Expressing concern over delay in pronouncement of judgements by the courts, Vice President Hamid Ansari today said judicial minds should be trained to eliminate subconscious loyalties.
"The judicial mind should be so trained as to eliminate subconscious loyalties and in the execution of justice he or she should, in the words of the 17th century English Judge Sir Mathew Hale, lay aside (his) own passions and not to give way to them, however, provoked," he said.
Ansari was speaking at an event here to mark the Sesquicentennial Celebrations of the Allahabad High Court.
"An ex-Chief Justice of India had identified long judgements, frequent adjournments and lengthy oral arguments in a response about delay," he said.

"Each of these, let me add, is remediable and can be remedied given the will and the commitment on the part of the judiciary and the fraternity of lawyers," he said.
Ansari said judgements in earlier generations were concise and cryptic and adjournments were allowed only for good roans.

"As for long oral argument, it is an Indian malaise. In the Supreme Court of United States, for instance, each side is allowed only 30 minutes for presentation. There is no reason why verbosity cannot be restrained," the Vice President said.
The "desire for immorality through the pages of law reports" can be achieved through sharp and succinct pronouncements, as was done in an earlier period and has been done by great judges the world over, he said.

Kautilya's Arthashtra said judges shall discharge their duties objectively and impartially, he said.
Ansari said a changing world has made globalisation an
unavoidable necessity and this, in the ultimate analysis, cannot be restricted to economics and trade policy only and extends to global standards in all fields, including in the area of dispensation of justice; by implication, the space for local peculiarities is shrinking.
"Sooner we adjust to it, the better for all litigants, lawyers, judges and the eventual beneficiary would be public," he said.
Ansari said a court which yields to popular will thereby licenses itself to practise despotism for there can be no assurance that it will not on another occasion indulge its own will.

"Courts can fulfil their responsibility in a democratic society only to the extent they succeed in shaping their judgement by rational standards, and rational standards are both impersonal and communicable," he said.
Ansari said here too, a judicious mix can bring forth reasonably satisfactory results.
He said this should throw up an enticing or agonising challenge to each judge of locating himself or herself as the upholder or transformer of established norms of interpretation or enforcement of law.