Incomprehensible': Top court sets aside a
verdict by Himachal HC, calls for lucidity
ANANTHAKRISHNANG
NEW DELHI, AUGUST 24
THE SUPREME Court has set
aside an "incomprehensible"
judgment of the Himachal
Pradesh High Court and advised
judges to maintain lucidity and
brevity in their writing.
The bench of Justices DY
Chandrachud and A S Bopanna
alsotouched on aspects of judg-
ment writing, remindingjudges
that their verdicts "must make
sense to those whose lives and
affairs are affected by the out
come of the case".
The bench said it "found it
difficult to navigate through the
maze of incomprehensible lan-
guage" in the high court deci-
sion. "Incoherent judgments
have a serious impact upon the
dignity ofjudicialinstitutions."
Itadded:"A litigant forwhom
the judgment is primarily meant
would beplaced in aneven more
difficult position."
Writing for the bench. Justice
Chandrachud said: "Language of
the kind in ajudgment defeats the
purpose of judicial writing.
Judgment writing ofthe genre be-
fore us in appeal detractsfrom the
efficacy of the judicial process"
The bench noted that it had
to return two other judgments
to the Himachal Pradesh High
Court earlier and had also faced
difficulties with an order of the
Allahabad High Court
"The purpose of judicial writ-
ing".Justice Chandrachud wrote,
"is not to confuse or confound the
readerbehind the veneer of com-
plex language. The judge must
write to provide an easy-to-un-
derstand analysis of the issues of
law and fact which arise for de-
cision. Judgments of the High
Courts and the Supreme Court
also serve as precedents to guide
future benches. A judgment
mustmake sense tothose whose
lives and affairs are affected by
the outcome of the case."
Underlining the importance
ofthe written word, the SCin its
August 16 order, said:
"Confidence in the judicial
process is predicated on the trust
which its written word gener-
ates. If the meaning of the writ-
ten word is lost in language, the
ability of adjudicator to retain
trust of the reader is
eroded"
"Judgment writing". said
Justice Chandrachud is" also "a
critical instrument in fostering
the rule of law and in curbing
rule by the law'.
Pointing to some of the mod-
en problems with writing judg-
ments, the SC said "brevity" had
become"an urwittingvictim ofan
overburdened judiciary" and "of
the cut-copy-paste convenience
afforded by software developers"
Justice Chandrachud said he
himself has been providing
headings and sub-headings in his
judgments to assist the reader in
providinga structured sequence
and said it will be useful for judg-
ments to carry paragraph num
bers and a Table of Contents.
The verdict also emphasised
the need to make rulings acces-
sible to all including people with
disability and advised to ensure
that watermarks are not im-
properly placed in uploaded or-
ders as that will make the docu
ments inaccessible for visually
disabled who use sceen readers.