13 Oct 2023 3:30 AM GMT
Justice Aniruddha Bose, on October 13, delivered the lecture “Justice Delivery System & Role of Lawyers”.
To begin with the topic, Justice Bose stated that lawyers contribute to the great judgments but somehow the judges who write them get the name. He went on to say that at least, in our system, lot of reliance is placed on lawyers by the judges for arriving at a decision.
“We call it an adversarial system, that is between the two litigants but with lawyers it is a collaborative system.”
Talking about the pendency of cases, he said that what is often is ignored is how many cases are disposed of and stressed that it is the lawyers who can make the difference in early completion of case and a delayed result.
He highlighted that the proportion of lawyers is very low as compared to the total population of our country and continued to talk about the change in composition of litigants vis-à-vis success of the legal system.
“Earlier, who were the litigants? The big landlords/ zamindars…. Today, even every estranged homemaker, evicted agricultural tenant, dismissed workmen can come with ease to the Supreme Court and find a helping hand from a lawyer. So, the composition of litigant has changed which speaks volumes of success of a system.”
Moving forward, he stated that, for him, the greater cause of worry would have been if there is no litigation. He clarified that it goes without saying that litigation has to be completed within a reasonable time, but this also reflects the faith of people in the system.
Challenges Facing The Legal Community
Justice Bose also discussed about the challenges faced by the legal community. He broadly classified it into three heads. First, using of mother language as a medium in the legal process. Second, need of lawyers and judges to equip themselves better in technology and last challenge is to get used to the alternative dispute resolution process.
Elaborating on the same, he spoke that the application of AI can help in making legal documents accessible in respective mother languages.Though he clarified that he is not sure of the exact figure, he said that presently judgments are being translated possibly in 13 languages. Continuing with the discussion of the second challenge, he said that the information technology has made a huge difference and now several online software has made almost all the judgments accessible. He said that for younger lawyers, computer has become of great help.
At the end, he talked about how there are a good deal of cases that can be resolved through negotiation, for which we have to attune ourselves a little more in properly advising the client. Citing the famous case of Donoghue v. Stevenson or the ‘‘the snail in the bottle’’ case wherein the House of Lords ruled that negligence was a tort, he said:
“Dead snail in a beer bottle need not engage house of lords to create Donoghue v. Stevenson every time. Sometimes, it is necessary. But most of the times we can get the results without going to the law courts.”
In a lighter vein, talking about the conditions of the Courts as depicted in the Bollywood film Jolly LLB, he said that in reality, our Courts even in the district level are much modern now. He concluded his address by stating:
“I see a great future in the legal profession in this Country and as the bar of the Apex Court, you have to play a stellar role in that.”
Video of the Lecture can be seen here.