Institute of Legal and Management Studies

Justice PS Narasimha, Judge of the Supreme Court, stressed that a Judge should "disappear" after delivering a judgment, and should let the judgment speak for itself.

He added that judges must exercise restraint in speech and voiced concern over the growing tendency of judges to seek attention by speaking excessively in the age of social media, particularly after retirement.

"We seem to have moved away in the age of social media from the requirement of speaking less. Every word gets reported in the news. And sitting judges might get attracted. And worst is, post retirement, judges think the time has come for me to talk. That's not the way the system should work. The system should work through measured speech. Think before you talk. See if the speech leads to truth and leads to the prosperity of one and all," Justice Narasimha said.

He was speaking at the felicitation ceremony organised by the Nagpur High Court Bar Association for Justice AS Chandurkar. Justice Narasimha praised Justice Chandurkar for his quality of being measured in his speech.

"Justice dispensation requires the disappearance of a judge. A judge should not be seen; he has no business to be there except that he decides. His personality as an individual of having written better judgments is unnecessary. A judge does nothing more than decide and he disappears," Justice Narasimha said.

He added that Justice Chandurkar was such a Judge "whose decisions only speak and they speak volumes."

In his address, Justice Narasimha emphasised the need for lawyers to be precise in their arguments and judges to follow brevity in their judgments.

Citing the phrase of Kalidasa “satyayaya mithabhashinam” (to achieve truth, one must speak less), Justice Narasimha underlined that importance of brevity. “If truth is to be found, the principle is you must speak less. The compelling need of a judge is to speak very little and write as little as possible to convey the truth. This is a sadhana we must undertake,” he observed.

Praising Justice Chandurkar's quality of restraint, Justice Narasimha observed: “He will speak only if necessary. If you reflect on it, you will realise that he is a very powerful person. Power is in his control over speech. It is not an easy thing. That way you are powerful- you know what you are saying, you have control of what you are saying.”

He further urged members of the Bar to exercise similar discipline by identifying arguable points together and confining arguments to those points to assist the Court in the pursuit of truth. Justice Narasimha said that the nature of the profession often compels one to try to be in the centre stage. However, truth should not become a casualty in that process, he advised.