“Is this in Latin?” SC takes Exception to Judgement for Incomprehensible Language

Munmun Kaur

Published On: January 18, 2022 at 15:36 IST

The Supreme Court has once again taken exception to a Judgment by Himachal Pradesh High Court for the incomprehensible language employed by the Court in Judgment.

A two-Judge Bench comprising of Justice KM Joseph and Justice P S Narasimha, on January 17, while hearing the appeal, asked “Is this in Latin? We may have to send it back to the High Court for it to be re-written,”

Agreeing with the Bench, Senior Advocate Nidhesh Gupta who was representing the Appellant said that even he could not comprehend the honorable High Court’s Judgement. He further said that it was a dispute over property and that he could explain the matter from the Trial Court’s Judgement and the parts from the High Court’s Judgement that he could comprehend.

The Apex Court has granted two weeks time to both the parties to sit together and see if the matter can be decided amicably. Meanwhile, the Apex Court will contemplate sending the Judgement in question, which was authored by Justice Sureshwar Thakur, back to the Himachal Pradesh High Court to be rewritten.

Although, this is not the first time that the Supreme Court has taken an objection to the language of the Judgements. In April 2017, a Supreme Court Bench of Justices Madan Lokur and Deepak Gupta had to set aside a Judgement of Himachal Pradesh High Court because of the convoluted English. Interestingly, that Judgement too was authored by Justice Sureshwar Thakur. The Bench had said, “We will have to set it aside because one cannot understand this”.

In March 2021, Bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah had emphasized that the purpose of Judgments is to convey the basis and reasons for its decision not only to lawyers but also to citizens who approach courts for remedy. Therefore, they should be in a language that can be understood not only by lawyers but also by the citizens. The Bench, with regards to the Judgement from Madhya Pradesh High Court, had said, “We are at our wit’s end. This is happening repeatedly.”

Related Post