Srinagar: J&K Judicial Academy Srinagar today organized One Day Refresher Course for Civil Judges Junior Division in order to update their legal knowledge and to discuss practical problems faced by them in justice delivery and besides emphasis on conduct, procedure, and application of law and drawing of interim, final orders and judgments by them.
The programme was held under the patronage of Chief Justice, High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, and Patron-in-Chief, J&K Judicial Academy, Justice Pankaj Mithal and guidance of Chairman Governing Committee for J&K Judicial Academy, Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur besides Justice Sindhu Sharma, Justice Javed Iqbal Wani and Members of Governing Committee for J&K Judicial Academy.
The training programme was inaugurated by Judge, High Court of J&K and Ladakh, Justice Javed Iqbal Wani. Former Judge High Court of J&K and Ladakh, Justice Rashid Ali Dar was the resource person in the programme.
In the inaugural session, Justice Rashid Ali Dar remarked that the Judicial Academy is a centre of learning where judicial minds are trained for meeting future challenges. He said that constant efforts must be made for enhancing legal acumen and for elevating perception of law for a better justice delivery system.
In his inaugural address, Justice Javed Iqbal Wani emphasized that it is most appropriate to train and refresh judicial officers on this significant concept in view of its indomitable importance in the justice delivery mechanism.
This, he said, salutary principle begets the idea of transparency in the judicial system and one certain way of its manifestation is through Judgments which are essentially writings of judges, expressing opinions and making considered decisions in the process of evaluation and determination of rights of litigating parties. He added that the collateral motives are to clarify one’s own thoughts, to explain the decision to the parties, to communicate reasons underlying the decision, and to provide reasons for the appellate Court to consider.
While writing a judgement, its scribe or author must be conscious of his role and responsibility of proceeding wisely and deciding impartially, he said and added that a judge must dispel any hovering fear of the reaction of parties, fellow colleagues or superiors once his judgement is in public domain.
He underlined that another important aspect and very pertinent one, that the judgement must breathe clarity, coherence and conciseness with the additional embellishments of convincingness and reasoning. When a judgement is written with clarity, coherence and conciseness, even a common man can figure out the contours of law, which otherwise are difficult for him to navigate.
“Reasons given by a judge in a judgement indicate the working of his or her mind, approach grasp of the question of fact and law involved in the case and the depth of knowledge of law. Reason, therefore, is the soul and spirit of a good judgement. These are exacting requirements but they are subservient to what, after all, is the main object of a judgement, which is substantive justice,” Justice said.
Director, J&K Judicial Academy Sanjay Parihar presented the welcome address and gave an overview of the programme. He stated that the judiciary has scrupulously discharged its responsibility of dispensing justice which is evident through the judgments penned by judges, conclusively determining the rights of parties. He described reason as the most important element of a judgement which reflects the working of a judicial mind, its knowledge of law and grasp of the fact or law involved in the matter before the court.
In the first technical session, Justice Rashid Ali Dar and Director, J&K Judicial Academy educated the judicial officers on various aspects of writing judgments and orders. Emphasis was laid on developing and toning the legal reasoning attributes for improved judgement and order writing.
The resource person dealt with the tools and techniques for enhanced judgement and order writing skills.
In the second technical session, detailed deliberations were made on judgement and order writing. The participants were also trained on writing miscellaneous and first orders.
An interactive session followed where the participants deliberated and discussed the various aspects of the subject topic and raised queries which were satisfactorily settled by the resource persons.
