It is the duty of a judge to study the case file, but he or she should not come to court with a ‘closed mind’, retired judge of the Supreme Court Kurian Joseph said here on Friday.
Speaking at a farewell function organised by Kerala lawyers practising at the Supreme Court, Mr. Joseph said the mere fact that “you have studied the case does not mean you should be deaf to the arguments of the lawyer in court”.
Give full hearing
“In fact, a judge with a ‘closed mind’ and who has already made up his or her mind on the outcome of the case even before hearing the submissions of the counsels for the parties does more harm than good for the litigants who have come for justice,” he said.
Every judge should give lawyers a full hearing. Shutting out the lawyer was like putting a lid on the voice of the litigant. This kind of conduct did not serve the ends of justice.
It was only recently that Attorney General K.K. Venugopal urged Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi to give a full hearing to a lawyer. The veteran lawyer had intervened when the Chief Justice briskly dismissed a case before fully hearing the lawyer.
Mr. Joseph, who retired on November 29 from the apex court and is widely hailed as a ‘humanitarian judge’, has disposed of 8,500 cases in the Supreme Court and 66,000 in High Courts, Supreme Court lawyer V.K. Biju said at the function.
Mr. Joseph has advised fellow judges to practice “constitutional compassion” in courtroom.
“Compassion from the court is not the charity of a judge, it is the bounden duty of a constitutional court,” he said. Chief Justice Gogoi had hailed Mr. Kurian as a ‘personal friend’ with whom he shared an emotional bond that overcame the geographical distances of their native States of Assam and Kerala.
