Summary
A bank employee dismissed after a disciplinary enquiry challenged the dismissal before the Central Government Industrial Tribunal. The Tribunal found one charge of misconduct proved but substituted compulsory retirement for dismissal. The Himachal Pradesh High Court affirmed the award in a judgment whose language was incomprehensible. The Court set it aside and remitted the writ petitions for fresh consideration, keeping all contentions on merits open and asking for expedited disposal. It also laid down guidance on judgment writing. A judgment must be lucid and intelligible to the litigants and must convey its reasoning. Judgments should be clearly structured, using issue, rule, application and conclusion. Published judgments should be accessible, including to persons with visual disability, digitally signed and not scanned or watermarked.
Issues
- Whether a High Court judgment couched in incomprehensible language could be sustained, or must be set aside and the matter remitted.
- What standards of clarity, structure and accessibility judgments should meet.
Held
- The High Court's judgment was incomprehensible even to this Court and more so to a litigant untrained in law. Language of that kind defeats the purpose of judicial writing and erodes the trust on which confidence in the judicial process rests. The judgment was set aside and the matter remitted, as the Court had done in earlier similar cases from the same High Court. (¶¶ 8, 10, 11, 12)
- A judgment is a manifestation of reason, written first for the parties and then for appellate courts, future benches and the public. The reasons are as important as the conclusion and are open to scrutiny. The work of a judge cannot be reduced to a disposal statistic, and clear judgment writing is essential to the rule of law. (¶¶ 13, 16, 17)
- Judgments should be clearly structured, with headings, paragraph numbers and, for longer ones, a table of contents. The issue, rule, application and conclusion should be easily identifiable, together with the facts and submissions. Judges may keep their own styles, but lucidity, simplicity and clarity must be maintained. (¶¶ 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28)
- Courts and tribunals must publish judgments in accessible form, including for persons with visual disability who use screen readers. Judgments should be digitally signed and free of improperly placed watermarks, and the practice of uploading scanned printed copies should be eradicated. (¶ 21)
Result
Appeal allowed. The High Court's judgment is set aside and the writ petitions are restored for fresh consideration with all contentions on merits kept open; the High Court is requested to expedite disposal.