In PILs, material facts matter more than pleadings: SC lawyer

Nagpur: The judiciary in Indian has witnessed a lot changes after introduction of Public Interest Litigations (PILs), where material facts matters most instead of pleadings. This was the view expressed by senior Supreme Court lawyer Shekhar Naphade on Saturday at an event — ‘Dos and Don’ts in conducting criminal and civil trials with special emphasis on pleadings and evidence’ — organized by the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) at an auditorium on Nagpur bench’s premises.
He said petitioners in PILs just provide information to HCs, which actually monitor the case. “A petitioner only renders assistance to the courts in PILs. The HC can refuse pleadings if it found any illegality. The principles of rule of law are above the law of pleadings,” he told the jam-packed hall, mostly comprised young lawyers and law students.

Explaining on the judges’ role, he said they play an active part in the justice dispensation system. “Judges have their own perception. Earlier, they used to write judgments by hand which were very precise. Nowadays, I feel that most of them mechanically record the pleadings.”

Naphade said very rarely a judge goes out of way to study the case deeply and detect the foul play. “When I was a junior in 1970s, I came across a judge who demanded all the case-related documents and detected a foul play into the entire affair. It was once-in-a-lifetime learning experience.”

Deliberating on the Evidence Act, the senior lawyer, who appeared for the state during Bombay bomb blasts cases, said it was a skeleton piece of legislation that resembled empirical sciences and was a tricky one. “Modern criminal law requires a lot of pleadings and if your fundamentals are clear, you will not face difficulties.”

He added that though election petitions were simple, their basic parameters were different from the civil cases. “The standard of proof in such cases are as high as in criminal ones and therefore, should be pleaded with evidence,” he said.

“You must always bring out the best evidence. Any failure in this aspect would lead to losing out the case. Your pleadings must contain material facts and evidence produced by must be in tune with it. Even slightest departure can be disastrous.”

Speaking on cross examinations, Naphade said it is a double edged weapon that should be used very judiciously.

Justice Bose Reading Corner opens in HC

The HCBA has opened its novel concept of a reading corner, having collection of exclusive and rare books for general reading, apart from the law books and journals. It was inaugurated by Naphade at HCBA’s library on Saturday. HCBA secretary Prafulla Khubalkar said the new facility would have autobiographies of renowned lawyers and judges along with the history of judiciary. It would also have books on various topics like history and nature. Those are donated by HCBA members, including senior lawyer Anand Jaiswal, Shyam Dewani and others.