S-47 Tips for Young Lawyers : Stress is the silent killer of Lawyers.

1) Accept this fact seriously. In young age, most Lawyers are in Denial Mode. They do not seriously accept that Stress can kill them.

2) When we eat food, snack or a cup of tea, it causes spike of sugar in blood. In a healthy body, in a stress free body, the spike is soon dissolved. But if body is tense, stressed, it takes longer time to absorb and to level up the spike.

3) If your case is at No. 1 in Court List, there may be less Stress. The case will be soon over and stress in body will be over. But if case is last, if case is called out and kept back to wait for other lawyer, level of stress will be higher.

4) There may be such hundred stress points of stress in a lawyer's work.

5) An old lawyer suggested two things. A) Never skip your breakfast and lunch. Keep regular habits. B) In office, after reading and preparing a case, tie up a string over it. Once tied up, string should not be opened till case is called. In other words, avoid piece-meal reading of cases. This is supposed to help in reducing stress.

Haresh Raichura 30/11/16

S-45 Show reverance to Judiciary. In return, Judiciary will show reverence to you

I think very very very few will be able to understand the following story.

A new Advocate came to Bar. He asked an Elder lawyer, "How are the Lawyers and Judges here?"

Elder man asked him, "How were the Lawyers and Judges in the Bar from where you come?"

The Lawyer replied, "They were all crooked and corrupt."

The Elder Man replied, "You will find here same type of Lawyers and Judges."

After an hour, another new lawyer came to join this Bar.

Coincidently, he met the same Elder Lawyer. He asked  Elder lawyer," How are the Lawyers and Judges here?"

Elder man asked him, "How were the Lawyers and Judges in the Bar from where you come?"

The Lawyer replied, "They were all nice and honest people".

The Elder Man replied, "You will find here same type of Lawyers and Judges."

*****
There are deep psychological principles involved here.

******
But the moral is : The world you see outside is in accordance with world you WANT to see outward.
********
Haresh Raichura 29/11/16

S-44 Tips for Junior Advocates: Never file proceedings under a wrong provision of law.

This was the first advice given to me by my Senior Lawyer Vasant J Desai.

Suits and Criminal trials pass through several stages. At many stages, trial judge has to pass mini judgements. Appeals, Appeals from Orders, Revisions, Special Civil Applications etc are provided.

If order is apealable, do not file Revision.

If you do such filings, you may lose respect of judge. He will begin to regard you as incompetent lawyer. Such reputation is very bad for Junior advocates. It ruins their chances of promotion to higher judiciary completely.

When in open Court Judge will dismiss your revision and will ask you to file proper appeal, you will lose reputation in eyes of other Advocates sitting in Court also.

So file interim proceedings after checking provisions.

Haresh Raichura 27/11/16

S-43 Tips for Junior Advocates: Is it necessary to develop loud voice and public speaking skills for success in advocacy?

There is no right answer to this question.

In my view these are not necessary skills. With this skills, if head is empty, they only make loud noises which do not help arguments.

Loud speaking and Public speaking may have advantages. But I don't think them sine qua non for legal practice.

However, if a junior Advocate wants to develop these skills, I recollect two observations.

A) A lawyer used to give dictation to his steno, by asking him to sit 10 feet away from him. Naturally, lawyer will have to dictate in High Pitched loud voice. This trains vocal cords. In laptop, if you have Dragon Software for voice to text, you can try to dictate by keeping laptop ten feet away.

2) A lawyer had 20 feet long office. Opposite his table, there were only two chairs for clients to sit. Rest of the clients will sit in chairs placed near wall at 20 feet distance. Now lawyer will talk in such a loud voice that his client sitting 20 feet away can also listen him. Thi used to impress them.

Unfortunately, I am not a money oriented guy and hence I  detasted such methods and never practiced them. You can try if it appeals to you. Wish you best of luck.

Haresh Raichura 27/11/16

LR-33 Whether one can prosecute an election candidate and his party under Sec.420 of IPC?

No one are filing such cases, and if some cases are filed, they do not succeed is no ground to say that such cases cannot be filed.

Here are few points :

1) There appears to be no law to protect election candidates and his party from prosecution for cheating under Sec.420 IPC. If Sanction is needed, sanction can be applied. If Sanction is wrongly refused, HC can be approached against such refusal.

2) One has to prove beyound doubt that Election Candidate or his party, induced you to part with your valuable Vote in their favour by making wilfull  misrepresentation.

3) One has to argue that Vote is a valuable asset or security for purpose of Sec.420.

4) Wilful misrepresentation made here was promise to do something or to restrain from doing something if Vote is given to him or his party.

5) That, on basis of this representation you actually cast Vote in his favour.

6) That, reasonable time is passed, but Elected candidate has not taken any steps to fulfill his promise and has thus cheated you.

7) If Court sees all ingredients of IPC 420 in your complaint, it is required to register complaint.

Important Note: In Democracy, such cases may not be advisable. But Election Commission has now found that Parties are promising Moon to gullible masses to capture votes. In such circumstances, boundries of IPC Sec.420 can be expanded wherever a political party is seen prmisding Moon to gullible masses.

Important Note 2 : Five Rounds of Debates between Contesting Candidates must be arranged by EC in each constituency. These will weed out candidates with low IQ and Lack of Plan for their Constituency.

Haresh Raichura 25/11/16

S-42 Tips for Junior Advocates : Master Art of Compound Sentences. :-

In Supreme Court Judgements, you often read one sentence witch may be as long as a paragraph. This is a Compound Sentence.

Learning art of writing Compound sentence helps in speedy and uninterrupted communication of thoughts.

Perhaps it is one of many signs of higher IQ also.

If you have not fully explored Grammer part of Compound Sentences, it may be a good idea to revisit it.

On Facebook, I often read posts of junior Advocates. Few of these contain too simple sentences. This prompted me to write this post too underline importance of Compound sentence.

Haresh Raichura 24/11/2016

S-41 "Six Newspapers Method" of developing critical thinking skills.

This is very old method. May be in existence since before 1930.

It works like this: If you wish to critically study a piblicly debated case, read it's news in six newspapers.

I saw this method actually being practised in office of a Top Senior Advocate of Supreme Court.

He had subscribed to several newspapers. His staff was bring given topics or case about which they have to collect clipping from all newspapers and make a file of it.

Senior Advocate will study this file at his convenience.

Naturally, his submissions on any topic, outshined submissions of all other Senior Advocates.

Haresh Raichura 24/11/16

S-40 Tips for Junior Advocates:-How to overcome initial fear of arguing.

When I joined as Advocate in Junagadh District Bar, a Govt pleader told someone about me, "He cannot even speak. How can he become Advocate!"

Well, I became Advocate. And moved form District Court to High Court and from High Court to Supreme Court.

Moral : Ignore opinions of others about your strengths and weaknesses. They may not be fully aware.

2) When I moved to High Court, I had difficulty in addressing Court in English as my mother tongue was Gujarati.

I went to room of clerks and told them, "If any of your Advocates has not come from outstation, and if adjournment is required to mentioned to court, please give me chance to mention. In return, I will pay Rs.50/- for each opportunity to mention given to me.

Clerks promised to give me such opportunities and said that they do not want my Rs.50.

Well, they gave me opportunites and I recovered from initial fears of addressing Court.

It is natural for every junior to have such fears in early days.

Haresh Raichura 22/11/2/16

LR- 32 Who should file PIL ?

I have nothing to say about those who are habitually filing PILs. They gain publicity and some personal collateral gains.
Those who expose scams of billions, naturally gain millions. I have no Envy towards them.

But I believe that genuine PIL should come from Doctors.

They raises non political issues which touches health and lives of millions of people.

When Doctors file a PIL, they serve the Humanity.
And Lawyers who file their PIL for nominal Fees and Senior Advocates who appear in such cases without charging Fees, also do a great service to Humanity.

These are our true hopes.
Haresh Raichura 23/11/16

S-39 Tips to young lawyers : "The Inner Fire, faith, choice and modern-day living in Zoroastrianism"- a book by Justice Rohington F Nariman

"The Inner Fire, faith, choice and modern-day living in Zoroastrianism"- a book by Justice Rohington F Nariman.

One should also read books other than law books..preferably books by Judges and eminent Lawyers.

It is difficult to describe benefits. But you can make an experiments.

First you read any one book. You will immediately realise a shift in your world view.

The above book is about inner fire or the quest.
There is an Inner Fire in all of us to search for God.

In our childhood certain beliefs are planted in us. We follow those belief, but when we are mature, when we have developed Spirit of Inquiry, we need to read books outside our religion, to see the ultimate light.

Years ago I used to see a Gujarati  TV show on Parsi religion.

It's title in Gujarati was " Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Actions".

Our life can change if we stick to above words.

In this program, I learned how to measure when we are nearer to God or when we are away from God.

It said, if you feel darkness in life, you are away from God.

If you see light everywhere in your life, you are nearer to God.

Recently I had bought a book from Amazon.com about basics of Parsi religion.

Just as there is a list of fundamental rights, they have a list of main duties.

The duty which I liked most, was duty TO REMAIN CLEAN all the time. Cleanliness is part of this religion.

And that is great. I have yet not read the book of "Inner Fire" which is released only yesterday,  but intend to read it.

Haresh Raichura 21/11/16

LR-31 Do you know that in earlier times there were NO criminal appeas or criminal appeal Courts..?

Do you know that in earlier times there were NO criminal appeals or criminal appeal Courts..? Trial Court judgements were final.

But then one day, a Lawyer was convicted for slaughtering stray animals in early mornings.There were no eye witnesses. Case was based on circumstantial evidences.

None of his colleague Lawyers accepted the judgement.The whole Bar erupted in revolt.  Because the convicted lawyer was not capable of killing even a fly. His conviction was viewed as grossly erroneous.

At request of lawyers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle author of Detective Sherlock Holmes books, took up this case.

He came to the town. Stayed in holel. Reinvestigated  all circumstances relied upon by prosecution.

He found that the case was concocted and false. He presented his dossier of investigation to Home Ministry. Since there were no criminal appeals provided.

Home ministry saw substance in the report of Author. It acquitted the lawyer.

And thereafter, Govt introduced Courts of Appeals for all criminal cases.

Since then we have got Criminal Appeal Courts.

Haresh Raichura 21/11/16

LR- 30 No data base are maintained of reasons for people comitting suicides.

No data base of reasons for people comitting suicides.

Two days ago an Engineer committed suicide. Because after getting degree he was not getting job.

As I understand, the police Registers all such Suicides in Accidental Events Register. Such register is not prescribed in Criminal Procedure Code. Criminal Procedure Code only prescribes for maintaining First Information Register or FIRs

Much law need to be laid down by Courts about suicide registers because many murderes are registered and wound up here in embryo stage as "Suicides" or "Accidents"

Haresh Raichura 20/11/16

S-38 Tips for junior Lawyers : If you do not know law on any point, do not ask seniors, colleagues.

If you do not know law on any point, do not ask seniors, colleagues.

Their answers may not be accurate. 

Instead, try to search for answer by looking at books of different authors.

If you still do not get answer, wait for few days and then try again.

In this profession, it is of little  use to ask others.

Haresh Raichura 20/11/16

LR-29 Permanent Lok Adalat - even for cases yet not filed in Court - An experiment by a District Judge

Late Justice Niranjan Pandya was initially directly appointed as District Judge in Junagadh.

He made an experiment of Permanent Lok Adalat to settle cases pending in Court as well as about cases not yet filed in Court

He persuaded Local Post Office to spare a Room for this purpose. A permanent Lok Adalat was set up there.

If a man or woman had a dispute, whether pending in Court or not, could apply here.

On his application, notice was issued to respondent and case was fixed on a Sunday after a week.

On that day, the District Judge, two eminent and top Lawyers of District Court and two eminent charitable well known citizens of city will sit as 5 Judge bench to resolve disputes.

There will be other Lawyers to help parties.

If parties agree, a compromise would be drawn up which will be sent to Court where it would become decree of Court.

Where respondents do not come or where no compromise was possible, the case was dropped. The parties however left with clear understanding of law and possible outcome of their case.

The expanses of Permanent Lok Adalat were probably met from charity of locally influential charitable men who used to get chance to sit in 5 Judge bench of Lok Adalat.

Success of Lok Adalat depend on their influence, plus persuasive powers of District Judge and top Lawyers of city who sat on 5 Judge Bench.

Lawyers at first did not like this idea.

But then they saw chance of interacting with future litigants who may fail to compromise. This motivated them to participate happily in this project.

After Judge left city, after few years, the project was closed.

I am not sure whether such project is working anywhere else at present.

Haresh Raichura 19/11/16

S-37 "What is this? " The Judge asked the Counsel while holding a pen made of gold in his hand.

Probably, I read this story in autobiography of M C Chagla, titled "Roses in December".

A custom dispute case was brought in his Court. A man has brought a pen made of Gold from abroad. The custom wanted to tax it as import of gold. The man claimed that it is not gold, it is pen and it is exampt from duty.

The Judge took the pen in his and hand asked Govt Counsel, "What is this?"... The Govt Counsel replied that "It is pen."

"That settles it", Judge said and closed case, dismissing claim of the Custom.

The point is : Judges solve many cases by asking common sense questions.

Haresh Raichura 18/11/16

SP-7 Today, a Supreme Court Juddge who openlly expressed his faith in GITA, is retiring. His name is Justice Anil Dave.

It has been his long journey. His journey was a tapsya.

GITA is a mysterious books. It's every Stanza gives you a new meaning every time you read.

There are many things common among people who believe in GITA. These things cannot be described here.

But the key is this. If I believe in GITA, I can understand all persons who believe in GITA. The people who believe in GITA can understand actions of one another easily.

Lawyers will say many praises for his judicial work.
But I say only this much.

His work was a tapsya for him and he had to walk on an edge of sword almost all the time.

Haresh Raichura 18/11/16

LR- 28 "What are my prospects in Legal Profession? - A girl law student from a small village asked.

I have no answer. I am from a small disstrict. I have seen what happens to a newly joined lady advocate in Village Court, in District Court, in High Court and in Supreme Court.

What I have seen is not worth writing. I have seen only negative sides. In fact, I shiver in my bones when I remember what I have seen.

Perhaps I am not a right person to answer this question.

But if I think constructively, I think Legal Aid Committees can take initiative. A lady advocate should be assigned one case by Legal Aid Committee or by Amicus Curie Panel, the day she joins Bar. And then one case per month for an year. In one year she can develop survival confidence, can appear in judicial exams or can start her own small practice.

This is however only a wish.

Haresh Raichura 16/11/16

S-36 Tips for Young Lawyers : Three Broad Methods to prepare arguments in a Criminal Appeal.

I have not read anywhere about following methods. I just observed them during hearings of Criminal Matters in Supreme Court. There may be better methods which I may have missed.

1) Method of understanding which witness said what :

I once appeared before a bench presided by Justice K. T. Thomas for final hearing of a Criminal Appeal.

He first asked me about number of accused, date of offence, convictions under sections etc.

Then he started questions in following way.

Who is witenss No.1 ? What does he say about about accused? What does he say in cross examination? Why did Prosecution examined this witness?

Then same questions about witness No.2 and so on till the last witness.

By this method one can have considerable grasp over whole appeal in short time.

2) Method of understanding criminal case by making notes against each exhibits.

Once I had engaged Senior Advocate Sushil Kumar in a criminal appeal. He is considered one of  the top criminal lawyers of India.

I saw that he worked hard. He used to be in his chamber at 8:00 am to read his cases.

In this case, it appeared that he had made notes in his register about each exhibit in criminal case. This is a deeper method. It needs hard work. A Criminal case may have over 300 exhibits. In his register, he had made his notes against each exhibit. This is a thorough method. The moment you make such notes, you begin to see a way out from an otherwise airtight looking case.

I copied his method in a criminal appeal. While making notes against each exhibits, I came across an inland letter which had two postal stamps on it. The significance of these postal stamps were missed by all Courts below. On basis of these postal stamps, one husband and his father and mother were acquitted by Supreme Court. (Justice A.K. Patnaik and Justice S. G. Mukhopadhyay bench) https://indiankanoon.org/doc/50240550/

3) Method of Understanding minute to minute time line of what happened preceding the moment of crime and what happened immediately after crime, on minute to minute basis till the investigation is over.

Once I was sitting in Court presided by Justice G.T.Nanavati. Hearing of a Criminal Appeal was going on.

It appeared that the timeline of crime event was being  examined on minute to minute basis.

It was probably a case where multiple Dying Declarations were relied upon by prosecution. In such cases, such minute to minute analysis of crime scene can bring out truth or falsehood of evidences.

This is probably very tough method. It requires hard work plus imagination to examine time gaps and its relevance.

These are the three broad methods that can help in preparing a Criminal Appeal.

Haresh Raichura 16/11/16

LR- 27 An old format of List of Dates in A Special Leave Petition filed in Supreme Court

This may have been drafted in 1980 or earlier. But I saw it in or around in 1990.

It was a special leave petition drafted by Late Shri I. N. Shroff when he was an Advocate on Record. I have never seen him.

The list of date in that case was so succinct that it still lingers in my memory.

It was something like this:

Dt...... Plaintiff filed suit for...and  prayed .... that

Dt.......Trial Court framed following issues and replied as under :
Issue 1.....  Answer : Yes
Issue 2...... Answer : No

Dt...... Plaintiff filed appeal where appellate court framed following points for consideration and decided as under :
Point 1.....Answer : No
Point 2.....Answer : No

Dt....... Plaintiff filed appeal in High Court and High Court dismissed it giving reasons (1)...(2)...

Dt...... Plaintiff filed this special leave petition as impugned judgement is contrary to judgement of this Hon'ble Court in . ....SCC Vol... Page... Titled ....versus ......

This is the breifest list of date I ever come across.

Haresh Raichura
15/11/16

S-35 Tips for Young Lawyers: If you want honey, you should go where there are lots of honeybees.

There are many books to guide young lawyers on law. But are there any books which teach young lawyers how to get cases?

I am not sure. I have seen one such book in 1982 when I had just joined District Court Bar. I had found this book in Library of my Senior.

Today, I vaguely remember only one advice from this book.

It said that in initial years, you should go to many social events. Like marriage functions, community functions, someone's death related social gathering, political gathering etc.

After reading this book I understood behaviour of my Senior. In every evening I had to sit alone in his office, whereas he used to keep going to different social gatherings in evenings..

The suggestion is : If you want honey, go where there are lots of honeybees.

A contrary note: This suggestion has never been useful to me, because I am an introvert person. An introvert person feels uneasy in social events. He prefers to read books at home.

Haresh Raichura 15/11/16

S-34 "Are We Left With No Standards?" - A conversation in Court.

"Are We Left With No Standards?"

It was Court No.2 in Supreme Court many msny years ago.

The presiding Judge was Justice S.P.Bharucha as he was then.

The top Senior Advocate of Supreme Court was about to open arguments in a mega corruption case of a top politician of India.

Justice Bharucha confronted the Senior Advocate with this question.

"Are We Left With No Standards?"

The question left deep impression on my mind. Even today I can remember this scene vividly.

Later I wrote a poem around this question.

In poem, a Sparrow comes and tells the Judge, "Yes, we have standards. Our Lawyers and Our Judges have the best standards. We are proud of them."

Haresh Raichura 15/11/16

S-33 Play with the life events as if you are a batsman

Play with the life events as if you are a batsman and the life events are balls coming towards you. Play one ball at a time. Take single runs when you cannot strike a sixer. Let your score continue to go up in whatever activities you do.

Following words are attributed to Vijay Merchant. (As read in a MidDay article)

1) Cricket has taught me to tackle problems as they come, the way one plays every ball on its merit.

2) Cricket has taught me to make up for the failures of others in a game. It has taught me to help those who are less fortunate than I am.

3) Cricket has given me a sportsman-like attitude to life, an attitude which I would have never normally developed.

Haresh Raichura 15/11/16

SP-6 Conclusions of Experiments made between 1982 to 2016 on what should be done if God does not born again

Conclusions of Experiments made between 1982 to 2016 on what should be done if God does not born again and who are Persons whom we can approach for help.

In 1982, when I joined Junagadh Bar, I saw a rape trial. The accused had committed 20 rapes and yet he stood acquitted. Because no evidence came on record. Even the victim turned hostile because of fear.

I wondered what can be done if God does not born again, who are the persons to whom we can reach for help.

Between 1982 to 2016, I made over 200 experiments. Today I am concluding these experiments with this post.

I found answer in GITA, where it is said, "I live as Glory in Glorious Persons and I live as 'Power to punish evil Persons' in Strong Persons".

"All Glorious and Strong Persons are Parts of Me, whoever shall express his wishes before such persons, his wishes shall be fulfilled by Me, in accordance with his merits and in accordance with nature and strength of those Glorious and Strong Persons".

"Evil Persons will refrain from doing evil on their own in presence of Glorious and Strong Persons"

"Mankind should sponsor Glorious and Strong Persons"

By these definitions, I concluded that "All Judges and all persons listed in Who's Who in India are Parts of God"

The Experiments.

Whenever I found a situation where I needed help of God, I used to drop inland letters to Judges or to Persons listed in Who's Who.

Sometimes I saw help coming by miracles. Sometimes I saw no miracle. Sometimes I saw no help coming.

Wherever, I deserved help, I saw that someone helped me without being seen and without leaving evidences. It just looked like a miracle.

I cannot write about some experiments. Because I have forgotten and need not recall them. But there are some innocent experiments about which I can write. I will write in next few days about these innocent experiments.

Mostly the experiments where with Judges of District Court, High Court and Supreme Court and on some Persons listed in Who's Who in India.

By and large, I have reached conclusion that there are "Persons who daily help others even if they are not their relatives and friends"... Such persons are part of God and they can help us if we write to them about problem faced by us and if we allow them to help us in such a way that they need not have to get involved with us.

This is my conclusion of these experiments.

Haresh Raichura 14/11/16

S-32 What can you do when you see no path which can lead you ahead in your career?

What can you do when you see no path which can lead you ahead in your career? What can you do when you feel stuck?

There can be many answers. But I will speak from my experiences.

Probably in 1980, I learned about this brain storming method from a book in public library.

This method can be named "20 Sentence completion exercise."

On a piece of paper, you should complete following sentence 20 Times.

1) In order to move further in my career, I should...........

You should use your imagination to complete this one sentence. You can write whatever that may come to your mind.

Then, 2nd sentence and so on upto 20.

You may find this exercise easy upto 4 or 5 sentences. Then you will have to think harder each time. After 10 it will be really difgicult to go on.

In the process, you may find your path.

The science here is : We have conscious mind and subconscious mind. The subconscious mind has much larger data base than conscious mind has. The 20 Sentence Completion method digs out suggestions from our subconscious mind.

I used this method many times since 1980. You can try. It may or may not work for you. Because we all are different. Our minds are different.

Haresh Raichura 13/11/16

LR- 26 👏👏👏 Social Security for Lawyers

👏👏👏 Social Security for Lawyers 🌼 Natural Death or Accidental Death of a Lawyer. Family will be paid Rs.5 Lakh. 👏🌹🌻 Probably Supreme Court Bar Association is likely to be First in India to introduce such group insurance scheme 🌼💐🌹🌻👏 Should other Bar Associations take similar steps in consultation with local insurance company branch? 🤔🤔🤔 The pleasant part is : Premium for the Insurance Scheme will be paid by Bar Association 👏👏🌼👏👏 Thanks to Office-Bearers of Bar Association.🙏🙏

S-31 Tips for Young Advocates : Give top priority to polishing your English Language.

Give top priority to polishing your English Language. Learning workable English is not enough.

For some more years to come, the Language of Supreme Court and High Courts will remain English. It is better to be best in this language if you have intention to practise Law.

I remember an incident. I was in 8th Standards in a Gujarati Medium Municipal school in 1968. That day, it was period of English subject. English Teacher was Shri L.M.Mehta.

The teacher had checked all exercise books and he was in process of returning books to students.

Suddenly he lifted my exercise book and pointed out to the whole class what I had written on front page of the book.

All others had written

" Subject = English".

Whereas in my book, I had written words,

" Lovely Subject : English".

The teacher appreciated this in presence of whole class. This had positive effect on me.

Thereafter, my interest in learning English grew very fast. I read books of Grammer, Sentence Structures, vocabulary, books pointing at common errors in English etc. I read several books of several authors and I tried to learn better English.

After graduation, when I joined Bar at Junagadh District Court,, I found that only few senior Lawyers had command over English. Rest were fumbling because of study in Gujarati Medium.

I think it is my knowledge of English Language that helped me to move from District Court to High Court and from High Court to Supreme Court. Had I neglected English, I may have been still practising in Junagadh District Court.

My suggestion is only this:

Learning worktable English is not enough. Try to polish it as much as you can. Give it a higher priority.

Haresh Raichura 13/11/16

S30 Tips for Young Advocates: How to look like an expert lawyer.

What I did in 1982, may not work today. But I write this for whatever worth it may be.

I had just joined Bar. I had no cases. So in spare time,  I wrote two booklets.

One was on Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. I wrote in simple Gujarati language so that people can understand it. It covered important topics from this law which may be useful to layman and all shopkeepers.

1000 copies cost me Rs.1000/-. I priced booklet at Rs.5 and distributed to few footpath vendors for selling.

I think second booklet was about Motor Accident Claims Cases. It was also distributed in same way.

I remember vaguely that I got two cases because of these booklets.

Fees received from these cases were much more than costs of booklets.

Secondly, I saw that a fortnightly called "Imarat" was published from Vadodara. It was specially for builders and Govt contractors. I began to send articles about law of contracts and tenders. The articles were published.

I vaguely remember that I received a case of one builder because of these articles.

Tip : If you sit down to write a book on some specific law, the process of writing book itself can make you expert on that point of law.

Haresh Raichura 12/11/16

LR- 25 Do you know that powers of a Judge to punish for his contempt was existing even before the Contempt of Court Act was passed by Parliament?

Do you know that powers of a Judge to punish for his contempt was existing even before the Contempt of Court Act was passed by Parliament?

Even if there is no Law to punish for Contempt of Court, a judge has always inherent powers to punish for his contempt.

For punishing for Contempt, it is not necessary that Contemptuous Material should be on Record. (Vide Pre Independence Contempt case of KL Gabba.)

Truth is no defense in contempt proceedings. Even if what was said about the Judge is true, the Contempt punishment can still be made out.

The Judge has always inherent power to punish anyone who 1) Interferes with his judicial process 2) Lowers the dignity of office of a Judge 3) Or, who criticise the Judge. You can analyse and criticise his judgement but you cannot make personal attack on integrity or intellectual capacity of any Judge.

To understand Contempt Law, you have to study history of 500 years of development of Judiciary and Law of Contempt. There is time tested wisdom behind protecting Judges against personal attacks.

Haresh Raichura 11/11/16

LR 24 "Constitution Day" 26th November, 2016 in Supreme Court.

"Constitution Day" 26th November, 2016 in Supreme Court.

This day is celebrated every year in Supreme Court Bar where Chief Justice of India, Law Minister, President of Bar, all Justices, Former Justices and other dignitaries participate. Lawyers who may have written any books are also awarded at this function.

I wonder if similar way, this day can be celebrated in various High Court to strengthen our commitment to guard Constitution of India, in memory of 26/11/1949 when Constitution Assembly adopted the Constitution of India

In various High Courts Bar, Presidents and Secretaries should think over this suggestion. It is an ideal way to co ordinate exchange of views between High Court, Bar and Law Minister.

Haresh Raichura 10/11/16

S29 Once A Senior Advocate rejected free gift a brand new sports car.

Once A Senior Advocate rejected free gift a brand new sports car.

I have not seen him. I do not know his name. But in Supreme Court Bar Library, there are many old timers who often talk about high standards of Senior Advocates who have gone by.

It was one such conversation that I had heard.

These were times when Fees of every Senior Advocate was same. Rs.1100/- per appearance. You can engage top most senior advocate for same Fee.

One such Senior Advocate won a case. Next day his client was waiting for him in Supreme Court Car Parking with keys of a brand new sports car.

As soon as Senior Advocate came, his client offered car and keys as gift for winning his case.

Senior Advocate was tall. The pride still mattered in those days. He rejected the gift by saying, "Your car is too small for me."

He was a principled man. He was role model for Lawyers of his times.

Haresh Raichura 9/11/16

S28 A Reply to a Law Student who wants to become an Advocate in Supreme Court

Reply to a Law Student who wants to become an Advocate in Supreme Court.

Last week, a second year law student from a small District of Maharashtra, wrote me on Facebook Messenger asking guidance for becoming a Supreme Court Advocate. He asked several questions to me..

I did not reply.

So after somedays, he once again requested for a reply.

After thinking for a couple of days, I gave him following reply.

"I would like to clarify. It was not the problem with my time. The questions were framed and put by you were such that they invoked negative responses in me. Therefore I did not reply.

Secondly, it appeared that you had capacity to think out answers to your questions but you did not want to think on it. You wanted someone else to think for you. Therefore also I choose not to reply.

I suggest you to see a very famous YouTube video.

It is titled the "Strangest Secret of the World" by Earl Nightingale.

The Strangest Secret is, the people do not want to think.

If you will see this video, you may find answers to your questions. Bye."

I think this reply will guide many other Law Students too.
Haresh Raichura 7/11/16

SP- 5 A great Man's daily prayer at night

SP- 5  A great Man's daily prayer at night...

"I do not believe in God. I do not go to any temple. But before going to bed, I try to recollect the services I offered humanity during the day. Even if I remember one or two instances, I feel satisfied. That is my service to God. I have not slept any day without offering some service to humanity.” - Vijay Merchant

LR- 22 Love Your Lawyer Day. Need for proactive steps in social media to dissolve prejudice of strong dislike against lawyers.

LR- 22 Love Your Lawyer Day. In US, 4th November was celebrated as #Loveyourlawyersday. It is a great thing.

In Indian society, people generally hate Lawyers. They love their lawyer only when they are in need of a good lawyer.

Lawyers have role to play in Guarding Constitution. They have duty to protect people against Executive and Legislative oppression.

We therefore need some event in India, like #Loveyourlawyerday. This can awaken spirit of lawyers and citizens both.

The strong social prejudice against Lawyers need to be dissolved by proactive steps. This can strengthen justice delivery system also.
Haresh Raichura 5/11/16

S-27 Could it be true to say that Lawyers who "Articulate what they say" are making more money than Lawyers who don't "Articulate" ?

Could it be true to say that Lawyers who "Articulate what they say" are making more money than Lawyers who don't "Articulate" ?

Someone recently made research and found that in all walks of life, people who "Articulate", make more money than people who don't  Articulate.

There is a simple way to test this proposition.

First look up at various definitions of word Articulate to know what does it exactly means.

Then look around people in your daily life. Do you find that people who "articulate" what they say are making more money than people who don't?

Speaking for myself, I have found that Judges and Lawyers at top, when they speak, they articulate each word they speak. This must have taken them years of practice before they can do it almost naturally.

Try to find out truth for yourself.

Haresh Raichura 4/10/16

S-26 A Lawyer who used to win almost every Bar Election WITHOUT canvassing for votes.

Today I just thought about late Shri M.N.Shroff, who was a member of Supreme Court Bar Association. He used to win some office in every election. And he never canvassed directly or indirectly for Vote in his favour.

He had such a good reputation that he used to get elected without trying for votes.

Once I asked him about this. From what we discussed, I could see 3 points which used to help him to win every election without canvassing for votes.

1) It seemed that he had made a point to ATTEND every function or meeting of Bar Association. He was punctual on this aspect. He believed in ATTENDING every function/ meeting of Bar Association. To him, meetings and events of Bar were more important than clients and work.

2) He used to bring a walking stick with him whenever he came to any Bar Function. The walking stick used to make him conspicuous.

3) In every function he will come early and will find a seat near entry gate in such a way that everyone who came in function used to notice him and he used to notice everyone who came.

These were the 3 points which I could see.

Of course he was a great human soul. He had many good qualities. But I thought that these were three points which helped him to win in every SCBA election without canvassing for votes directly or indirectly.
Haresh Raichura 3/10/16

S25 Shun the people who speak ill of legal system, the Lawyers or the judges

Shun the people who speak ill of legal system, the Lawyers or the judges. These are Bad Men. They will never do any good to you. The moment you will listen to them, they will sow doubts in your mind whether you have chosen a right profession to invest your life into. These doubts will eat away your passion. You will lose enthusiasm to maintain high standards of the legal profession. And then your standards too will start falling.
There is a book called "Brief History of Time."  It is by a scientist. It says that if left to itself, everything in Universe moves from Order to Disorder. If left to themselves, all High Standards will continue to slide down towards Low Values and Low Standards. In legal profession there are people who continue to maintain High Standards and they try to continue to lift  standards of others by becoming good role models for them.  Listen to them instead of listening to disgruntled litigants who have lost some cases and have not digested it. They miss no opportunity to slander and denigrade legal profession. If you will listen to them, you will lose enthusiasm in your work. Avoid them and shun them as if they have pleague. Do not lower yourself by arguing with them or by engaging with them. They have nothing constructive to suggest except ranting about cases in which they were parties. They feel peace by venting out slander. But they are no good for you and for your work. They will undermine your passions about your vocation and life purpose. So avoid them. Be the change you wish to see in the world. 1/11/16