Bindingness of criminal case judgements in criminal law

S-236 If Superior Courts will say that "All judgements in Criminal Cases are in facts of those cases and are not precedents for other cases where facts are dissimilar"...then there will be chaos and uncertainty in all criminal cases unless such words are understood in proper context.

When a lawyer will cite precedents in trial court, the judge can disregard all those citations by writing one line that "facts on those cases are different".

Thus all precedents will lose their persuasive value. Stability in law will become subjective and outcome of case will be different as per subjective views of different Judges.

The truth is all judgements are given in the context of certain facts of each case. But underlying principles of law and of evaluation of Evidence remains the same.

Even when facts are different, the law and observations and principles discussed by superior courts are still supposed to have some binding value on lower courts to prevent uncertainty in Criminal Law.

Perhaps some balance can be found between Cetainity of Law and Certainty of Justice. Reasons are the only footbridges to Certainty.

Haresh Raichura 31/7/17

S-229 Test of your strength begins when someone gives you a seat of power.

Test of your strength begins when someone gives you a seat of power.

Suppose an honest man is given a post of a High Court Judge. What happens from next day?

Serpents of Temptations start circling him from the moment he sits on seat of Justice.

These Serpents of Temptations are deadly. They will attack him when he may have a moment of weakness.

And the corrutors? They start circling him like a whirlpool of Black Oil.

Their aim is to somehow tame you and to make you corrupt.

If you refuse to be corrupt, a campaign of false allegations will begin to brand you as corrupt.

Gradually, for persons who are honest from core, strenth begins to come from the Chair of Power itself. They begin to learn the art of balancing the Good and The Bad.

To do this they have to rise above both, the Good and the Bad.

But whatever he may do, this is like walking on edge of sword all the time. One false step and he goes all the way down, down and down.

A Judge really feels relieved from this tension only when he retires.

If you are a Junior lawyer, preparing for judgeship, it may help you to think over this in advance to be well prepared to fight against the Serpents of Temptations.

Haresh Raichura 26/7/17

S-228 Giving Traing to Junior Advocates.

Giving Traing to Junior Advocates.

Some Senior Advocates have some methods to train new junior Advocates who join their office.

These methods are of two types:

1) You are given a file. You have to sort out papers chronologically as per dates.

Then against each document, you have to write in a paper whatever you think fit.

This practice will sharpen your ability to comprehend documents and to restate what you comprehend.

2) In second method, junior Advocate is asked to sit in court and to hear arguments of any given case and to make whatever notes he wants to make. These will sharpen his listening skill, comprehension and restating skills.

The Senior Advocate may or may not see these notes. He may or may not give any feedback or guidance on how to make better notes.

And yet, these methods automatically improves skills of Junior advocates.

Haresh Raichura 25/7/17

S-227 There is a difference between following two paths: Being and Appearing.

There is a difference between following two paths:

1) I wish to appear like a ________.

2) I wish to be a _________.

First path is false. It leads to unstable grounds.

Second path is about being something. It is about changing something from inside. It leads to some solid grounds.

Haresh Raichura 25/7/17

S-226 Self Confidence

Self Confidence does not come without blessings of Parents.

S-225 What happens when a larger bench of Supreme Court sits to re-examine judgements

What happens when a larger bench of Supreme Court sits to re-examine judgements which may be held to be a good law for many many years?

These Judgements become "just opinions" when these judgements' correctness is being considered by a larger bench of Superior Court.

Superior Courts starts searching "What made those Judges write such opinion".

They go into background of Case.

Then they go into cultural and social values and times when those Judges formed those opinions.

Then they compare such opinions with opinions given in similar circumstances elsewhere also.

Logic underlying these opinions is also reexamined.

Then finally a final opinion is given looking to present cultural and present legal values and its implications to masses.

Thus a judgement which may be a very sound law for many years, suddenly becomes vulnerable to a new interpretation  when it is being re-examined by a larger bench of Supreme Court,  after lapse of a decade of time.

Haresh Raichura 21/7/17

How to seek financial help for doing some social work.

S-234 How to seek financial help for doing some social work. These are my personal views.

1) Such help usually comes from unexpected people. People from whom we expect help usually say No.

2) Desire to do social work must be translated into a professional project report. It should state objects, sources of land or premises, costs of land or premises, costs of registration and legal and administrative expenses, sources of income for the project, number of paid employee needed and output of volume of social good it may generate.

3) Then the report must be brought to notice, through letters, of about 500 people who may be connected with similar social work, who may be interested and who may help....No emails, no Facebook messages, no WhatsApp messages. No pain, no gain. ....Posting 500 letters may be costly. Preparing project report may be costly. But no pain, no gain.

4) If even one of these person will show interest in your project, he will first verify about you from his own sources. Are you a reliable and competent person? This he will try to check out first. If he will see your selfish motives behind the project, he will just cool off and will show no further interest

5) I generally believe, that there is no shortage of charity giving people. They come from all religions. They have one common habit. They do not like to be misled. They do not like to be guided and advised by others about where they should give their charities.

6) If none of the 500 persons show interest in your project, then probably, time may not have come for your project.

Haresh Raichura 21/7/17

S-223 A Judge gets an opportunity to serve large number of individuals

A Judge gets an opportunity to serve large number of individuals during his lifetime.

He hepls small people. He helps big people. He often saves weak persons from tyranny of strong persons.

If "To do Justice " is his passion he works day and night.

Time flies faster for him.

He has to work in a system. The system may be slow or it may have flaws. He has to follow rules of the system.

Now and then, he thinks about his own promotion. Then he becomes aware that there is a thing called politics or patronage from above, necessary from somewhere.

But then he forgets. He has little time to think about such things. Here, at the place where he is, he has yet a lot to do. Here, there are so many people who want justice from him.

While doing justice in every case, he learns a lot about laws and also about human nature.

Some people will never be satisfied even if he has done full justice to him. And some people will remain obliged to him for their life even if he had just nudged other party to become reasonable.

He will be lightly aware about all sorts of right and wrong things being said about him in corridors of court lobbies. He would be faintly aware about some Lawyers charging bribe from clients in his name.

But he will have little time to think about these. These are things over which he has no control.

He will feel a pinch in heart, when his just order is set aside by a superior court without even reading the reasons given by him. But these are again things over which he has no control.

Gradually, his work teaches him to focus on the present moment and present case. He learns to forget things over which he has no control.

He gradually becomes a Stoic.

Haresh Raichura 21/7/17

S-213 An intelligent way to win a case without any proof.....

On bench 5 Judges were sitting.

They asked Zadig, "Do you have any proof or witnesses to prove that you have given loan to this accused?"

Zadig said, "I have no witnesses. I took nothing in writing when I gave loan to this man. But I gave this loan when we were sitting on a square stone. That stone will give evidence. Please permit me to bring that stone as my witness. The big stone is far from here and it may take an hour to bring it here.. Please let me call for this big stone at my cost."

The Judge granted him permission and asked him to bring the stone at earliest.

Then it became 4 pm.

The court time was about to be over.

Judges asked Zadig impatiently, when his stone was coming.

Zadig said it should be coming in about half an hour.

Just then the accused shouted, "My Lord, Zadig is wrong. That stone is 500 km away from here. It will take two days to bring it here!"

Judges, turned to accused and said, "So it seems that you did took the loan. Otherwise, how would you know that the stone is 500 km away from here?

Thus, Zadig won this case even if he had no proof, simply by admission of accused.

This story is retold in my own way, from original story Zadig written by Voltaire in about year 1700.

Haresh Raichura 7/7/17

S-212 Secret of being a good human being = Judge others favourably.

Secret of being a good human being = Judge others favourably. Give them benifit of doubt.

This is hard to do, but it works.

The moment I say that you are a good human being, I am Judging you favourably.

It instantly, for that very moment, makes also me a good human being !

S-211 Plight of Lawyers who fight cases for husbands.

Generally, I avoid taking cases for husbands. But sometimes, once or twice, I had to take such cases where I see gross injustice for husband and his family.

These are hard cases.

There is a phrase called "Judicial Prejudice"... It means Judges will be preincliend to dismiss case of husband and to let the wife win.

It is since time of Mahabharata. Lord Bhishm also refused to use his weapons against a woman.

But we are talking about plight of Lawyers who take up and fight cases for husband. They suffer personal psychological defeats in mind when they lose such case.

Today, I had to appear for a husband and to expose his plight. It gave me stress to read his case overnight and to imagine his plight and plight of his parents. In many cases one of the parents dies due to stress of a false DV case..

But fortunately today was a good day. Their Lordships listened. They passed a win-win order. The husband felt happy and relieved.

So did I feel. I felt too relieved and happy.

To hear or to read stories of warring wife and husband never refreshes our mind. They only make us sad.

No one knows why laws relating to wife and husband are so loosely drafted. The words and phrases used in such laws are hardly capable of being defined with certainty. They are more subjective and less objectively verifiable. This give birth to thousands of false cases. Every unhappy marriage now becomes a battle in Criminal Courts.

Untill some law minister decides to bring certainty in these law, every husband who is fighting a matrimonial case has a lot to complain about.

Haresh Raichura 7/7/17

S-210 Do you know about easiest way to take control of Automatic Nervous System of your body?

Do you know about easiest way to take control of Automatic Nervous System of your body?

Many parts of our body continue to work automatically 24/7 day and night. Over these organs of body, we have no control. They are lungs, heart, liver and a million other parts in our body.

#Krishna has described one such method called Pranayam in #GITA.

It is process which directly tries to train automatic nervous system of body through spaced timing of inhale and exhale process of   lungs.

The experts believe that we are not collection of parts, but we are one piece. It means that if you improve function of any one part of your body, all other parts of your body will also improve because the whole body is one piece and all parts are interconnected.

Thus, if Pranayam improves automatic nervous system controlling lungs, it will also improve automatic nervous system of whole body. Pranayam should be done however under medical guidance.

Haresh Raichura 4/7/17

S-208 Suppose you are a lady law student. You study in a prestigious law college. You come from a

Suppose you are a lady law student. You study in a prestigious law college. You come from a well to do family, all college expanses are paid by parents.

Now suppose, you are offered a part time job to work as sales girl at a pharmacy shop. Will you accept the job?

Probably not.

A distant relative of mine living in Australia is exactly doing the same. She comes from a well to do family. But there is social culture that everyone above age 18, must do some part time job and should earn enough to pay their study bills and to pay vacation tours. There is a Law permitting stufents to get part time job for certain hours per day. Everyone is supposed to be aware of his or her responsibilities after age 18.

Compare this with our social mindsets. What do you believe in such social set ups?

Haresh Raichura 2/7/17

S-207 Life is game of chess

Life is game of chess where the player, playing opposite to you is God. If you let Him win few games, He may let you win one or two games. Keep paying. - Haresh Raichura.

S-206 Give compliments.

"I can live for two months if someone gives me a good compliment" - said Mark Twain once.

How about you?

If you can live on good compliments, you can try and see what happens to others when you give them good compliments.

-Haresh Raichura 1/7/17