Writing judgments is an art, involves skilful application of law & logic: SC

Observing that writing judgments is an art that involves skilful application of law and logic, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said a judicial decision should be coherent, systematic and logically organised to trace the facts to a logical conclusion.

The top court, while setting aside an order of the Allahabad High Court order that granted bail to a murder convict, said the judicial opinion is to be written in such a way that it elucidates in a convincing manner and proves the fact that the verdict is righteous and judicious.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah said every judgment contains four basic elements -- statement of material (relevant) facts, legal issues or questions, deliberation to reach a decision and the conclusive decision.

"A judgment should be coherent, systematic and logically organised. It should enable the reader to trace the fact to a logical conclusion on the basis of legal principles. It is pertinent to examine the important elements in a judgment in order to fully understand the art of reading a judgment," the bench said.

The top court said “Judgment” means a judicial opinion that tells the story of the case, what the case is about, how the court is resolving the case and why.

"Judgment is defined as any decision given by a court on a question or questions or issue between the parties to a proceeding properly before court. It is also defined as the decision or the sentence of a court in a legal proceeding along with the reasoning of a judge which leads him to his decision," it said.

The apex court said a judgment replicates the individuality of the judge and therefore it is indispensable that it should be written with care and caution.

The bench agreed that the judges may be overburdened with the pending cases and the arrears, but at the same time, quality can never be sacrificed for quantity.

"Unless judgment is not in a precise manner, it would not have a sweeping impact. There are some judgments that eventually get overruled because of lack of clarity. Therefore, whenever a judgment is written, it should have clarity on facts; on submissions made on behalf of the rival parties; discussion on law points and thereafter reasoning and thereafter the ultimate conclusion and the findings and thereafter the operative portion of the order," the bench said.

The reasoning in the judgment should be intelligible and logical, it said.

These observations were made by the top court while delivering a judgement on an appeal filed by UP resident Shakuntala Shukla challenging an order passed by the Allahabad High Court granting bail to five accused in a murder case.

The bench said that in the impugned order passed by the high court there is a total lack of clarity on the submissions, which part of the order is submission, which part of the order is the finding and/or reasoning.

"There must be clarity on the final relief granted. A party to the litigation must know what actually he has got by way of final relief. The aforesaid aspects are to be borne in mind while writing the judgment, which would reduce the burden of the appellate court too.

"We have come across many judgments which lack clarity on facts, reasoning and the findings and many times it is very difficult to appreciate what the judge wants to convey through the judgment and because of that, matters are required to be remanded for fresh consideration," the bench said.

Therefore, it is desirable that the judgment should have clarity, both on facts and law and on submissions, findings, reasonings and the ultimate relief granted, it said.

The bench said the high court shall be very slow in granting bail to the accused pending appeal who are convicted for the serious offences like murder.

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