Ayodhya Judgment Was Acceptable To Everyone, Hence No Breach Of Peace After Pronouncement: Justice Nageswara Rao

While speaking at a book release, former judge of the Supreme Court, Justice L. Nageswara Rao, said that there were no problems after the Ayodhya judgment was pronounced, since the same was acceptable to everyone. 

Justice Rao was speaking in Chennai on Friday at the launch of "Case for Ram: The Untold Story of Ayodhya Ram Janambhoomi Babri Masjid Dispute", authored by Anirudh Sharma and Sridhar Potaraju.  

"This was the most important case that was going on for about ten-fifteen years in this country. The entire country was waiting with bated breath when this Judgment was delivered, not because of what was going to happen (in the Judgment). People were anxious as to what was going to happen after the Judgment was delivered. Even before the Judgment, we used to discuss, whichever way the Judgment is going to go, what would be the consequence of this Judgment. Fortunately, everything went well. There was absolutely no problem after the judgment came, which means that this judgment was acceptable to everyone", said Justice Rao, who was Judge of the Supreme Court at that time.  

Senior Advocate K. Parasaran and CS Vaidhyanathan also spoke during the book release. 

Speaking highly of K. Parasaran, Justice Rao said, "He (Parasaran) says, he did this case for Ram. I dont want to pitch to that extent, Ram was very lucky in having Mr. Parasaran as his lawyer".

"This book is one book I have seen, lawyers on one side, not being partial to their clients or their work. Not even a word has been said against the other side. I think this is the beauty of Sanatana Dharma", Justice Rao said to an applauding audience.

Justice Rao on K. Parasaran

He said that the case would have been a great opportunity for lawyers to watch and learn from Parasaran. He said that there are average, good and great lawyers, but only a few like Parasaran who can be called "legends".

He said Parasaran had been attached to the Ram Janmabhoomi case even when the case was before the Allahabad High Court and that Parasaran had a "sentimental attachment to the case". "Inspite of that, I don't know how he detached himself from the case when he was arguing the case", he added. 

"Courtesy- I have seen some photographs of Mr. Prasaran standing with Mr. Rajeev Dhavan. I have read in the book that he waited for fifteen minutes for Mr. Rajeev Dhavan to come down to the car park after the arguments were over", he added.

"Lawyers, when they argue a case, they dont give an inch to the other side. That is what they are supposed to do as well. But after the case is over, you dont carry this rancour outside court. Mr. Parasaran maintained this, and he gave equal importance to Mr. Rajeev Dhavan and his team as well. I saw another photo where he put his hand over the shoulder of Mr. Ejaz Maqbool, who was the Advocate on Record for the other side. Whatever you do, you are doing for your client, but you are not an enemy or opponent of the other side", Justice Rao said. 

Justice Nageswara Rao referred to an incident from the hearing, mentioned in the book, about the argument of the other side, by Senior Advocate Shekhar Napde, about res judicata. He said that though everyone only knows about the CPC of 1908, Parasaran answered by pointing out the CPC prior to 1908. "It is not only law, it is about legal history, it is about knowledge, it is about memory", he said, adding that Parasaran has a god given gift of good memory.

Effort By Lawyers 

He said that the book speaks about the efforts put in by lawyers, including Parasaran, CS Vaidyanathan, Ranjit Kumar and P.S. Narasimha (now judge of Supreme Court). "They have really toiled for years together to get documents. They were going into history as to what happened from the Eighteenth hundreds onwards when the cases were filed, even trying to get travellogs and what was written about Ramjanmabhoomi earlier in Fifteen hundreds and Sixteen hundreds as well. The number of documents in various languages which were put in court. I was reading the judgment, in the judgment they refer to about seven-eight languages and there was an effort made by the Supreme Court to get all those translated into English. The delay was for various reasons in Court". 

He said that lawyers have a role to play in the society and that this is the only profession where a "person can do something for the society, doing his own activity, whether he is the office or in the Court". 

Speaking about the efforts put in by lawyers, he said, "When you read this book, you will understand the thousands and thousands of hours Mr. Parasaran and his team might have put, just to make out how they present the case. The most important part of lawyering is not only preparing, anticipating what the judges are going to ask, anticipating what the other side is going to argue and then trying to get answers before you go to court so that you are not caught off your feet when you are making your submissions in Court. That is the reason why lawyers keep thinking and they keep working.... People do not know the amount of mental stress a lawyer goes through and the time that we spend in preparing a case".

Effort By Judges

He said that the book describes the work done by Judges.

"There is some sort of a misnomer in the society that the Judges dont work. On and off, you keep hearing lectures being given saying, why do these judges need holidays. Like school children, they have holidays for Diwali, Dussehra, summer etc. People who understand how the institution works would make out why they need", he said.

He further said, "How many cases does a judge read in a day. A Supreme Court judge reads about 50-60 cases every day in the evening, when it comes to Mondays and Fridays. On the other days, you have at least 30 cases that are listed. Every judge has to go through this process of reading all these briefs... Where is the time? Having been from the Bar, being well acquainted with what happens in the Supreme Court, I used to take 5-6 hours every day to read briefs, and you have to write judgments and you have to think when you write judgments".

About the efforts that go into writing of Judgments, Justice Rao said, "Writing Judgments is not a ministerial job, especially in the Supreme Court when you lay down law. In cases like this, how many months they would have spent writing the Judgment. A thousand-page Judgment is written in this case, referring to all the volumes and volumes of papers that were looked into by the High Court, referring to all the Judgments that were referred to by the lawyers".

"This is one of the best tasks taken up by the Supreme Court in finishing the Judgment in time. There was this pressure of a Chief Justice retiring, after the case was heard, and the Judgment had to be delivered before the Chief Justice retired. Just imagine the amount of work that the judges have put in", he said. 

Speaking in general about the work of judges, he said, "It is not only this Judgment, the work that is done by judges otherwise also. Saturdays and Sundays are set apart for writing Judgments and reading journals, that people don't realise. Judges are not machines. They just dont work from Monday to Friday and forget about what they have done". 

He said that Judges are not like regular employees who come back after work, watch TV, and then sleep. "It doesn't happen for judges and lawyers. They keep working 24 hours and Mr. Parasaran was working for 18 hours a day for most of his life. 18 hours a day, he is at his desk, reading and then trying to think and trying to find out answers to so many cases". 

He said that the book makes interesting reading and that he would recommend the book to everyone.

Judges & Lawyers speaking to Media  

Before concluding, Justice Rao said that one thing he learned from Parasaran is not to speak about your cases outside the Court.

"I have never seen Mr. Parasaran give an interview so far as a case is concerned. I have never seen other seniors also from this part of the Country (south) do it. This has become a very bad habit for lawyers as well as judges, some retired judges speaking about cases. I think this is something we will have to restrain ourselves from. Lawyers are supposed to argue their cases in Court and Judges are only to speak through their judgments", he said.  

He said that integrity and hard work are also something he has learned from K. Parasaran. "Integrity is not one aspect. Integrity is in thought, integrity is also in action, integrity is also in speech. I think this is what Thirukural says", he said, concluding his remarks.     

The full event can be viewed here.