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Court Witness: The beginner’s guide to winning at the Adjournment Game

India expected to be a strong gold medal contender at the Adjournment Game
India expected to be a strong gold medal contender at the Adjournment Game
The Olympics are here once again. It is that time of the year when people around you start talking about sports no one has ever heard of and will never mention again for another four years.

For two whole weeks people will pore keenly over the progression of world records in discus throwing, the fitness of horses in the equestrian events and how the Koreans are essentially unbeatable in women’s archery. Then we can all go back to obsessing over cricket.

But in the spirit of things, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce to the public a little known but fairly widely played sport called “The Adjournment Game”.

The Adjournment Game, unlike its more well known compatriot, Kissa Kursi Ki (literallyThe Game of Thrones”) doesn’t always feature prominently in popular culture or mass media (save for one very notable exception), and perhaps this explains its lack of popularity among the masses. However, once you understand its intricacies and strategies you will find yourself deeply engrossed in what will prove to be an enriching and deeply rewarding sport.

1. The Rules

The object of the Adjournment Game is very simple – the player (i.e., the lawyer) has to make the judge adjourn the case that is all set to be taken up for hearing.

This is not to be confused with the regular judicial process when a case is adjourned for completely valid reasons like the Bar Association going on (yet another) strike or the lawyer dropping dead in court and such like.

Having a valid reason for seeking an adjournment takes the fun out of the game – sort of like having the Olympic swimming events in a shark-infested pool where the fastest swimmer lives or the shooting events involving the participants shooting at each other.

No, the point of the Adjournment Game is to come up with an excuse (much less, a reason) to seek and obtain an adjournment of the case by the judge. The reason must be sufficiently vague to require no further detail, yet sufficiently precise to merit an adjournment.

As you can imagine there’s a lot of scope for free play and improvisation. Simple as the rules of the game actually are, they allow for the adoption and testing of various intricate strategies and tactics that make this an engrossing spectator sport.

2. Advanced tactics

Over the long and illustrious history of the Indian Bar, many, many strategies have been evolved by its leading practitioners that have continued to be used to this day.

Over these years strategies have been distilled to a few opening gambits (like chess) that can make or break the game. Much of course depends on the skill level of the player using this strategy, and of course it helps to actually be related to the judge (or being related to any judge) in getting an adjournment.

For the benefit of the lay reader, the eager amateur and the practicing professional, I bring to you some of the most popular and thrilling strategies of the Adjournment Game.

2.1. The Non-Availability of the Senior Conundrum

This gambit is usually preferred by juniors of senior counsel or lawyers fresh into the profession who are under the mistaken assumption that the truth will get you an adjournment. Upon (over)using this gambit, they’re quickly disabused of such notions.

The gambit proceeds on making a very reasonable request to the court that since the senior counsel who’s been briefed is not present in court, perhaps it would be for the best if the matter is adjourned.

The key sportsman would have noted the problem with its gambit – specificity. It almost begs the question: “Where is the senior counsel?”

Here arrives the next problem. To say “in another courtroom on his legs arguing a matter” is to almost inevitably invite the “so what? You argue!” retaliatory finishing stroke. At best you might escape with a pass-over and at worst, well, it won’t be a pretty sight.

Short of constitutional authorities (i.e. the Chief Justice of India) compelling attendance of said senior counsel (who also happens to be government lawyer) in another court/courtroom, this is a dangerous gambit to use, and is best avoided in all but the rarest of easy situations.

2.2. The Personal Difficulty Opening

By far the most popular stratagem in the Adjournment Game is the Personal Difficulty Opening.

An adjournment is sought because the counsel (senior or otherwise) is unavailable for “personal difficulty”. As with other things in the law, semantics is important here. “Personal” would mean that the judge can’t really ask for details in open court lest he/she sound too voyeuristic.

Yet, it hints sufficiently at the kinds of problems that may compel one to be unavailable for the case at the last moment. Any doubt about the last minute nature of this problem is removed by the use of the word “difficulty”. It almost perfectly meets the requirements of both vagueness and specificity to the right degree in almost any situation.

Some rookies however, tend to ignore the semantic effect of the Opening and simply say “personal reasons”. This sets off alarm bells in the judge’s mind as it seems to suggest that the lawyer in question just couldn’t be bothered to come up with a proper excuse for an adjournment, let alone a reason to turn up in court.

Repeated use may however prompt unwarranted concern of the court in which case the vagueness aspect may stand diminished while using this opening.

2.3. The Material Instructions Move

All judges have, at some point of time in their lives, been lawyers. Some more successful than others but all know the pressures and peculiarities of practice, especially that peculiar source of pressure – clients.

Clients who make increasingly unreasonable demands on your time and effort without a proportionate increase in fees are a plague upon the profession, and one can parlay the imposition of having to appear without adequate fees into a solid ground for adjournment with the golden words “material instructions”.

One can’t obviously come out and say “I’m not going to appear today because my dodgy client wants to see if he can get away with not paying me for my appearance”. One has to find a delicate way to say so, and the profession seems to have agreed upon “material instructions”.

Of course if you’re appearing for the Government (or pretty much any governmental body), you’re essentially working for no money and lots of promises so this might not cut much ice with the judge in such a situation.

2.4. The Additional Documents Alibi

This is a move which needs to be played with some care. A counsel needs to pick and choose the court and the time in which to make the request for an adjournment to file additional documents. To seek an adjournment first-up for this request invites the obvious and devastating question “Which documents?”, followed by the crushing, “How’s it relevant to the case at hand?”

The trick here is to pretend that you don’t actually want an adjournment and that you’re proceeding to argue the case and then, at the appropriate moment, slip in a reference to an event or document that has not been referred to in the paper book. When the judge looks for it, you look around horrified and apologetic that you’ve made such a silly mistake and ask for time to file it. Continue to look apologetic until you walk out of court and double-high-five someone.

The really skilful lawyers (and this mostly works only in appellate or writ proceedings) is to leave in just enough documents to make your case, but leave out just enough so that when you need an adjournment, you have a ready-made excuse.

3. Advanced Improvisations

Naturally, the above strategies are not exhaustive and the innovative lawyer must improvise in a difficult corner. Of course, it is not possible to list all the possible and successful improvisations, but one example should suffice to show you how the masters of the Adjournment Game play it.

The late, great AK Sen, a fine lawyer and by all accounts one of the finest this country’s had, was also a great player of the Adjournment Game. On one occasion, he was faced with a most obdurate judge who refused an adjournment for all reasons, and with a calculatedly weary sigh, AK Sen began arguments.

“My Lord may please turn to page 35 of the paper book.”

“Yes, Mr Sen.”

“My Lord would see the letter written by so and so.”

A moment of page rustling.

“I’m afraid not Mr Sen, this seems to be the order of some authority.”

“Is it my Lord?”

“Actually sir,” the briefing counsel whispers to AK Sen, “the judge has the correct page number. It is the order of…”

AK Sen hisses at him to shut up.

“Does my Lord have that letter on page 35?”

“I’m afraid not Mr Sen, there seems to be an error in the pagination.”

AK Sen frowns. “Oh is that so, my Lord? Staring indignantly at the briefing counsel, I deeply apologise for the inconvenience. Let me have this fixed within the week.”

“Sure, Mr Sen. Adjourned by one week.”

4. General Tips

While all the above strategies have their own pros and cons, the player must keep one fundamental maxim of the Adjournment Game.

In the Adjournment Game, you win or you die...

... a thousand deaths in full public view as the judge makes you argue a case you’re ill prepared for to the general laughter of a packed courtroom.

Court Witness is an advocate of the Supreme Court of India and tweets @courtwitness1.

Photo by JP Photography

Court Witness’ previous Supreme Court postcards:

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