When a petitioner appears in person before a court, the lack of finesse is expected.. The petitioner may not be as articulate and sophisticated as a practiced counsel but then, if you decide to fight it out yourself, you would surely have thought it over carefully, isn’t it? A petitioner, listed as XYZ, has been coming to court for a few years now and failed to be entertained by most judges. Simple reasoning for that… she was too loud, did not understand the law well enough and was too persistent to be heard despite the rage of judges at her errors. Not to belittle the cause she was fighting, which may be as sincere as her claimed plight, but her approach has been the butt of many a jokes for some time now.. She has one favourite judge who has been giving her an ear. She stands in the court room and starts arguing as if she’ll just bend over, across the bar just so that she is heard! In the course of arguments, she gives rare opportunity to the opponent to talk and when he does get a chance to open his poor mouth, she does not contravene the statement but looks at the judge with soulful eyes and says, “My Lord, please listen to what I have to say… This gentleman is completely incorrect in his facts. Let me tell you what the true story is!” She goes on and gets excited about her own version, to the extent of at times, not even letting the judge ask a question! She is at least forty, dresses like she is twenty, behaves like an adolescent! Imagine the plight of “My Dear Lord”, and when the case will end! Judges are sometimes faced with such characters, whom they cannot ignore for the sake of justice and cannot hear because they too are human and have limitations!

Comments

Anonymous guest 3 May 2010, 16:42
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Ha ha. Nice post. Remember having seen a similar thing once at Delhi HC. However, the judge managed to hit reverse gear just when he was about to loose it. Then he calmed down and helped the petitioner and by passing a fair order (this, despite the fact that a hot shot attorney was representing the defendant).

Another thing -
- Judges sometimes behave rudely and ask the petitioner-in-person to appoint a lawyer ... NOT FAIR in most cases.
- Petitioners-in-person get tricked by the opponent lawyers who mess up files etc. during inspection.
allym 3 May 2010, 18:24
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Appearing in person is one of the most difficult tasks to deal with. But sometimes, the petitioners have no options. And judges need to be considerate about this aspect.
Anonymous guest 3 May 2010, 23:40
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You are factually incorrect as far as her age goes. Please she is in her fifties. She dashes and pushes her way in the corridors. Her ``My Lord'' is enough to knock one off. Dresses obscenely for her age. The other day she wore a tight dress. She is alleging sexual harassment but its appears she'd be the oppressor.
Anonymous guest 6 May 2010, 14:36
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Many people appear in person as they have no choice. Either because they do not have money to appoint a lawyer or they have lost faith in the so called learned counsel who though being learned joins hands with the opponent and leave you with no option but fight your own cause.
allym 6 May 2010, 21:18
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true that not all people may have the resources or the faith and appear in person. But nevertheless, it cannot be denied that all of them don't make a good job of it