Legal Luminaries Reflect On Law & Story Telling At IDIA Annual Conference

The recently held IDIA Annual Conference on "Law and Story Telling" saw legal stalwarts share riveting insights on storytelling within courts and in the practice of law.The panel was moderated by Mr. Arghya Sengupta, Founder and Research Director, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi and comprised of: Justice Srikrishna, former judge, Supreme Court of India, Justice Gita Mittal, Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and a former judge of the Delhi High Court, Amarjit Singh Chandhiok, Senior Advocate, Delhi High Court, Rajiv Luthra, Founder and Managing Partner, Luthra & Luthra Law Offices, and Shyam Diwan, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India.Lord Denning, telling it like a story Mr. Sengupta outlined the broad theme of the purported panel discussion: "(a) how stories can shape an effective legal argument (b) how stories are at the root of all adjudication (c) how stories form the basis of very exciting and high-profile corporate deals."He then went on to narrate a story of one of Lord Denning's judgments, "ex parte Hook – which was a case in administrative law relating to the doctrine of irrelevant consideration – when a decision can be quashed when the considerations which have been taken into account by an administrative authority are irrelevant" –He quoted the rather humorous excerpts from Denning's decision, to demonstrate how he simplified the matter by telling it like a story –making it much more interesting than just a dry discussion of administrative law!Mr. Sengupta then called upon Justice Srikrishna to narrate his experiences while investigating the Bombay riots of 1992-93.Justice Srikrishna: Impact of wordsJustice Srikrishna stressed on the fact that, "When you don the robes and sit in a judicial chair, you do not owe allegiance to any religion, you only owe allegiance to the Constitution and the laws of the country" which he said was the principle he lives by. On a lighter note, he quipped that despite having read the original scriptures of the Ramayana, he was never able to locate the GPS coordinates of a place where Lord Ram was born! Yet some Hindus determined Ayodhya as that location and went ahead and destroyed the Babri masjid situated there – leading to some Muslims considering it a threat to Islam, which ultimately caused havoc and the riots of 1992-93 in Bombay followed as a result. He then described how he came to head the committee that was tasked to enquire into the riots of 1992-93.After having gone through some of the heart-breaking accounts of the people who suffered during the riots, which he felt were a result of people acting out of passion with utter disregard to the law and to human nature, Justice Srikrishna said that, he had two pieces of advice while submitting his report, derived from the Ramayana, the first one being a piece of advice given to Ravana by his brother – which is translated to mean, "it is easy to get a man who speaks to you sweetly, but it is very difficult for a man to speak the bitter truth and more difficult for a person to accept the bitter truth however beneficial it may be". The second piece of advice that he included in his report, was a famous quote by Shankaracharya, translated to mean, "the same law resides in both you and me, so why are you unnecessarily getting angry with me and doing this kind of an injustice to me"?Rajiv Luthra: Mirza Ghalib's storyMr. Luthra started with a story about Mirza Ghalib (a famous poet), who fell in love with a fine young lady who wasn't accepting his advances. He said that, one night Ghalib in a drunken state, showed up at her house and kept calling out to her, receiving no response. He then had to answer the call of nature, and decided to urinate on her wall, whereupon a policeman appeared and told him what he was doing was not allowed! This is when Ghalib responded with, "nahi janaab jo aapko dikh raha hain, woh nahi hain, yeh aasoon hain, jagah dhoond dhoond ke nikalti hain!" which essentially translates into "No sir, this is not what it seems like. These are my tears, struggling to find spaces to flow forth from…!"Re-scripting the NarrativeThe key highlight of Mr. Luthra's talk was a big-ticket case, where he ended up re-scripting a commonly accepted narrative. This case involved genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and much like other parts of the world, there was a lot of fear and apprehension with their release in India. Mr. Luthra was tasked by Monsanto to represent them in India's supreme court where one such matter had reached. He decided to fly down to America to get a complete understanding of genomics, thereafter, being convinced that the technology makes sense and that India should give it a chance, he came back and put a team together and they appeared before the court. The opposing counsel screamed about how Monsanto was 'playing with nature'. Mr. Luthra pulled at the gown of the senior counsel and said: 'but she's not saying what is wrong with playing with nature'....

Legal Luminaries Reflect On Law & Story Telling At IDIA Annual Conference

Zia Ahmed

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