Writing Judgments Citizens Can Read

Long and short of it is that judges must exercise brevity and aim for clarity in their opinions

- Bibek Debroy and Aditya Sinha

“However, accepting to the fullest, the aforesaid trite expostulation of law, would beget immense hardship, and, would disempower the plaintiff, to seek partition, of the suit properties, and, of all undivided suit properties, held jointly by her with the defendants, though, not included in the plaint, (a) emphatically when, in, contradiction therewith, rather hereat the suit has not progressed, up to the stage, of, issues being framed nor evidence upon the apt framed issues, stands adduced, rather when the suit, is, at a nascent stage, (ii) thereupon the inclusion therein, of, only some of the joint properties, and, its excluding the apt joint properties, as, mentioned in the application, rather cannot coax any conclusion qua the plaint not disclosing any enforceable causes of action …”

This has taxed the reader’s patience. What has been quoted is 124 words long and the sentence is still incomplete. The incomplete quote is from a judgment of Himachal Pradesh high court (Om Prakash & Ors. vs Smt. Saroj and Anr., August 8, 2018). The quote is in English, but that doesn’t make it comprehensible.