A Day in the Life of a Judge

CJI NV Ramana said there are misconceptions of a judge having an “easy life”. Judges have lots of work—reading pleas, hearing cases, recording evidence, writing opinions and keeping abreast with law. Here is an insider’s view.

- CJI NV Ramana

A day in the life of a judge A sad and a long lonely day I walk the avenue and hope I'll run into The welcome sight of you coming my way

I stop just across from your door but you are never home anymore So back to my room and there in the gloom I cry tears of goodbye.

—Adapted from a song by Carl Sigman and Luis Bonfa to the tune of the Portuguese ballad Manha de Carnaval

THE judge holds a pen in one hand and a book in the other, and with these, he dispenses justice. To rich and poor alike, to underprivileged condemned by the system, to women and children, to anyone who appears in his court with a petition. The entire judicial system is centred around such a simple and straightforward pathway. It’s a lonely life. Judges have no one to discuss their cases with. After lawyers have said their bit and given a long list of references and left the court, the judge is finally alone. He would naturally be mentally exhausted but has no time to waste. When lawyers’ work ends, the work of judges begins. He has to get down to deciding the matter and writing his judgment. The solitariness of a judge’s life drives him to solitary hobbies like reading, gardening or walking. Judges begin to love solitude.

It would help a judge calm down if he was to remind himself of Mahatma Gandhi’s talisman and look out of the window. “Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him.”