litigants, advocates and judges

The law courts are incomplete only with advocates and judges. The judiciary is complete with its three pillars viz. litigants, advocates and judges. In fact, the judiciary is meant for giving justice to litigants and not just to discuss/adjudicate law between advocates and judges. If advocates and judges are masters of law, the litigants are masters of facts and circumstances. The correct and quick application of law to the facts and circumstances faced by litigants is the learned task of advocates and judges to be carried out by mutual coordination between them towards end of justice to litigants. The litigants are not expected to be experts in law although they are fully loaded with their facts and circumstances. This is the reason why litigants are practically compelled to take professional assistance of advocates for submitting their facts and circumstances before judges within framework of law through advocates. The poor litigants called paupers are provided legal assistance of advocates through State’s legal aid schemes.

However, there is no compulsion to appoint advocate for putting case before judge. A litigant can appear in person before judge and plead his own case. But this personal appearance can land litigant in trouble because if litigant is not learned in law, his legal submission may go wrong. This is because law is ocean and even a single fact may attract many laws and many judgments of law courts which a litigant appearing in person may not know. There is a great difference between professional advocate and layman appearing in person in law court or even before quasi-judicial authority such as District Collector.

One may be surprised to note that even a Supreme Court judgment may not help a litigant if litigant fails to prove that said judgment is exactly or at least substantially applicable to his facts and circumstances. This failure can be fatal and litigant may fail even in Supreme Court which delivered such judgment and which is strongly relied upon by such litigant. What a litigant may think right in his view may not be right in terms of law and even if he is right he may not be able to put his case properly before judge of law court because of his ignorance in law which can have its multiple sides as applicable to his case. The judicial credibility can increase if there is proper coordination between three pillars of judiciary viz. litigants, advocates and judges. They must work together with mutual cooperation and mutual trust to produce the final product called justice.