Supreme Court's search engine: A 22-strong force of men and women in grey
They use speed and expert knowledge to provide legal references to judges amid the bustle of the court
On Mondays and Fridays, amidst the bustle and
whirl of the Supreme Court’s narrow corridors, a row of men and women in grey
safari suits and saris weave their way efficiently through the crowds, carrying
piles of heavy tomes.
Like light-footed spirits, they delicately
negotiate the swirling mass of lawyers, litigants, security personnel, clerks
and reporters. As they pass through the winding corridors of the court, the
single file of grey breaks up and reassembles, as one of them ducks into a
courtroom. The courtrooms are often packed and claustrophobic, but this does
not deter these men and women who expertly push their way to the front where
the judges’ staff wait anxiously for the knowledge they bring.
Once the court staff get hold of the heavy
volumes containing cases or judicial precedents — delivered by the Supreme
Court for over 60 years — they hand them over to the judges in perfect timing,
as lawyers refer to a precedent, which may mean life or death for the litigant.
On Mondays and Fridays, when fresh cases come up for hearing in the highest
court, this group of 22 is called upon to perform its extraordinary task in one
of Asia’s largest law libraries — the Judges’ Library — situated in the
recesses of the Supreme Court building.
Of the 22, five are professional librarians
from the legislative arm of the library, recruited by the Supreme Court. The
other 17 include clerks, attendants and peons, handpicked for their vast
experience gained through years of serving in courtrooms and in the judges’
residential libraries. Their specialised services, accuracy and knowledge of
every book and its location in the library, which boasts of over 3,50,000 law
books and law reports, is vital to the smooth working of the process. These men
and women are fondly called the “dancing librarians” of the Supreme Court.
Former Chief Justice of India and current
National Human Rights Commission Chairperson, Justice H.L. Dattu, after his
retirement in December 2015, told The Hindu about the dedication and
accuracy of the staff in the judges’ library.
The dancing librarians are “extraordinary,”
he says, in the cause of justice delivery.
Making the judges’ library state-of-art was
one of my pet projects. [When] I talked to the staff, some of them complained
of feeling stagnant in their jobs. I sent some staff to the best libraries in
India, gave promotions, incentives. On the day I was retiring, the first place
I went to say goodbye was the library. I thanked them for their dedication, for
being quick on their feet. They thanked me for giving them a free hand,”
Justice Dattu recalled.
On their toes
“For three to four hours on Mondays and
Fridays, they are on their toes as telephonic requests for law books and
citations of cases are passed on from courtrooms,” a Supreme Court source said.
Speed is of the essence and as soon as a
request is received from a courtroom, the librarians dive into the corners of
the three-tiered library. The requested volume is located in seconds and what
follows is a relay as it is thrown from one pair of waiting hands to the next;
the relevant pages are flagged, marked and the reference then starts its
journey from the library, through the corridors, to the court.
A recent Doordarshan documentary on the
Supreme Court titled Truth Alone I Uphold , records for posterity the
contributions of the Judges’ Library staff. It depicts the library as the
backbone of the justice delivery system in the apex court, which is based on
the ‘Doctrine of Precedent’.
“At least 800 to 900 books are issued daily.”
The computerised library also caters to the judges’ residential libraries and
hosts 22 legal databases. Parliamentary debates, foreign journals and every
written law of the land — Acts, Manuals, Rules, by-laws, notifications,
Gazettes of Centre, States and Union Territories — are in the library of
India’s highest judiciary.
Source | The Hindu | 9 June 2016
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan
& Co
Best
Paper Award | Received the Best Paper Award at TIFR-BOSLA National Conference on
Future Librarianship: Innovation for Excellence (NCFL 2016) on April 23,
2016. The title of the paper is “Removing
Barriers to Literacy: Marrakesh VIP Treaty”
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