Posted: 19 Feb 2017 01:35
PM PST
When Ghalib made Justice Thakur expedite a
hearing
Former Chief Justice of India T S Thakur once
agreed to fast-track the hearing of a case, after he overheard the lawyer in
question alluding to one of Ghalib’s couplets during the court proceedings.
“I was hearing a case in the Delhi High court
and the lawyer was praying for a short date. I said that my calendar did not
permit that and adjourned the matter for six months.
“While leaving the court room, I overheard the
lawyer mumbling Ghalib’s ‘aah ko chaahiye ik umr asar hone tak/ kaun jiitaa hai
tirii zulf ke sar hone tak’ (A lifetime passes before a sigh shows its effects/
Who would wait so long to see you fixing the tangles in your hair). I asked if
he could recite the whole poem. He did. And I ordered the matter to be listed
for next week,” Thakur said, expressing his love for Urdu at the ongoing
‘Jashn-e-Rekhta’ festival.
Talking about the power of expression of Urdu as
a language, the jurist said if a picture was worth a thousand words, a couplet
in the language was worth “two thousand words”, and that many such couplets
could be used by lawyers to communicate better in the courtroom.
“In courts they say that a lawyer should know
his judge.
This does not mean that you have to bribe your
judge. Instead you should know his intellectual tastes.
“Knowing Ghalib and other Urdu poets is of great
help on such occasions. But you can’t recite an illogical couplet either. The
lines should be able to formulate your point,” he said.
Although well versed in the language, Thakur who
unlike his fellow jurists has never had an opportunity to use an Urdu couplet
during his 23-year-long legal career, rued that “a good couplet complementing
his judgement has eluded him everytime”.
Having served both as a judge and a lawyer in
the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that uses Urdu as its official language,
Thakur said the initiative to promote the language should begin early at the
school level.
“During my growing up years in Jammu, I was the
only student in my class who knew Urdu. My parents were adamant that I learn
the language. And I am glad that I did,” he said.
The session was also attended by politician
Salman Khurshid, Justice Aftab Alam and eminent legal scholar Tahir Mahmood.
( Source – PTI )
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