Students of Law need to be analytical, meticulous: Justice Dixit

Bhubaneswar: Students of law are required to be analytical, meticulous, proficient in both law and language and study a lot to shine in the profession, judge of Orissa High Court, Mr. Justice Krishna Shripad Dixit said on Saturday.

“One has to study different laws and subjects to acquire knowledge as you don’t know what kind of cases you may have to handle,” Mr. Justice Dixit said while addressing the 15th orientation program of the new batch of students of the SOA National Institute of Law (SNIL), faculty of legal studies of Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University here.

“Law speaks through language and you have to be proficient in language and know both law and language to deal with cases,” he said.

The students of law should be analytical and study logic besides being very sensitive to matters, Mr. Justice Dixit said while citing the case of the Jewish king Solomon and how he solved a difficult case.

The case involved two women and a baby with both claiming to be the mother of the child. It was a difficult case as DNA testing was unknown at that time. Solomon, regarded as the wisest among all Jewish kings, ordered that the child be cut into two and handed over to the two women.

At this, the actual mother of the baby screamed that the child should be given to the other woman as she wanted the baby to survive. This decided the case and the actual mother of the child could be identified, Mr. Justice Dixit said.

The program was presided over by SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda while Prof. S.A.K. Azad, Dean of SNIL, delivered the welcome address.

Stating that there was no substitute for hard work, he cited the example of eminent Indian jurist Nani Palkhivala who had approached the chancellor of Bombay University, where he was a student of law, with the plea that the university library should be kept open beyond its closing time of 5 pm as he wanted to study.

The request was granted and he spent hours among piles of books which made him one of the country’s most eminent jurists, he said adding his hard work made him great.

“At the same time, mere hard work will not help unless you know your destination,” Mr. Justice Dixit said.

The legal profession is not a business but is based on morality. You should never delay or deprive justice, he said.

Citing illustrations about clever use of legal technicality, he referred to the case of an Indian lawyer who took up the case involving violation of a rule that no horse-drawn chariots or carts could ply outside the Vice Regal Palace.

In his argument, the lawyer said while the rule prohibited use of horses to ply chariots or carts in the prohibited area, the carriage in question had been drawn by mares— female horses—and so no violation of the rules had taken place.“Go for wider range of studies. One book is not the ethos of our country or our culture,” Mr. Justice Dixit said.

Quoting the Gita, he said it said there was nothing as sacred as acquiring knowledge.