Report No. 54

Training to be on all-India basis

53.11. It is desirable in the national interest that the training should be organised on an all-India basis, and the proposed Institute should, therefore, be an all-India Institute. The appointments to judicial services should, of course, continue to be made by the States; but it is desirable that the training should have an 'all-India' character, for more reasons than one. In the first place, it is the task of the judiciary to apply and interpret the law and familiarise itself with the process of weighing evidence.

In India, because of the federal structure and also because of the vastness of the country, it is specially necessary that the unity of the legal system based on the several Codes of substantive and procedural law, should be preserved and maintained as a balance against diversities of interpretation. Judicial outlook towards the interpretation of statutes should, in its broad features, be uniform. Initial training on an 'all-India' level would prove to be a great step towards maintaining the uniformity referred to above.

In the second place, the meeting together of officers from various States-officers who will, in the course of their work, come in daily contact with the average citizen-could in the long run, foster national integration. Mutual discussions and activities pursued together are bound to foster an understanding of the habits and cultures of- people of the several States; it is such understanding which, more than anything else, will pave the way for integration of hearts, and is much more valuable than mere mechanical integration. Lastly, the level of judicial officers should also be uniform, as far as possible, throughout India.

Director and staff

53.12. It is desirable that the Institute which we recommend should be headed by a person of the status of sitting Supreme Court Judge; and on the staff there should be at least some persons who are of the status of High Court Judges and senior District Judges. All the officers, including the Director, should be on a tenure basis.

Training to be condition precedent to confirmation

53.13. We further recommend that the successful completion of the training which we have proposed should be a condition precedent to confirmation to appointment in the judiciary.

Principles to be kept in mind in framing syllabus

53.14. We would like to indicate broadly the principles which should be kept in mind when framing the course of training.

In this connection, we may refer to the two "commandments", enunciated by Whitehead.

The two commandments enunciated by Whitehead in his famous essay on the Aims of Education were1-'do not teach too many subjects' and 'What you teach, teach thoroughly'. "The result of teaching small parts of a large number of subjects is the passive reception of disconnected ideas not illuminated with any spark of vitality. Let the main ideas which are introduced be few and important, and let them be thrown into every combination possible".

1. Whitehead Education in the Age of Science (Winter, 1959) Deadalus, p. 193, as quoted by Kamla Chowdhry Developing Administrators for Tomorrow, (April-June, 1960), 15 Indian Journal of Public Administration, p. 226.

Subjects

53.15. The subjects to be included should be such as to deal with the relationship of law to other social sciences, including, in particular, economics and sociology.1 The emphasis should not be on technical law or procedures but on law as a part of an interdisciplinary study and on the application of the law to the facts of a particular case.

1. For details, see paras. 53.19 to 53.26, infra.

Report of U.K. Committee

53.16. In the Report of the Committee on Civil Service in U.K.,1 two main attributes were considered essential, in varying combinations, for work in the Government service.

"One is being skilled in one's job-skill which comes from training and sustained experience. The other in having the fundamental knowledge of and deep familiarity with a subject that enable a man to move with ease among its concepts. Both spring from and re-inforce a constant striving for higher standards."

It is this "constant striving for higher standards" which will be fostered by proper training. It may, therefore, become necessary to provide to prospective members of the judiciary, some familiarity with the social back-ground2 in which the laws which they have to administer, operate.

1. Report of the (Fulton) Committee (U.K.), The Central Service (1968).

2. See also paras. 53.19 to 53.26, infra.

Objectives of training

53.17. The effectiveness and success of the service afforded by the administration of justice must largely depend upon the degree to which it can effectively respond to the genuine needs of the community. And this pre-supposes sufficient knowledge of the problems and difficulties of the community. The importance of education in these aspects is, therefore, obvious. The almost exclusively legal universe in which those concerned with the law function should not become an ivory tower, so as to lead to these needs being ignored. With the growth of the welfare element in State activities, these aspects will assume more and more importance.

Indications as to subjects

53.18. Bearing in mind the considerations mentioned above, we indicate the guidelines which should be followed in framing the syllabus for the training proposed above.

Social change and legal institutions

53.19. A subject of importance is the effect of social change on legal institutions. It is now well recognised that many of the fundamental legal concepts have undergone modifications owing to social changes.

Views of Roscoe Pound

53.20. In this connection, we may refer to the observations made by Roscoe Pound1:

"I am content to see in legal history the record of a continually wider recognising and satisfying of human wants or claims or desires through social control; a more embracing and more effective securing of social interests; a continually more complete and effective elimination of waste and precluding of friction in human enjoyment of the goods of existence-in short, a continually more efficacious social engineering."

1. Roscoe Round An Introduction in the Philosophy of Law, p. 57.

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