“ignorantia juris non-excusat” – meaning, ignorance of the law is no excuse.
It is a well-propounded legal principle that one must know the law, or at least, this is what the law presumes. Indian legal system is also based on the principle of precedence. Thus, accurate reporting of the law of the land becomes paramount for the effective functioning of the judicial system.
Well, given this background, one can relate to the importance of effective reporting of the law and legal judgments. Recently, Eastern Book Company has endeavored to embark on a journey to bring Supreme Court Cases (SCC) for the years 1950-1968! EBC is proud to announce the launch of the SCC-Pre’69 series, a series to mark the publication of judgments from the year 1950 to 1968 which were never reported before! SCC intends to bring to the table the same quality and reliability that it has offered to the legal profession for years.
Full Event Video of the Release of SCC-Pre’69 (1950-1968):
The launch of the SCC-Pre’69 was marked by an event graced by legal luminaries and stalwarts. The event witnessed Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, Justice N.V. Ramana as Chief Guest, Justice B.V. Nagarathna (Judge, Supreme Court of India), and Mr. Arvind Datar (Senior Advocate) as Special Guests of Honour.
Stressing the need for and importance of honest legal reporting, Justice N.V. Ramana, Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, stated, “There is a need to give an accurate and honest reporting of judgments. Of course, SCC is in no way concerned with this day-to-day reporting, but ultimately, after a case is decided, the public at large must understand what the facts of the case are, what the law is, and how the law is applied. And the ultimate end result is the most important thing which everybody wants to know. In that way, a lot of contribution [is] made by the SCC and EBC and I congratulate them on this occasion.”
Further, appreciating the change that SCC and EBC have brought to the way the legal fraternity works, Justice N.V. Ramana remarked, “Supreme Court Cases occupies very qualitative law journals, and we know about the head notes, and editorials, apart from that more user-friendly people like me who don’t understand much of the technology and all that. It’s a very good thing, so we can in a different way, by indexing, by judge name or by case name or subject name, verify the judgment immediately. It helps the legal practitioners as well as judges also.”
Joining the course of congratulations, Hon’ble Justice B.V. Nagarathna stated, “I applaud EBC and SCC team for the publication of well-edited reports and thereby addressing, inter alia, the issue of accessibility, whether for the public or for legal professionals.”
Mr. Arvind P Datar, while speaking at the launch, said that “I congratulate the entire EBC team for undertaking the publication of all the volumes of SCC from 1950 to 1968. With this, the gap will be covered and we’ll have the full set from 1950 onwards.“
Further, SCC has received praise from the legal fraternity for its commendable initiative.
The release of SCC-Pre’69 is being celebrated across the legal community. The Former Chief Justice MN Venkatachaliah, who is fondly known as “Bhishma Pitamah of Indian Judiciary”, remarked that:
Justice RC Lahoti, Former Chief Justice of India before his passing away had shared these comments with EBC:
Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Former Chief Justice of India also shared a few words on the release of SCC-Pre’69:
