It's never a good idea to DIY when it comes to legal matters

There is no better example of why every Tom, Dick or Harry should not resort to D-I-Y (do-it-yourself), especially when it comes to legal matters, than the recent incident of a bench of the Delhi High Court taking umbrage at the loose wording of a petition that was drafted, as it turned out, by the petitioner himself. Pointing out that the term ‘Tom, Dick or Harry’ used in the plea is slang, the judge fumed, ‘Can you use this kind of language in the pleadings…?

You are writing about a tribunal!’ Adding that ‘if I find this kind of language, I will not entertain this again’, the court directed the petitioner to get an advocate to draft the petition properly. The petitioner got off relatively lightly, but the ire of the court is well founded as much hinges on wording and nuance in court cases, even though ‘legalese’ is also often derided for being utterly confusing for lay people.

Slang inevitably finds its way to court, however, especially when it comes to criminal cases, with the fast-changing gangland jargon used in testimonies leaving judges quite befuddled.


So, in the US, courts have resorted to the unconventional step of using the crowdsourced, online Urban Dictionary for a while now, to get to the bottom of words such as dap and krunk. Given India’s lively street patois, a similar resource for the Indian judiciary may be worthwhile.