Hard cases - Indian Laws - General

Hard cases make bad law Black s Law Dictionary defines a hard case thus: A law suit involving equities that tempt a judge to stretch or even disregard a principle of law at issue --- hence the expression Hard cases make bad law . Justice Holmes explained and extended the adage thus: (See his dissenting opinion in Northern Securities Co. v. United States 193 (1903) US 197): Great cases, like hard cases make bad law. For great cases are called great, not by reason of their real importance in shaping the law of the future, but because of some accident of immediate overwhelming interest which appeals to the feelings and distorts the judgment. These immediate interests exercise a kind of hydraulic pressure which makes what previously was clear seem doubtful, and before which even well settled principles of law will bend. VINOD SETH VERSUS DEVINDER BAJAJ AND ORS. - 2010 (7) TMI 1181 - SUPREME COURT