Swadeshi Development Important But We Should Not Shun Learning From Global Judicial Practices: Attorney General R Venkataramani

Attorney General for India R Venkataramani on Friday stressed the need for the Indian judiciary to learn from international judicial practices even while pursuing “Swadeshi development”, saying courts must remain open to global ideas in a rapidly changing world.

Speaking at a Supreme Court Bar Association felicitation function for Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant, the Attorney General said he was very happy to have Justice Surya Kant as the CJI. He highlighted the CJI's work as the head of NALSA and referred to important insights the CJI had shared at conferences in California and Sri Lanka, before turning to the theme of how Indian courts should engage with international practices.

Venkataramani said that while indigenous development is important, this should not mean turning away from international experience. “While we say Swadeshi development is important – and we must certainly stand by that – but learning from international judicial practices is not to be certainly shunned”, he said.

Recently, former Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and CJI Surya Kant had spoken about the need to develop 'swadeshi jurisprudence', without relying upon foreign judgments. Ex-CJI Gavai mentioned on his retirement day that in the Presidential Reference opinion, the Court did not refer to any foreign cases and followed a "swadeshi interpretation."

Placing his remarks in the context of globalisation, he noted that ideas and people now move across borders in ways that are often beyond domestic control and regulations. “Today in a globalised world many things happen across the globe by way of transactions of ideas, of people. Migration of people happens beyond our control and regulation,” he observed.

Against this backdrop, the Attorney General posed the question of how the Supreme Court should understand its role in the “emerging new technology ages”. He asked “how do we really comprehend and understand the role that the Supreme Court of India has to play in such a globalised world?”

Venkataramani used a metaphor to describe the balance he envisages between developing domestic jurisprudence and learning from international practices.

“I think we need to keep our doors open and at the same time we can keep our windows closed whenever necessary. That's what I think about it,” he said, suggesting that the system can selectively decide what to adopt from outside.

He concluded with a lighter line on reforms required in case management. “As we want easing of the case delivery in our courts, case purifiers and air purifiers go together to make our courtrooms be a little more breathable and livable,” the Attorney General remarked.

In the last few years, judges, lawmakers and legal institutions have often spoken of “Indianising” the justice system and decolonising the law. In 2021, then CJI NV Ramana described the “need of the hour” as the Indianisation of the legal system, arguing that court procedures, language and infrastructure still bear a colonial imprint and must be adapted to Indian social realities.

The government has projected the new criminal laws – Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam – as an effort to erase the colonial imprint of the old penal, procedure and evidence codes and to rest the criminal justice system on 'age-old' Indian principles.

Most recently, outgoing CJI BR Gavai said the Supreme Court used a “swadeshi interpretation” in a Presidential Reference opinion, relying only on Indian precedents and underlining that “we have our own jurisprudence”.