Age Of Livestreaming And Social Media Places New Demands On Judges: Chief Justice Chandrachud

The Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud speaking at the National Conference on Digitization, Paperless Courts and e-Initiatives organised by the High Court of Orissa, remarked that in the age of livestreaming and social media every word said by judges in court is up in public realm, which places new challenges and demands on judges. “We realise this when we livestream constitution bench arguments. Very often citizens don't realize that what we say in the course of hearing is to open a dialogue. It doesn't reflect what we’re going to ultimately decide in every case. Sometimes it may, sometimes it may not.“Stressing on the need to create a robust cloud infrastructure for livestreaming and also the setting up of new hardware in courts, to control and monitor livestreamed court proceedings, the CJI said “Clips of the Patna High Court judge asking an IAS officer why he is not appropriately dressed or Gujarat High Court judge asking a lawyer why she is not prepared with her case are going around. A lot of funny stuff is going around on YouTube, which we need to control, because this is serious stuff. What happens in the court is extremely serious stuff.”The Chief Justice inaugurated the Neutral Citation for the Indian Judiciary at the event.CJI Chandrachud also informed the gathering that the Supreme Court was in the process of launching a legal glossary on gender inappropriate terms, similar to the recently launched LGBTQ handbook. “If you read a judgment on 376, I am sure all of you have come across phrases that the ‘victim was ravished by the appellant’ or phrases such as ‘she was a concubine’ or in a bail order in an NDPS case that ‘the negro was..’. Judges do that unwittingly.” CJI explained that the purpose of the legal glossary was not to belittle the judiciary but to create awareness about the times we are living in. He remarked that judges need to pay as much attention to language as they do to substance.While delivering the inaugural address, the Chief Justice focussed on three important areas of Phase III of the e-Courts Project headed by the e-Committee of the Supreme Court. Firstly, the vision of Phase III, secondly, the major activities envisaged in the new phase and thirdly, the roadmap to implementing them. The Chief Justice spoke on how the vision of the e-courts project was to provide an affordable, cost-effective, transparent and accountable justice delivery system. CJI Chandrachud appreciated Dr. Justice S Muralidhar, the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, for his dynamic engagement with technology and the e-courts project, to ensure that access to justice reaches common citizens. “As I’ve said, the Supreme Court of India is not the Supreme Court of Tilak Marg, it is for India, of India. Likewise, each High Court is not only the High Court for the metropolitan capital of the state.” he said.In his address, CJI Chandrachud appealed to the Chief Justices of High Courts, not to disband the infrastructure for virtual hearings created during the pandemic. He said that part of reason that the e-committee was able to sustain the budget that was received from the Union Government was due to the support of the Parliamentary Standing Committee. However, when the committee visited the High Courts, it was seen that much of infrastructure set up during covid was not used at all. “Screens, computers are put away in a corner of High Courts as a reminder that we used technology at some point in the past. The Parliamentary Standing Committee had a cogent point, do these funds make sense if High Courts are disbanding the structure we have set up? I had written to the Chief Justices of High Courts requesting them not to disband the infrastructure created during the pandemic.” The question is not whether we have virtual court facilities, the question is whether we are using them, the CJI stated. “I get a lot of PILs that HCs have disbanded that VC. I appeal to the CJs, please don't disband the infrastructure created during the pandemic. Covid-19 provided us a justification, an imperative. But technology is not confined to COVID-19 pandemic but we must look beyond it.” the CJI added.In this regard, the CJI appreciated his colleagues for adapting seamlessly to the virtual mode. “All my colleagues, some of them on the verge of retirement have gone completely into the electronic mode. The eagerness with which they have adapted it, it is all about a change in mindsets.” Stressing on the need for an efficient rolling out the e-courts project for increasing accessibility to justice, CJ Chandrachud said, “My experience in the Supreme Court is that we have lawyers across India, the only thing they lack may be the swagger of those who regularly appear in the SC, but they certainly have confidence, knowledge and close connection with the litigants who trust them.”The CJI also pointed out that the Union Government being seized of the importance of this initiative has allocated a huge budget for Phase III of the ...

Age Of Livestreaming And Social Media Places New Demands On Judges: Chief Justice Chandrachud

Sheryl Sebastian

Tags