Issues Of Personal Liberty Must Be Adjudicated With A Sense Of Urgency : CJI DY Chandrachud

In response to the oft-repeated criticism over the growing pendency of cases in the judicial docket, Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, citing National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) data, said on Friday that the disposal of almost 14 lakh cases was delayed as some kind of record or document is being awaited and more than 63 lakh cases were pending owing to the non-availability of a counsel. “We really need the support of the bar to ensure that our courts are functioning at the optimum capacity,” the Supreme Court judge said. Noting that the figures he revealed may be subject to an increase or a decrease as more data is yet to be received from all courts, Justice Chandrachud urged judicial officers to submit data related to case status and disposal timely, as it would allow “the judiciary, as an institution, to be more transparent with the public with respect to the actual reasons for the delay in the disposal of cases.” Describing the public perception of the judiciary using the famous ‘Tareekh pe tareekh’ quote from the movie Damini, the Chief Justice said that the image of the judiciary could be changed only if, among other things, the judges and judicial officers were able to instrumentalise the information and communications technology tools on the data grid to monitor the pendency and disposal of cases. Speaking at the inauguration of the Andhra Pradesh Judicial Academy, Justice Chandrachud acknowledged that the district and trial courts were the most critical cog in our judicial system. “We must get rid of the colonial mindset of referring and treating the district courts as the subordinate judiciary in the hierarchy,” he insisted, “In practice, not only are they the backbone of the judiciary but they are also the first and, for a majority of people, the only interaction with the judicial institution.” The word ‘subordinate’ itself, the Chief Justice said, referred only to the stages in an appellate process. “It is not reflective of a culture of subordination of the district judiciary and should not be reflective of a culture of subordination of the district judiciary. It only reflects the administrative control of the high courts over the district judiciary,” Justice Chandrachud explained, as he argued for a change in mindsets both at the top and the bottom. He said, “It is only when we change our mindsets that we will really be thinking in terms of a modern judiciary for the future.” On the stark difference between High Courts and the subordinate courts, Justice Chandrachud pointed out that an audit revealed the lack of sanitary napkin dispensers in most district courts and in many places, even the non-availability of usable washrooms for women judges, lawyers, and litigants. Therefore, the creation and maintenance of the infrastructure of the trial courts, the judge said, was an issue of utmost priority. The Chief Justice further highlighted the role of the subordinate judiciary in protecting the constitutional value of liberty. Addressing another potent criticism that many undertrial prisoners spend years in custody, the judge said, “Bail, but not jail, is one of the most fundamental rules of the criminal justice system. Yet, in practice, the number of under-trials languishing in prisons in India reflects a paradoxical situation. Deprivation of liberty, even for a single day, is a day too many.” The grant or cancellation of bail, he added, should not be reduced to meaningless, mechanical, procedural remedies which are perfunctorily pursued at the grassroots level, at the district judiciary, only to get a rejection and a sanction to move to a higher court. The remedies must be provided by the district judiciary itself as they affect the poorest of the country “who not only suffer at the hands of the police but are also caught in this judicial web without adequate economic resources or knowledge to cut through the red-tapism of the law”, the judge said. “We must realise that the values that have been placed in the care of the judiciary, specifically at the district level, chart the course of a litigant’s life for months, if not years, to come. Issues of personal liberty must, therefore, be adjudicated with a fair sense of urgency.” Justice Chandrachud said there is also a ‘brooding sense of fear’ among the courts of the first instance, on how the grant of anticipatory bail or a normal bail will be perceived at the higher level and that the fear is not purely irrational. “There have been multiple cases where trial court judges have been pulled up for grant of bail in certain High Courts. The performance of judges has been analysed on the basis of their conviction rate. At the chief justices’ conference, I have specifically called upon the chief justices to ensure that such practices are done away with,” he said. On the issue of representation and diversity, Chief Justice Chandrachud happily informed that both men and women were entering...

Issues Of Personal Liberty Must Be Adjudicated With A Sense Of Urgency : CJI DY Chandrachud

Awstika Das

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