Absolutely No Pressure From Executive To Judges: CJI DY Chandrachud

On Saturday, the Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, participated as a speaker at the India Today Conclave on ‘Justice in the Balance: My idea of India and the importance of separation of powers in a democracy’. He particularly engaged in discussions on Constitutional democracy. This is the first time a sitting Chief Justice of India has agreed to take live question in the Conclave. Pendency of casesThe first question posed to the CJI was with respect to the pendency of cases. Acknowledging the shortcomings of the institution, the CJI responded, "We need greater efficiency...judge to population ratio skewed, lack of infrastructure in district judiciary main reasons. Our judiciary is based on the colonial idea that people have to access justice. But it must now give way to the idea of justice as an essential service that we must provide to our citizens"Role of technology to enhance access to justice While addressing the issue of backlog, he talked about the role technology can play to transform the judicial process. "Part of my mission of dealing with where we should be in next 50 or 75 yrs is transform the judiciary through the use of technology...During COVID, we launched VC facilities. We now need to look at technology beyond COVID."He also talked about his vision to make court accessible by putting technological advancement to good use."There are about 34,000 judgements of #SupremeCourt from 1950, which could be accessed by subscribing to pvt software provider. How many young lawyers or citizens can pay so much? One of the first things I did was to digitise all of them...We have a free judgement text portal & search engine. Now we are using #ArtificialIntelligence & #MachineLearning for translation of these judgements. We are using modules prepared by distinguished IIT Madras professors."While speaking about providing justice as an essential service, the CJI revealed, "We are now using technology to translate all judgements of Supreme Court into all languages of Constitution. Want to reach out to citizens in their language."Judicial appointment Addressing a question on the parameters for judicial appointments, the CJI responded, "First, we look at merit & professional competence. Second is seniority. Third, need for broader sense of inclusion & diversity, but that is not at the cost of sacrificing merit. Fourth, to the extent possible, we try to give adequate representation to different high courts, states, & regions. While considering appointment of a judge, we consult puisne judges routed through same high court."Transparency in the Collegium System On transparency in the Collegium System, CJI Chandrachud stated that there are in broadly two facets of transparency - a) process of appointment, & b) choices made during appointment. He emphasised that to make the process completely transparent, the Collegium is now putting out resolutions on the Supreme Court website, so that citizens are aware of the parameters on which the appointments are made. Very candidly, he said, “No system is perfect, but this is the best that we have developed. Let them judge and critique us”. He indicated that while making appointments, the Collegium has to look into different aspects including personal lives of candidates so far as they are relevant to the discharge of their judicial duty. The personal lives of the candidates cannot be opened up to society and put on trial in the name of transparency, otherwise it would deter good candidates. The CJI said that the collegium system was devised to ensure independence of judiciary, which is a cardinal value. The effort is to insulate judiciary from outside influences to preserve this cardinal value. Earlier in the day, at the same forum, the Law Minister, Mr. Kiren Rijiju expressed displeasure about the Supreme Court revealing executive’s reasons for not appointing judges. CJI Chandrachud responded saying, "What is wrong about having different in perception? But, have to deal with such differences with a sense of robust constitutional statesmanship. I respect Law Minister's perception. But, we put the govt's reason on the website to meet criticism that we lack transparency & genuine belief that opening up our processes will foster greater confidence in the work we do...Someone might say, revealing IB reports publicly might compromise sources of info & put lives in danger. This was not a case like that. Report dwelt on sexual orientation of openly gay candidate for prospective judgeship. All we said was, sexual orientation of candidate has nothing to do with ability or constitutional entitlement to assume a high constitutional office of HC judge."Pressure on judges Responding to the question, if there is any pressure on him to decide a case in a particular way, the CJI said, "In my 23 years as a judge, no one has told me to decide a case in a particular way. We are so clear in the principle we follow. I would not even talk to a colleague presiding over a case & ask them what ...

Absolutely No Pressure From Executive To Judges: CJI DY Chandrachud

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