&w=1024&resize=1024,0&ssl=1 "The constitutional order based on institutional trust in the courts is rich: CJI | India News")
Institutional trust in courts and their credibility are the foundation of a prosperous constitutional order, Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said on Wednesday.
CJI was speaking at the Bhutan Eminent Speakers Forum, part of the Jigme Singhay Wangchuk Lecture Series on 'Accessibility, Transparency and Judicial Legitimacy through Technology: The Indian Experience'.
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Addressing the issue of public trust, the CJI said that courts do not directly hold assets such as public trusts.
But as public officials, the duty to enforce justice rests with the courts and judicial bodies are not directly responsible for how resources are distributed, he said.
“However, it is up to us to judge the fairness of this distribution, it must be questioned,” the CJI said.
“However, the country’s courts need public trust and legitimacy. Institutional trust in the country's constitutional courts and other courts is the foundation of a prosperous constitutional order.
“Public trust is fundamental to the credibility of the judiciary, which is otherwise indifferent in its functioning – as it should be. The Supreme Court of India prides itself on being a people's court,” the CJI said, adding that the judiciary has at various times been governed by other branches of government in matters of contracts and natural resources. Questions have been raised about the fairness of statewide allocations such as.
Judges must act in a way that is not exempt from popular morality when deciding constitutional or legal questions, he said.
“Even at the trial court level, judges must apply the letter and spirit of the law with clinical detachment from the popularity of their decisions. Thus, the appointment or continuation of judges is not determined by their popular mandate. In this sense, populist decision-making does not suit judicial independence,” Chandrachud said.
He also referred to the concept of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) jurisdiction in India and said that it has become a unique part of the country's constitutional order, which has been co-opted by several other jurisdictions.
The CJI said India is using technology to address accessibility barriers in courts.
“Our e-Court project began in 2007 as a national initiative to improve judicial efficiency and the delivery of justice. We now have the facility to file cases with the click of a button through our e-filing platform. We are witnessing a significant decline. Physical archiving,” he said.
The CJI also mentioned hybrid court hearings and said they were introduced to deal with Covid-19 induced nationwide lockdowns and are now a feature of Indian courts.
“Virtual courts and video conferencing have helped overcome the enormous geographical restrictions faced by our litigants from small areas of the country. Furthermore, pregnant women with physical disabilities and people of their age can now virtually enter the courtroom,” he said.
The CJI also stated that technology is not a single panacea for all social inequalities, but that the country should not stay away from technology-enabled measures that further improve judicial accountability.
(Only the title and image for this report may have been reworked by the Business Standards team; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a distributed feed.)
