Judiciary is temple for people, says Mamata; judges not deities, asserts CJI

Espousing the importance of implementing “Constitutional Morality” in Indian jurisprudence, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Saturday (June 29) insisted on the commitment of courts to ensure diversity, inclusion, and tolerance.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day East Zone II Regional Conference of the National Judicial Academy in Kolkata, the CJI also focused on the importance of technological advancements in the justice delivery system.

CJI Chandrachud elaborated on the notion of “Constitutional Morality” as a restraining factor on the state that should derive from the Preambular values of the Constitution.

Judges are not deities: CJI

Underlining the country’s federal structure that’s “marked by a great deal of diversity”, the CJI focused on the role of judges in “preserving the diversity of India”.

“I am reticent when people call courts a temple of justice. Because that would mean the judges are deities which they are not. They are instead servers of the people, who deliver justice with compassion and empathy,” CJI Chandrachud said at the conference titled “Contemporary Judicial Developments and Strengthening Justice Through Law and Technology”.

“Servants of Constitution”

Calling judges “servants and not masters of the Constitution”, the CJI warned the judiciary of the pitfalls of personal values and belief systems of judges interfering with judgments that are opposed to values enshrined in the Constitution.

“We could be masters of Constitutional interpretation, but a just society is established with the court’s vision of Constitutional Morality,” he said.

Judiciary should be pure, honest, sacred: Mamata

Delivering a special address at the programme, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appealed to members of the judiciary to ensure that political bias does not interfere with the justice delivery system.

“Judiciary should be pure, honest and sacred. I believe that the judiciary is of, by and for the people. If the judiciary cannot deliver justice to people, who can? It’s the ultimate frontier for getting justice and the last recourse to save our country’s democracy and our Constitution,” Banerjee said.

Judiciary is temple for people: CM

The judiciary is an important temple for people and the supreme authority for delivering justice, Banerjee said.

“It is like a mandir, masjid, gurudwara, and girja (church). The judiciary is of the people, by the people and for the people... and the last frontier for getting justice and upholding constitutional rights,” she said.

CJI on use of AI

While speaking on the need for technological assistance in ensuring the effective delivery of justice to citizens, the CJI said, “The idea is to not modernise for the sake of modernisation. It is a step to aid something else we want to achieve.”

CJI Chandrachud spoke of AI-assisted software aiding the work-in-progress to translate the 37,000-odd Supreme Court judgments delivered since Independence from English into all Constitution-recognised regional languages.

Making available digitised formats of Supreme Court judgments free for all, decentralised access to courts to provide travel relief to litigants, using technology to create awareness of court procedures and categorisation of cases are also some of the technology-driven measures in aiding effective justice which the CJI spoke about.

CM on e-governance

Hailing CJI Chandrachud for initiating digitisation and e-laws in courts, Banerjee asserted that West Bengal is “number one among all states in e-governance”.

The chief minister said her government has spent Rs 1,000 crore for development of judicial infrastructure in the state, and provided land for a new high court complex in Rajarhat New Town.

Stating that 88 fast track courts are functioning in the state, Banerjee said earlier, the central government provided assistance for setting up these courts, but the provision has been withdrawn since the last seven to eight years.

“Out of the 88 fast track courts, 55 are for women. There are six POCSO courts as well,” she added.

CM’s “neglected” claim

Alleging that people from the northeast and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, from where judges and judicial officers are participating in the conference, are “neglected”, she urged that they be given bigger opportunities.

Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court TS Sivagnanam was also present at the programme which was organised in collaboration with the Calcutta High Court and West Bengal Judicial Academy. 

(With agency inputs)