The Chief Justice said that 970 e-sewa kendras were fully operational in the district court complexes. | Photo: PTI
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Saturday said the district judiciary is the “backbone of the judiciary” and therefore a crucial component of the rule of law, and it should be stopped being called subordinate.
Referring to the growing number of women who have joined the district judiciary in recent years, she stressed that judges, despite being professionals, are affected by their own “encounter with reality” and their mental health can suffer as a result.
Speaking at the ‘National Conference of District Judiciary’, which was inaugurated here by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Justice Chandrachud said that the district judiciary is the first point of contact for a citizen seeking justice.
“The district judiciary is a crucial component of the rule of law,” he said, adding: “The NJDG (National Judicial Data Network) data reveals a basic truth: the district judiciary is not only the first but also the last point of contact for citizens.”
The CJI said the reasons could be numerous: many citizens cannot afford legal representation, are unaware of their legal rights and there are geographical difficulties in physically accessing the courts.
“The quality of our work and the conditions under which we deliver justice to citizens determine whether they have confidence in us and is proof of our own responsibility to society,” he said.
“Therefore, the district judiciary is called upon to shoulder a huge responsibility and is aptly described as the ‘backbone of the judiciary’,” Justice Chandrachud said, adding, “The backbone is the core of the nervous system. To sustain the backbone of the legal system, we must stop calling the district judiciary the ‘subordinate’ judiciary.”
He said that 75 years after independence, the time has come to bury one more relic of the British era: the colonial mentality of subordination.
Referring to the “multifaceted responsibilities” of judges, the CJI said it was difficult for a judge not to be affected by the real face of suffering that each one of us faces every day – a family facing a gruesome crime, an accused languishing for years or children in a marital dispute between their parents.
“Judges, despite being professionals, are affected by their own brush with reality. Their mental health can be affected as a result. This aspect is of great importance but unfortunately does not receive the attention it deserves,” he said.
Justice Chandrachud said that as a step towards a more open discussion on the issue, the third session of the conference on Saturday was on judicial wellbeing, with a focus on holistic wellbeing, stress management, mental health and quality of life.
Referring to the aspect of technology adoption in the legal system, he said that by 2023-24, 46.48 million pages of court records have been scanned or digitised and 714 district court websites have been hosted on the Government of India’s S3waaS.
He said the NJDG is a data mine not only for lawyers but also for citizens and reflects real-time data on more than four million cases in district courts and superior courts.
The CJI said 970 e-sewa kendras were fully functional in district court complexes, besides 27 in the high court premises.
He said that e-sewa kendras help lawyers and litigants with electronic processes by providing them assistance in e-filing, providing information on the status of the case, etc.
“In this way, these centres ensure that the digitalisation of judicial proceedings does not in any way harm ordinary citizens. They bridge the digital divide wherever it exists and reflect the principle behind citizen-centred services: ‘no person is left behind’,” said the President of the Supreme Court.
He said the e-court project has been responsible for the computerisation of over 3,500 court complexes and over 22,000 courtrooms.
“The district judiciary has played a crucial role in implementing technology in day-to-day affairs – district courts in the country have heard 2.3 million cases through video conferencing,” Justice Chandrachud said.
He said Supreme Court judgments were being translated into all constitutionally recognised languages and 73,000 translated verdicts were in the public domain.
Justice Chandrachud said that mere purchase of technological devices was not enough to ensure that courts were citizen-centric.
“Rather, we must embrace and implement technological processes using the technology at our disposal and ensuring its full use in our work,” he said.
The CJI also spoke about data on the changing demographics of the judiciary.
“In recent years, more and more women have joined the district judiciary. By 2023, women accounted for 58 per cent of the total civil judges recruited in Rajasthan,” she said.
He said 66 per cent of the judicial officers appointed in Delhi in 2023 were women, while in Uttar Pradesh, 54 per cent of the appointments to civil judges (junior division) in the 2022 batch were women.
“In Kerala, 72 per cent of the total judicial officers are women in the last recruitment. These are some examples that paint the picture of a promising judicial system in the future,” Justice Chandrachud said.
Apart from the CJI, Modi, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, Supreme Court Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Attorney General R Venkataramani, Supreme Court Bar Association President Kapil Sibal and Bar Council of India Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra also addressed the meeting.
The two-day event is being organised by the Supreme Court.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: August 31, 2024 | 18:11 IS
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