Judiciary facing sponsored, synchronised, malicious attacks, central agencies need to act: CJI

Ramana highlighted a need to simplify the process by removing avoidable procedural barriers and ensuring greater use of the local language in the legal system

Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Friday pointed towards increasing attacks on judges, including on social media, saying law enforcing agencies need to deal with such malicious attacks effectively.

“An area of grave concern for the judiciary is the increasing attacks on judges. Physical attacks on judicial officers are on the rise. Then there are attacks on the judiciary in the media, particularly social media,” he said.

“These attacks appear to be sponsored and synchronised. The law enforcing agencies, particularly the Central agencies, need to deal with such malicious attacks effectively. The governments are expected to create a secure environment so that the judges and judicial officers can function fearlessly," he added.

The CJI was speaking at the two-day Constitution Day celebration organised by the Supreme Court at Vigyan Bhawan here in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He also called for “Indianisation of the judiciary” based on his experience as a legal professional.

“The judicial system, as it exists in our country today, is essentially still colonial in nature. It takes no account of the social realities or the local conditions. The procedures followed, the language of arguments and judgements, and the high costs involved are all contributing to alienate the common man from the judicial system. People should feel confident in approaching the Courts," he said.

The CJI also suggested a multipronged approach to address "alarming" issue of pendency of cases by filling up existing vacancies of judicial officers, creation of more and more posts, filling up vacancies of public prosecutors, government pleaders and standing counsel, creation of necessary infrastructure, sensitising the police and the executive about the need to cooperate in court proceedings, and deployment of modern technological tools.

Read | Protect institution from motivated attacks: CJI to lawyers on Constitution Day

“The Government of India can follow the model implemented for modernisation of police stations across the country. The new court complexes should be able to deploy modern technological tools to accelerate justice delivery. For this, modern equipment with video conferencing facilities and high-speed networks are essential," he said.

He also highlighted a pressing need to simplify the entire process by removing avoidable procedural barriers and ensuring greater use of the local language in the legal system.

In his speech, Attorney General K K Venugopal said time has come to establish courts of appeals in four regions of the country between High Courts and the Supreme Court. Courts of Appeals to hear petitions challenging HC judgements and that decision will be final, he said.

Maintaining that litigants are suffering because cases have a lifespan of 30 years, he said continuance of present system of dispensing justice is more a violation of their right to speedy justice. "Such a system cannot be allowed to continue,” he added.

SC Bar Association president Vikas Singh suggested a legislation to regulate the appointment of judges by Collegium in High Courts and the Supreme Court.

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