Work without fear or favour in deciding bail petitions, CJI Chandrachud tells district judicial officers

The CJI was speaking after inaugurating 21st Biennial State Level Conference of Judicial Officers ‘Equity and Excellence For Futuristic Judiciary.

Bengaluru: Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Saturday called upon district judicial officers to work without fear or favour, especially while deciding bail petitions.

He was speaking after inaugurating 21st Biennial State Level Conference of Judicial Officers ‘Equity and Excellence For Futuristic Judiciary,’ here.

Justice Chandrachud quoted Kannada writer Dr Shivaram Karanth and said, “For the bird sitting on the tree, there is no fear of falling because of the branch breaking. The bird trusts its wings and not the branch.”

He said, “We should always have confidence in our own abilities. As judicial officers each of you must keep these words of Dr Karanth in mind. You have been endowed with important responsibility to do justice without fear or favour. Please remember this without fear & favour when you decide to grant bail to people yearning for grant of personal liberty. Do without favour, but equally important to do it without fear. Have faith in your abilities & don’t hesitate to make bold decisions while adjudicating cases before you.”

The CJI said women constitute almost 37% of working strength of district judiciary in India.

“In particular, data on recruitment of district judiciary in Karnataka paints an optimistic picture. Out of total working strength of 447 civil judges, 200 judicial officers are women, constituting approximately 44% of working strength. Karnataka in that sense is leading social transformation in India,” Justice Chandrachud said, adding concerns that only a meager 6.7% of district courts across India have washrooms that are female friendly and have sanitary napkin vending machines.

CM Siddaramaiah said modern Indian judicial system draws values from teachings of Buddha, Basavanna & Narayana Guru.

The CJI recalled a recent incident of him facing “trolling” and “vicious abuse” in social media. 

“Just 4-5 days ago when I was hearing a case, I had a little pain in my back. So, all I did was I placed my elbows in my armchair in court and I just shifted my position in the chair,” he said, adding that this was portrayed as arrogance and in some posts, it was said the CJI got up in the middle of an argument.