'SC an institution of resolution & justice': CJI for shifting from culture of adjournments to professionalism

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Sunday called for judges to come out of the culture of adjournment and embrace a culture of professionalism by reducing length of oral arguments, providing level field to first generation lawyers, and considering alternatives for long vacations in courts.

"The Supreme Court was established with a sense of idealism— that laws would be interpreted by a Constitutional court in accordance with the rule of law and not by colonial values or social hierarchies. It affirmed the belief that the judiciary should serve as a bulwark against injustice, tyranny, and the arbitrariness. The Supreme Court is an institution of resolution and justice. The fact that people approach it in large numbers, speaks to how far we have succeeded in discharging that role," he said.

Speaking on the occasion on 75th year of the foundation of the Supreme Court, he said, "The day is not only a celebration of that one day when the Supreme Court came into being as it also is a celebration of the decades’ worth of hard work by succeeding generations of judges and lawyers that went into making this a ‘people’s court’."

He said, "In near future, we must address the structural issues affecting the judiciary, such as pendency of cases, archaic procedures, and the culture of adjournments."

"In celebrating the history of this day, we must look back and look forward in equal measure," he said, adding that the Supreme Court has enhanced the rights of citizens by diluting the standards of locus standi and by recognising a set of new rights under Article 21 of the Constitution, such as the right to a speedy trial.

"Our ability to remain relevant as an institution requires us to recognise challenges and begin difficult conversations: First, we must emerge out of the adjournment culture to a culture of professionalism; Second, we have to ensure that the length of oral arguments does not interminably delay judicial outcomes; Third, the legal profession must provide a level playing field for first generation lawyers – men, women and others from marginalised segments who have the will to work and the potential to succeed; and Fourth, let us begin the conversation on long vacations and whether alternatives such as flexi-time for lawyers and judges is possible," he said.

On the administrative side, the Supreme Court has been identifying and eliminating as many barriers to justice— unequal access to legal resources, unfamiliarity of the English language, issues of physical accessibility of courts— in order to create procedural fairness, he said.

Highlighting various projects, Justice Chandrachud said nearly 1,28,000 e-filing has been done since launch of upgraded version in May, 2023.

"E-filings are available in 25 states. They have recorded over 29 Lakh case filings. With the immense support of the Bar and the Bench, we were able to swiftly shift to virtual hearings during Covid-19," he said, adding even after the pandemic, hybrid hearings continue to be a feature of courts, allowing any Indian lawyer sitting in any part of the country, or the world to argue before this court.

He said more than 13 lakh legacy and live case records with approximately 10 crore pages have been digitised.

Among other measures, he said the Supreme Court has enabled ‘Futuristic Court Technology’ in three courtrooms and soon other courtrooms shall be equipped with such technology, which facilitated paperless proceedings, a comprehensive digital library for the Bench and the advocates, state-of-the art video conferencing, large video walls, smart monitors and document visualisers, all of which redefine the courtroom experience.

In future, he said the Supreme Court is soon going to migrate its digital data to a safe, secure and sovereign cloud, which would be a shot in the arm for the IT setup of the Court. Cloud storage would ensure privacy, integrity, high availability, and secure accessibility of Supreme Court’s domain data, he said.

"We are also on the verge of opening a War Room equipped with technology that would enable the Supreme Court to monitor judicial data of the entire country in real time by using National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) and iJuris, both of which are information sharing platforms for the district judiciary. iJuris has been launched by the Supreme Court to monitor statistics of vacancies and infrastructure relating to the district judiciary," he said.

The CJI said the virtual courts initiative has been a game-changer in courtroom access and online dispute resolution.

"Implemented in 20 states, the initiative has received 4.37 crore challans, leading to a total collection of Rs 502.25 crore in fines. Interestingly, according to the electronic transaction analyser of the Government of India, in 2018, e-courts had surpassed even the Indian railways in terms of total electronic transactions."

The CJI said that traditionally, the legal profession was a profession of elite men, however, times have changed as women, traditionally underrepresented in the profession, now constituted 36.3 per cent of the working strength of the district judiciary.

In the recruitment examination for Junior Civil Judges conducted in several states namely Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, more than 50 per cent of the selected candidates were women. In the Supreme Court, out of law clerks-cum-research associates hired to assist the judges, 41 per cent candidates are women this year.

Prior to 2024, only 12 women were designated as ‘Senior Advocates’ in the history of the Supreme Court over the last 74 years. Last week, the Supreme Court designated 11 women coming from different parts of the country, as Senior Advocates at one selection, he said.

"Our legitimacy will endure from the inclusion of diverse sections of the population in our system. Therefore, we need to make more efforts to bring different sections of the society into the legal profession. For instance, the representation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is quite low, both at the Bar as well as on the Bench," the CJI said.