'Judges No Exception To Threat Of Being Trolled' : CJI DY Chandrachud Flags Rise Of Intolerance & False News In Social Media

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud has expressed concerns about the rise of fake news and intolerance in the age of social media. While speaking at the inaugural function of the American Bar Association conference at New Delhi yesterday, CJI said :

 "We live in an age where people are short on their patience and short on their tolerance. Just as humanity has expanded with global advent of travel & technology, humanity has also retreated within by not willing to accept anything that we ourselves as individuals believe in. That's the challenge of our age. Some of this is perhaps the product of technology itself. Truth has become a victim in the age of false news".

The CJI said that even judges are not immune from being "trolled" in social media.

"For every little thing we do - as judges we are no exception to this - for everything you do, you face the threat of being trolled by someone who doesn't share your point of view".

It may be recalled that other Supreme Court judges, former CJI NV Ramana, Justice SK Kaul, Justice JB Pardiwala have also expressed concerns about personal attacks against judges in social media.

CJI said that when the Constitution was drafted, our constitution makers possibly had no idea on lines on which humanity will evolve. "We didn't possess notions of privacy, there was no internet, social media. We didn't live in world controlled by algorithms", he added.

"With the spread of social media, something which is said as a seed germinates into virtually a whole theory which can never be tested on the anvil of rational science", he opined.

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