Age Of Livestreaming And Social Media Places New Demands On Judges: Chief Justice Chandrachud

The Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud speaking at the National Conference on Digitization, Paperless Courts and e-Initiatives organised by the High Court of Orissa, remarked that in the age of livestreaming and social media every word said by judges in court is up in public realm, which places new challenges and demands on judges. “We realise this when we livestream constitution bench arguments. Very often citizens don't realize that what we say in the course of hearing is to open a dialogue. It doesn't reflect what we’re going to ultimately decide in every case. Sometimes it may, sometimes it may not.“

Stressing on the need to create a robust cloud infrastructure for livestreaming and also the setting up of new hardware in courts, to control and monitor livestreamed court proceedings, the CJI said “Clips of the Patna High Court judge asking an IAS officer why he is not appropriately dressed or Gujarat High Court judge asking a lawyer why she is not prepared with her case are going around. A lot of funny stuff is going around on YouTube, which we need to control, because this is serious stuff. What happens in the court is extremely serious stuff.”

The Chief Justice inaugurated the Neutral Citation for the Indian Judiciary at the event.

CJI Chandrachud also informed the gathering that the Supreme Court was in the process of launching a legal glossary on gender inappropriate terms, similar to the recently launched LGBTQ handbook. “If you read a judgment on 376, I am sure all of you have come across phrases that the ‘victim was ravished by the appellant’ or phrases such as ‘she was a concubine’ or in a bail order in an NDPS case that ‘the negro was..’. Judges do that unwittingly.” CJI explained that the purpose of the legal glossary was not to belittle the judiciary but to create awareness about the times we are living in. He remarked that judges need to pay as much attention to language as they do to substance.

While delivering the inaugural address, the Chief Justice focussed on three important areas of Phase III of the e-Courts Project headed by the e-Committee of the Supreme Court. Firstly, the vision of Phase III, secondly, the major activities envisaged in the new phase and thirdly, the roadmap to implementing them.

The Chief Justice spoke on how the vision of the e-courts project was to provide an affordable, cost-effective, transparent and accountable justice delivery system. CJI Chandrachud appreciated Dr. Justice S Muralidhar, the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, for his dynamic engagement with technology and the e-courts project, to ensure that access to justice reaches common citizens. “As I’ve said, the Supreme Court of India is not the Supreme Court of Tilak Marg, it is for India, of India. Likewise, each High Court is not only the High Court for the metropolitan capital of the state.” he said.

In his address, CJI Chandrachud appealed to the Chief Justices of High Courts, not to disband the infrastructure for virtual hearings created during the pandemic. He said that part of reason that the e-committee was able to sustain the budget that was received from the Union Government was due to the support of the Parliamentary Standing Committee. However, when the committee visited the High Courts, it was seen that much of infrastructure set up during covid was not used at all.

“Screens, computers are put away in a corner of High Courts as a reminder that we used technology at some point in the past. The Parliamentary Standing Committee had a cogent point, do these funds make sense if High Courts are disbanding the structure we have set up? I had written to the Chief Justices of High Courts requesting them not to disband the infrastructure created during the pandemic.”

The question is not whether we have virtual court facilities, the question is whether we are using them, the CJI stated. “I get a lot of PILs that HCs have disbanded that VC. I appeal to the CJs, please don't disband the infrastructure created during the pandemic. Covid-19 provided us a justification, an imperative. But technology is not confined to COVID-19 pandemic but we must look beyond it.” the CJI added.

In this regard, the CJI appreciated his colleagues for adapting seamlessly to the virtual mode. “All my colleagues, some of them on the verge of retirement have gone completely into the electronic mode. The eagerness with which they have adapted it, it is all about a change in mindsets.”

Stressing on the need for an efficient rolling out the e-courts project for increasing accessibility to justice, CJ Chandrachud said, “My experience in the Supreme Court is that we have lawyers across India, the only thing they lack may be the swagger of those who regularly appear in the SC, but they certainly have confidence, knowledge and close connection with the litigants who trust them.”

The CJI also pointed out that the Union Government being seized of the importance of this initiative has allocated a huge budget for Phase III of the project, which is much higher than the funds for the previous phases “If you look at outlay for Phase 3, which is going to be between 2023-27, the total outlay we have envisaged is 7210 Crores. Compare it with outlays for Phase I and Phase II which was just a fraction of Phase III. So we can now look at the enormity of the fund which GoI is providing to us. When we pitched for this budget, not a single rupee was cut by the Union Government.”

The CJI explained that Phase III would have two models. Firstly, the default option, where the entire funds will be provided by the Union and channeled through the e-committee. Model two envisages higher specifications. If there are States and High Courts that are able to get higher commitment to funds, then Model 2 envisages that they can increase their specifications and can set higher targets, he explained.

The Chief Justice remarked that some states like Kerala, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh have been at the forefront of this initiative, while some states are falling woefully behind. The CJI also noted that the state of Orissa has been extremely hospitable to demands of judiciary.

Speaking on the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence into the e-courts project, the CJI stated that AI is replete with possibility and that many courts across the world have already experimented with it.

“Appeals from specialized tribunals like electricity tribunal, CCI etc. have huge records. How do you expect a judge to digest the evidence in a statutory appeal in a record involving 15k pages. AI can prepare the entire record for you. We have also been using AI for transcription of proceedings of the constitution bench of the Supreme Court.“

However, the CJI stated that the e-committee was conscious of the fact that AI has a flip side too. For instance, it would be difficult and diffident in allowing AI to tell us what sentence to hand down following conviction in a criminal case, he remarked.

The CJI also spoke on the importance of ensuring data security and data privacy. He stated that the committee set up for handling cyber security is taking time as it is the most the most difficult part of the project. “We are in the process of evolving a national model for data security and privacy and the moment that is done I think we would have achieved a major step”

Live updates of the event can be accessed here. 

Click here to watch the streaming of the event.