Becoming A Judge Is A Call Of Conscience, Good Judging Is About Being Compassionate : CJI DY Chandrachud

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud was invited as the Chief Guest for the Constitution Day celebrations organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association on 25th November 2022. While addressing the gathering, CJI Chandrachud addressed the criticisms about the Indian collegium system. He stated that while no institution in a democracy, or a constitutional democracy, was perfect, the judiciary worked within the existing framework of the constitution as it was interpreted and given to the judges. He said–

"All the judges of the collegium, including me, we are faithful soldiers who implement the Constitution. When we talk of imperfections, our solution is to work our way within the existing system."

Earlier in the event, President of SCBA, Sr. Adv. Vikas Singh had highlighted the issues with the collegium system and said that there was no system of identifying good lawyers and no transparent method to asses who would be the right person to be elevated as a judge. Referring to his query about "good people" in judicary, CJI Chandrachud said–

"Getting good people to enter the judiciary, getting good lawyers to enter the judiciary, is not just about reforming the collegium. Getting to be judges is not a function of how much salary you give judges. However high you pay judges, it'll be a fraction of what a successful lawyer makes at the end of one day. People become judges for a sense of commitment to public services. Becoming a judge is a call of conscience. Getting good people to become judges is first and foremost about inculcating upon minds of young members of bar about the limitless ability which lies in the power of every judge to give good society."

Elaborating upon the meaning of "good judging", CJI Chandrachud stated that good judging was about being compassionate, about understanding problems of people, and not being judgemental about people whose lives you may not agree with. He added–

"When we need to have good people within the system, the answer lies somewhere else. That answer lies in mentoring young people by giving them the ability to become judges."

CJI also stated that judges did not have benefits in form of salaries but something that did not leave a judge even after his retirement was the sense of fulfilment. He urged the members of the bar to make judicial offices appealable to our young lawyers. He also added that judges had to ensure that young lawyers were mentored by judges. He added–

"Of course you have to give better salaries because the cost of living has to be attended to when the children are growing up. I know that, I've brought two children up in a career spanning 22 years. The CJI is only the first amongst the equals. I'm blessed as Chief Justice with very dynamic, responsible senior colleagues with whom I engage every day. We cannot be constitutional statesman where we are only finding fault with each other. We need to work our way as constitutional statesman and I am sure with the assistance of colleagues which I have, I am sure we can resolve everything with social resolution and harmony."

"Good judging is about being compassionate, about understanding problems of people, not being judgemental about people whose lives you may not agree with. Good judging is about understanding why a criminal becomes criminal"

CJI Chandrachud also informed the gathering that in just the last 5 days registry had verified 982 matters. This had ensured that the time required to notify defects was reduced from 9 days to 2 days. He said–

"Currently as of 5 pm today, we do not have any matter filed prior to 24th November for which defects have to be verified."

The CJI stated that from the next week, every bench of the Supreme Court would hear 10 bail applications, preceded by 10 transfer petitions. He said–

"There are about 3000 transfer petitions pending in the Supreme Court. Since we have 13 benches going on right now, our endeavour is to dispose off 130 transfer petitions every day before the vacations. We also want to ensure that bail matters are listed and disposed in an expeditious manner. From next week, four specialised benches will be functioning in the SC to deal with motor accident claims tribunal cases, criminal appeals especially those where accused are still in jail, land acquisition, direct and indirect tax matters."