It's Our Compassion For Society Which Sustains Us As Judges : CJI DY Chandrachud

Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjay Chandrachud on Friday said that a sense of compassion for the society sustains judges.

"But above all, what sustains us as judges? It is our sense of compassion for the society in which we render justice," he stated while addressing a felicitation function organised by the Bombay Bar Association in honour of the outgoing CJI.

In this context, he referred to the recent order which granted relief to a Dalit student, who lost admission to the IIT because he missed the deadline to pay the online fees.

"He would have lost admission were we not to grant him relief. You can find 25 reasons of technical nature, not to grant a relief to a citizen. But to my mind one single justification to grant relief is all that is necessary," the judge stated.

In his speech, CJI emphasised on a more gender-equal and inclusive legal profession, wherein women are not compelled to give up their practice owing to 'familial' responsibilities.

The CJI recounted how once he called a female lawyer, by mistake, as she shared the name of his colleague's daughter. He said that he had called her thinking she was the daughter of her colleague and thus wanted to invite her for dinner. The woman, on the call, pointed out that the CJI made call to the wrong person and upon his asking about her work, she told him that she has delivered a baby, so her practice is off and on and wished if the Video Conferencing were a little more robust.

If it were so, the woman on call told the CJI that then she would not have to stop her practice.

"These words of that advocate, stayed with me for the whole day. I said that obviously we need to do something because if we have to make our profession a more gender-equal and inclusive one, why should we be in a situation wherein young women, who as a result of familial responsibilities are juggling manifold tasks at home. We know women in our society are professionals, mothers, mothers-in-law, etc. why should it be that we should not create equal conditions where we make our courts as worthy places as places where women can succeed in the Bar," CJI Chandrachud said.

The judge, therefore, stressed on the need to use technology to ensure women advocates could continue with their practice along with their familial responsibilities.

"Why does a woman have to behave like a man in order to succeed at the Bar. In other words, to give up familial responsibilities. I think it is important that therefore, courts across India use the benefit the technology for truly reaching out to the citizens, to professionals. My purpose in technology over the last 5 years has not been to make it as a new fangled idea which we implement. Of course, we have a war room in the SC. But together with all these initiatives, the idea is to make life easy for common citizens. And that's truly truly my mission," the CJI underscored,

CJI Chandrachud was speaking at the ceremony held at the Bombay High Court by the Bombay Bar Association to felicitate him owing to his upcoming retirement.

In his speech, Chandrachud also urged young lawyers to stick to ethics and ensure not to misguide the courts.

"For young lawyers I want to emphasise the importance of being ethical in the practice of law. In our effort to tide over the competition, I know the competition of the Bar is becoming so intense today, there is a tendency to cut corners. Judges with a great burden of work may not be able to fathom every corner of the case and may be you will get away with it by having perhaps hoodwink the judge into not realising there was some other point in the case especially when the lawyer on the other side isn't vigilant enough," the CJI said.

But the law has the tendency of catching up with you, CJI Chandrachud, underlined, adding, "So it is very important to be fair to the court because that is something in a reputation of the Bar, which sticks. I being a judge know that there are some lawyers, who will never, never be easy on the truth and I do believe therefore that I could expedite the disposal of the case because what they tell you is absolute truth, whether they fail or succeed they will speak the truth."

Further, the CJI highlighted the fact that Mumbai is the home of commercial Bar and that is what is sustaining the image of the High Court as one of the leading commercial courts in the country.

The CJI further emphasised how 'independent' the Bombay High Court, has been throughout.

"What has made Bombay High Court the institution of pre-eminence in the country. Why do we pride our judges? It is because of the sense of independence it has. Its judges are independent. During the emergency era, Bombay High Court did not lose its head. There were judges who were transferred from here to Calcutta. Justice Parsa Mukhi was transferred to Calcutta. He died there due to health but he never wavered from the cause of justice. There were so many judges in those days, who stood behind in what they believed was correct in the interest of the pursuit of liberty, equality and due process for our citizens," CJI Chandrachud explained.

Further, the CJI explained that the continuous 'scrutiny' of the work of the judges here, and then the 'peer pressure' which makes 'Judges behave like Judges' guides the court and make its pre-eminent.