CJI: Pressure on judges also from PVT interest groups | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The pressure on judges is not only coming from the political executive, but also from private interest groups, CJI DY Chandrachud said, during a wide-ranging and candid interaction as guest editor of The Times Of India on Saturday.
The CJI, who will leave office on Monday, further said that private interest groups use news TV and social media to create an atmosphere where a judge often feels pressured to move in a particular direction. The price of independence here, he pointed out, is exposure to heavy trolling. “You will be cheated, you will be attacked,” he said. On the larger issue of judicial independenceJustice Chandrachud said it is wrong to measure independence only by looking at judgments where the Supreme Court went against the government’s positions. “It is a reflection of the state of our polity today,” he noted, arguing that polarized views mean that each “end of the spectrum” judges SC independence based on whether the court agrees with it agrees. “I think I have tried to strike a balance,” the CJI said. He added that he has never tried to conform a judgment to a preconceived position, but has gone where his legal reasoning took him.
But the CJI and all the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court must work with the governments on the administrative side, Justice Chandrachud said, while talking about his efforts to improve the situation. judicial infrastructurefor which funds come from governments. Consultation with the government is also crucial to finding a solution disputes between the courts and the executivehe said, illustrating his point on the differences between the SC collegium and the Center over the selection of judges, an issue that has made headlines many times.
“I have always been outspoken against the government,” CJI said, referring to times when the government has reversed a collegium decision. “But all disagreements cannot be resolved,” he added honestly. On perhaps the best-known example of those differences – the government has not yet cleared the bench’s decision to appoint lawyer Saurabh Kirpal as a judge at the HC – the CJI said his view is that neither the sexuality of a future judge , nor the fact that his partner is a foreign citizen can be held against him in assessing his suitability for the position.
A CJI known for the clarity with which he writes his judgments emphasized that judgments written in archaic or poor English do a disservice to those seeking justice. And to show that he himself was not attached to outdated customs, he said that he wanted to abolish both the stuffy clothes that lawyers have to wear in a hot country and the simple, not very grand architecture when it comes to building courthouses .