agencies
New Delhi: Judges are supposed to act in a manner that is “unencumbered” by popular morality while deciding constitutional and legal questions, Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud has said.
The CJI on Wednesday was speaking at the Bhutan Distinguished Speakers’ Forum, a part of the Jigme Singye Wangchuck Lecture Series, on the subject of ‘Judicial legitimacy through accessibility, transparency and technology: the Indian experience’.
He also spoke on the credibility of judiciary and the “institutional trust” bestowed in courts. The 50th CJI said institutional trust in courts and their credibility was the very basis of a thriving constitutional order and the courts did not directly hold resources as trustees of people.
“Public trust is central to the credibility of the judicial branch which is otherwise insulated from public opinion in its operations — as it must be. The Indian Supreme Court prides itself in being the people’s court,” the CJI said.
Judiciary on several occasions questioned the distributional fairness of state largesse such as contracts and natural resources by other wings of the government, he added.
He further opined that though as public functionaries, courts were vested with the responsibility to give effect to equity, these judicial bodies were not directly in charge of the manner in which resources were to be distributed.
“It does, however, fall upon us to adjudicate the fairness of that distribution, should it be questioned,” added the CJI.
Distinguishing between the role of the political executive and the judiciary, he emphasised that at the level of the trial courts, judicial officers were trained to apply the letter and the spirit of the law with clinical detachment from the popularity of their decisions.
“Judges are supposed to act in a manner that is unencumbered by popular morality when deciding Constitutional or legal questions,” he said.
According to the CJI, it was in that sense that neither the appointment, nor the continuity of judges was determined by the popular mandate enjoyed by their decisions.
“In fact populist decision-making sits rather uncomfortably on the sinewy shoulders of judicial independence,” he said.
