CJI: Law must not become instrument of oppression
What sustains judicial institutions in the long run is your sense of compassion, empathy, your ability to answer the plaintiff’s cry of a citizen in the wilderness DHANANJAYA Y CHANDRACHUD, Chief Justice of India
NEW DELHI: The law should not be used as an instrument of oppression by those who handle the law, stressed Chief Justice of India (CJI), Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud on Saturday, making a fine distinction between law and justice, adding that j udges should have the “ability to hear unheard voices and unseen faces in the system” as this alone can sustain the judicial institutions in the long run.
Highlighting that law and justice do not necessarily follow the same linear path every time, the CJI flagged that a judge has to ascertain where the balance between the law and justice lies to be able to truly perform her or his mission as a judge.
Addressing the HT Leadership Summit where he chose to ignore his prepared speech and instead “spoke from the heart” on issues plaguing the judicial system, the challenges facing judges, and the criticism directed against the judiciary, CJI Chandrachud was emphatic that law must remain an instrument of justice and the responsibility is on all the stakeholders to handle the law in furthering the cause of justice.
“The core of judiciary is to judge. Technology, infrastructure and filling up of vacancies are just milestones in our mission. But above all, what sustains judicial institutions in the long run is your sense of compassion, empathy, your ability to answer the plaintiff’s cry of a citizen in the wilderness because when you have that ability to hear unheard voices and unseen faces in the system, you then try and see where the balance between law and justice lies that you can truly perform your mission as a judge,” he said.
Law can be an instrument of justice but law can be an instrument of oppression as well, pointed out the CJI, as he referred to how the law that we have today was used in colonial times to oppress citizens.
“How then as citizens do we ensure that the law becomes an instrument of justice and not an instrument of oppression? The key to ensure the first outcome and not the other is the way in