Legal profession still feudal, patriarchal, needs to be democratised for women: Chief Justice
NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud on Saturday said social media platforms were posing one of the biggest challenges for judges, who, he added, must “re-engineer and refashion” themselves to adapt suitably.
The CJI said that one of the greatest dangers for institutions in a constitutional democracy is to be opaque, as he batted for live-streaming of even the proceedings in district courts.
Speaking at the 20th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on Saturday, the CJI said: “One of the greatest dangers to the institutions in a constitutional democracy is the danger of being opaque. When you open up your processes, you generate a degree of accountability, transparency, and you generate a sense of responsiveness to the needs of citizens.”
Supporting the live-streaming of court proceedings, justice Chandrachud, who is also the chairperson of the e-committee in the Supreme Court, stressed that sunlight is the best disinfectant, as he went on to add that the top court and various high courts have already begun live-streaming of important cases.
“When I talk of livestreaming, I am not talking of live-streaming the bigticket cases... that is one end of the spectrum. We need to live-stream proceedings in the high courts but also in the district judiciary, because the interface of the common citizen is first and foremost with the district judiciary,” the CJI pointed out.
“I do believe citizens have a right to know. When you live-stream proceedings, they have the knowledge of the kind of application of mind that goes on in judicial functioning,” reasoned the judge.
The CJI also spoke about the criticism against live-streaming that it could lead to grandstanding by lawyers who will be inclined to play to the galleries. However, he added: “Live-streaming has a great potential which is to allow citizens to open themselves up to access to justice by truly under
NEW DELHI: Lamenting that the structure of the legal profession in the country is still “feudal” and “patriarchal”, Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud stressed on Saturday that women judges bring a “broader sense of diversity” to the judiciary with more deliberation, consultation and discussion in the process of judging.
“There is something intrinsic about gender, irrespective of the outcome that you arrive at in an individual case, which brings to the table a more deliberative, a more consultative and a more dialogic process to the art and the science of judging,” said the CJI while speaking at the 20th edition of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit (HTLS).
Justice Chandrachud emphasised that one of the chief reasons behind having very few women judges in the judiciary is their small numbers in the feeding pool for the judiciary, which can consist of either prac
standing what goes on behind the closed doors of the court.”
Living in an age of the internet and social media, the CJI acknowledged that the latter poses a big challenge.
“None of us who are judges today are trained in the era of social media. Due to real time reporting by the second, every little word the judge says is put out on Twitter, or on Telegram or Instagram and you are constantly evaluated as a judge by what you say,” he added.
He described court proceedings where there is a free-flowing dialogue between lawyers and judges in an effort to unravel the truth or shades of truth. “If you have judges who then decide to be quiet and not say things when arguments are going on, that would pose a very grave danger to the judicial decision-making process,” cautioned justice Chandrachud, pointing out that the ability of lawyers to meet arguments, answer judges’ concerns and explore the mind of a judge is critical to judicial decision-making.
The judge also favoured making court judgments available in languages other than English. “Not all citizens for whom our tising lawyers or women judges in high courts or district courts.
“Now the feeding pool which determines who enters our judiciary, is largely dependent on the structure of the legal profession. The structure of the legal profession even today across India is feudal, patriarchal and it has not been accommodating of women,” rued the CJI.
Therefore, he pointed out that, when the need to have more women in the judiciary is talked about, it is equally necessary to have the building blocks for the future by creating access to women now within the legal profession. “Until we have a democratised and merit-based access to the entry point in the legal profession, we will not have more women... we will not have people from the marginalised groups,” said the CJI, opining access to chambers for appointment should be based on a more “merit-based” appointment.
judgments are meant speak English. Unless a citizen is able to understand what is said in the judgment concerning her or a judgment concerning someone else, that sense of confidence in the judicial process would not be perpetuated because the ability of our courts to thrive as a judicial institution in our democracy lies in the confidence that we generate in the minds of people,” emphasised the CJI.
Justice Chandrachud added that technology can bring several reforms in the judiciary, and it even enabled the courts to reach the citizens through video-conferencing. He, however, pointed out that technology, like everything else, has a flip side.
The CJI gave the example of use of artificial intelligence (AI) for judicial processes. “When you use AI to predict judicial outcomes, AI is not gender or ideology-neutral. It depends on who has programmed it. There is a grave danger that AI can, if used beyond its circumscribed jurisdiction, actually affect the stereotypes which are inherent in the system.”
He expanded these stereotypes to mean stereotypes against women, the marginalised and backward castes.