Singapore CJ warns against truth decay in trials
Chief justice of Singapore Supreme Court Justice Sundaresh Menon on Saturday said that the truth was the foundation of the of justice systems and exhorted the courts to guard against the truth decay creeping in their proceedings.
“…, if truth decay is not controlled, then voice of the judges will become another voice in the clamour of opinions and that is why often it is said that some judgment by a judge is a reflection of their personal opinion. Truth decay leads to destruction of trust in the judicial system”, chief justice Menon said.
Mr Menon urged the courts to guard against the “proliferation of misinformation and devaluation of truth which attacks the justice system” making inroads in the court proceedings impacting their legitimacy and acceptance by the people.
He said this while delivering the first annual lecture on ‘The Role of Judiciary in a Changing World’ organised by the Supreme Court of India
on the 73rd anniversary of its establishment on January 28, 1950. The Supreme Court of India had its first sitting on January 28, 1950
In his address Mr Menon touched on many issues including engagement between judicial institutions across the world and the new legal issues that will emerge from the existing and emerging global challenges, wide gulf between the 10% people holding 2/3 of the global wealth and the remain 90% and those on margins, capacity, capability and integrity of those manning the judicial institutions, and judiciary cannot keep itself aloof of the happenings all round.
Highlighting global challenges that would give rise to new legal issues, he said some of the challenges would first be political, but almost all of them would have legal dimensions as well.
He also said that the legal issues increasingly disregard jurisdiction boundaries due to the world becoming more economically interconnected than ever before.
In the global environment disputes are becoming increasingly complex and there are two facets technical complexity and evidential complexity.