Mr. Minister, President and Secretary of SCBA, President
of Bar Association of India, my esteemed colleagues, Acting
Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Members of the judicial
fraternity, Members of the legal fraternity, Registry personnel,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
We have assembled today to celebrate the anniversary of
a momentous event, the anniversary of the adoption of our
Constitution, the day on which our founding fathers
subscribed to this document by signing the same and thereby
unfolding the philosophy - social, economic and political, for
the governance of free India. We have every reason to be
proud of and to celebrate that unique occasion. We take this
opportunity to thank the founding fathers, for this document,
who spent a good deal of their time and energy in giving shape
to this suprema lex which was to guide the future destination
of the country. We are ever grateful to them.
The foremost reason why we are proud of our
Constitution is that it promises governance through the Rule
of Law. While in many countries which initially opted for a
democratic form of Government the euphoria lasted for brief
spells, we are of the view that in our country, notwithstanding
its complexity, democracy has stabilized and democratic
institutions have flourished. The survival of democracy in
India has left many bewildered.
The socio-economic transformation – a welfare State and
an egalitarian society as its objective – must also be through
the process of law. It is true that such desired socio-economic
transformation through process of law has been slow,
however, the march has been steady. Today, rule-specific laws
are being substituted by rights-specific laws (RTE, RTI, Food
Security Bill). These socio-economic legislation requires a
paradigm shift in the matter of interpretation of Article 14,
Article 21 and Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution. Courts have
come from formal equality to egalitarian equality to the
concept of Deprivation.
Judicial independence is one of the essential elements of
Rule of Law. Every civilized society has seen the need for an
impartial and independent judiciary. The principle of Judicial
Independence has acquired renewed significance, since the
Constitution of India has conferred on the Judiciary the power
of judicial review. However, keeping in mind the doctrine of
Separation of Powers, Judiciary has to exercise considerable
restraint to ensure that the surcharged democracy does not
lead to a breakdown of the working of the Parliament and the
Government. The Judiciary needs to work in the area
demarcated by the Constitution. Awareness about rights has
grown while correspondingly redressal from the Executive has
been reduced. The Executive has its own compulsions – huge
population, lack of resources, high inflation, global economic
region etc. As a consequence litigation has multiplied. Despite
commendable achievements in terms of disposal which I will
presently demonstrate, the challenge is and should be for Zero
Pendency in which direction a lot needs to be done.
Today, the crisis of confidence in human institutions has
come to the forefront. The deficiency of every institution in
tackling the growing and complicated social problems has
become a common feature. It is a challenge for every
institution. Every democratic institution needs to meet this
challenge. The viability of judicial institutions depends upon
their acceptability by the people. When the viability of the
system gets into disrepute and ultimately the system becomes
less and less useful to the community, the challenge lies in
rejuvenating the system by restoring its credibility and
people’s faith in it. Thus, the foremost challenge to the
Judiciary today is viability of the system. Citizens approach
the Court only when there is confidence in the system and
faith in the wisdom of the Judges. This is where the Public
Trust doctrine comes in. The Institution stands on public
trust.
I am an optimist. I do not share the impression that
judicial system has collapsed or is fast collapsing. I strongly
believe and maintain that with all the drawbacks and
limitations with shortage of resources and capacity, we still
have a time-tested system. This is no justification to discard
the system by giving it bad name. Judiciary has performed a
commendable job, which is indicated by the Status Report.
Before reading the statistical data, let me say that there
is a need to highlight that all the stakeholders are accountable
for maintaining and achieving standards of Court Excellence.
The general tendency is to put the entire blame on the Judges.
The executive including the police and the Bar have an
important role to play in expeditious disposal of cases. There
is a backlog of cases, however, it is not as big as is sought to
be projected. Please note that 74% of the cases are less
than five years old. The focus: expeditious disposal of 26% of
cases which are more than five years old i.e. “Five plus free”
should be the initiative.
Solution: appointment of Working Committee on Arrears
and Court Management.
CONCLUSION :
India is an aspirational democracy. It is the shared idea
of India to emerge from Society which has individuals of
diverse ideologies, cultures and religious denominations. We
must, therefore, identify common strands that will bind us, as
one nation and one people. Unless this is done we cannot
build a modern and strong India.
In the hierarchy of values, judicial integrity is above
judicial independence. Judicial accountability needs to be
balanced with judicial independence. I would request the Bar
as well as eminent jurists to deliberate upon constitutional
concepts such as Judicial Independence and Judicial
Accountability. We, the Judges, do not mind a studied fair
criticism. However, as an advice to the Bar please do not
dismantle an Institution without showing how to build a better
one.
Please remember “When an Institution No Longer
matters, we no longer matter.”
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