THE Chief Justice of India (CJI) Mr. Justice Surya Kant has done well to give precise expression of popular sentiment about the country’s judicial system. Addressing a legal literacy camp at Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, he said clearly that the judicial system must work like hospitals -- with a spirit of service, in response to the people’s hope to get relief from injustice. Even as he inaugurated the Mandi judicial complex, Mr. Justice Surya Kant asserted, in effect, that better physical facilities also entailed greater sense of judicial responsibility in tune with people’s expectations which the people manning the system cannot forget. These assertions from the CJI certainly create positive vibrations in the minds of common people. These assertions of Mr. Justice Surya Kant also bring to mind the strong stand he had taken some time ago when some criticism of the judicial handling of issues got aired.

 

That stand did have its own substance and the people understood why the honourable Chief Justice felt offended as the chief custodian of the country’s judicial system. A little later now, Mr. Justice Surya Kant appears to have agreed that the judicial system must inject a greater dose of sense and spirit of service in its folds so as to become more useful to addressing the people’s issues more correctly. Such issues have often surfaced in the country from time to time. Every now and then, the common people also express their disappointment over various shortcomings in the judicial system. A lot of complaints about the judiciary relate to absence of physical facilities, all right. But a lot of complaints also relate to a sense of incomplete justice left in the minds of the people -- in addition to the inordinate delays in dispensation of justice often leading to a feeling that justice has been finally denied. Many judicial and legal luminaries, social thinkers and political leaders have also talked about correcting the spirit in which the judiciary must function -- that of service to larger cause of justice. CJI Mr. Surya Kant also has given expression to a similar sentiment -- which deserves to be welcomed by the larger society.

 

His views also deserve to be discussed by the knowledgeable sections of the society so that there is a finer elevation of the levels of thought and action by the judiciary. The common people in the country have seen how the judiciary has handled some of the critical issues the society has to confront. On many occasions, the people have felt rather confused about the stand the judiciary has taken on various issues before the society. The people also often express their sense of surprise about how the judiciary appears to take contradictory stands on issues. This may be happening because the common people may not be aware of the fine nuances of the law and its usage in the process of dispensation of justice. Perhaps, not enough effort appears to be made in explaining those nuances to the people -- so that the society understands why certain verdicts or judgements were issued in the first place. One of the most oft-repeated criticisms of the judiciary is about the delays in dispensation of justice.

 

This has often led the people to suspect that there is no sense of urgency in the judicial system about completing the process of law and finalising the ultimate verdict. These details have often surfaced in the larger social discourse in the country. But by stressing that the judicial system must work like hospitals -- with a spirit of service to the people in trauma, Mr. Justice Surya Kant has given an expression to the popular sentiment. He has, thus, tried to suggest to the system he himself heads to raise its own standards so that it becomes truly useful to the society. Judicial thinkers down the ages have often verbalised the popular expectation that the judiciary must always communicate a sense of urgency, a sense of empathy, and a sense of ground reality -- all of which form the cumulative concept of service. The CJI, too, has done the same.