While elections lie at the core of India’s constitutional democracy, judges reflect a sense of continuity of constitutional values that protect the system, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud has said. Addressing the famous Oxford Union Society here on Tuesday on the topic of the humanising role adjudicators can play in society, the senior-most judge of India’s apex court highlighted the role of technology in injecting greater transparency into the judicial system. Acknowledging some of the “unfair” criticism aimed at judges on social media, the Chief Justice asserted that the overall impact of technology is to help the judiciary reach out to a wider section of society.

 

“Elections lie at the core of constitutional democracy … judges are not elected in India and for a reason; judges reflect a sense of continuity of conditions, a continuity of constitutional values,” he said in response to a question on the general elections, the results of which were declared earlier in the day. “The judiciary has a vital role to play in a democracy, which is that we reflect a sense of tradition and we also reflect a sense of what the future of a good society should be,” Chief Justice Chandrachud said.

 

Asked about political and societal pressures he may have faced while handing down judgments, the Chief Justice stated that he has never faced a “sense of political pressure from the powers that be” in his 24 years as a judge. “We live lives which are relatively isolated from the political arm of the Government … but obviously judges have to be conversant with the impact of their decisions on the polity at large. That’s not political pressure but an understanding by the court of the likely impact of a decision,” he said.