Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud has said that the courts have today become the focal point of engagement for civil society and social transformation, noting that people nowadays approached the courts not just for outcomes, but for a voice in the constitutional change.
Speaking at the third SDR Comparative Constitutional Law Discussion in the United States as an esteemed guest on Monday, the CJI said that judges were not elected and they did not go back to the people after every five years, but the judiciary had a stabilising influence in a democracy, especially in a plural country like India.
He said the judiciary was a stabilising influence in the evolution of society, which was now rapidly evolving with technology. Judges in a way represented a voice of something which must subsist beyond the vicissitudes of time. In that ability of the courts to have a stabilising force, the judiciary has a role to play in the context of plural society, which existed in India, he added.
The inaugural discussion in the series was held in October 2020 on the occasion of 150 years of celebration of Georgetown Law.
For the first time, the conversation was held physically at the Georgetown University Law Center on Monday. This year’s event has been co-hosted by The Society for Democratic Rights (SDR), New Delhi and the Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DC.
CJI Chandrachud, along with Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Stephen Breyer (Retd), attended the historic event as esteemed guests. They spoke on ‘Perspectives From The Supreme Courts Of India And The United States’.
The CJI said by giving people the platform, courts were performing a vital function and that is why people were increasingly coming for voicing aspirations and to bring about change.
He said the judiciary was as much the institution of governance as they were bound by the separation of power, but still there were areas where people came to vent to their expressions in areas, such as climate change, human rights and social welfare.
He said the courts were the stabilising effect where the winds of change were working rather fast because thunderstorms were approaching and there were clouds across global societies.
These interconnected societies ensured that the courts did not live like the nation was in silos. Courts had a vital role to play in steadying the ship when so much was happening all around in the societies, he added.
Defending his recent verdict in the marriage equality case, the CJI said he stood by what he said in his minority opinion. He said often judgements given on issues of constitutional importance were a vote of ‘conscience’.
The CJI said generally speaking, Chief Justices have not been in the minority. There were 13 significant cases in the history of the country, where the Chief Justices have been in minority.