CJI Chandrachud underlines ‘Constitutional Morality’ as means to preserve India’s diversity
Kolkata (PTI): Espousing the importance of implementing ‘Constitutional Morality’ in Indian jurisprudence, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Saturday insisted on the commitment of courts to ensure diversity, inclusion and tolerance.
Speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day East Zone II Regional Conference of the National Judicial Academy, the CJI also focused on the importance of technological advancements in the justice delivery system.
CJI Chandrachud elaborated on the notion of ‘Constitutional Morality’ as a restraining factor on the state that should derive from the Preambluar values of the Constitution.
Underlining the country’s federal structure that’s “marked by a great deal of diversity”, the CJI focused on the role of judges in “preserving the diversity of India”.
“I am reticent when people call courts a temple of justice. Because that would mean the judges are deities which they are not. They are instead servers of the people, who deliver justice with compassion and empathy,” CJI Chandrachud said at the conference titled ‘Contemporary Judicial Developments and Strengthening Justice Through Law and Technology’.
Calling judges “servants and not masters of the Constitution”, the CJI warned the judiciary of the pitfalls of personal values and belief systems of judges interfering with judgments that are opposed to values enshrined in the Constitution.
“We could be masters of Constitutional interpretation, but a just society is established with the court’s vision of Constitutional Morality,” he said.
While speaking on the need for technological assistance in ensuring the effective delivery of justice to citizens, the CJI said, “The idea is to not modernise for the sake of modernisation. It is a step to aid something else we want to achieve.”
CJI Chandrachud spoke of AI-assisted software aiding the work-in-progress to translate the 37,000-odd Supreme Court judgments delivered since Independence from English into all Constitution-recognised regional languages.
Making available digitised formats of Supreme Court judgments free for all, decentralised access to courts to provide travel relief to litigants, using technology to create awareness of court procedures and categorisation of cases are also some of the technology-driven measures in aiding effective justice which the CJI spoke about.
Delivering a special address at the programme, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appealed to members of the judiciary to ensure that political bias should not interfere with the justice delivery system.
“Judiciary should be pure, honest and sacred. I believe that the judiciary is of, by and for the people. If the judiciary cannot deliver justice to people, who can? It’s the ultimate frontier for getting justice and the last recourse to save our country’s democracy and our Constitution,” Banerjee said.
Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court TS Sivagnanam was also present at the programme which was organised in collaboration with the Calcutta High Court and West Bengal Judicial Academy.
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NIA court to complete framing of charges against 2010 hand-chopping case accused on May 15
Kochi (PTI): A special court here will complete proceedings for framing charges against the prime accused in the 2010 hand-chopping case involving professor T J Joseph, in which PFI activists were accused of attacking him at Muvattupuzha.
Ernakulam Special Court for NIA cases judge P K Mohandas, on April 30, heard the arguments of counsel for accused Savad and Shafeer C and decided to proceed with framing charges against the duo.
A group chopped off Thodupuzha Newman College professor Joseph's right hand in July 2010, accusing him of religious blasphemy in a question paper he had prepared.
The case, later taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), resulted in the conviction of 19 accused.
The first accused, Savad, who allegedly chopped off Joseph’s palm, was arrested in Berram in Mattannur, Kannur, in January 2024, where he had allegedly been hiding under the pseudonym Shajahan.
The NIA also arrested Shafeer, who allegedly arranged shelter and provided logistical support to Savad at Chakkad and Mattannur in Kannur since 2020.
On April 30, the court heard the counsel for the accused and the NIA prosecutor on framing charges against the duo.
"On going through the documents and evidence in the case and on hearing the counsel for the accused and the prosecutor, I am of the opinion that there are grounds for presuming that the first accused has committed offences punishable under provisions of the IPC, the Explosive Substances Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and that the second accused has committed offences punishable under the IPC and the UAPA, and there are materials for framing charges under these provisions against the accused," the court said.
The court directed that Savad be produced and Shafeer, who is on bail, appear before it on May 15 for recording their pleas as part of the charge-framing process.
After framing the charges, the court will schedule the trial in the case.
