CJI: Collegium prepared a broad platform assessing top 50 judges of country for Supreme Court

The Chief Justice said his focus is also on reducing barriers to accessing the courts, easing the process of filling and arguing before the court. Reports ETV Bharat's Sumit Saxena

New Delhi:Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud Friday emphasized that it would be wrong to say that the apex court collegium has no factual data to evaluate candidates considered for appointment as judges to the apex court and high courts.

The Chief Justice, while delivering the 'Ram Jethmalani Memorial Lecture' here, said the collegium has prepared a broad platform where it has assessed the top 50 judges of the country for consideration as apex court judges. The Chief Justice said the aim is to lay down objective parameters for the selection of judges for the apex court and the high courts.

He stressed that his goal has been to institutionalise courts and move away from an ad hoc model of operation. The Chief Justice said, “My first goal as the Chief Justice of India was to institutionalise the Courts and move away from an ad-hoc model of operation. One of the important effects of institutionalising courts is that it enhances transparency and accountability. While these are very important effects of institutionalisation, we should also not forget the human side of the story”.

The Chief Justice said his focus is also on reducing barriers to accessing the courts, easing the process of filling and arguing before the court. “My focus is on improving the gender ratio of lawyers. My focus is on ensuring that lawyers and litigants have facilities to comfortably rest while in court. It is only with such a holistic approach that the quality of justice delivery could be enhanced in every sense of the word”, he added.

He said one of the primary requirements for institutionalising the court system is to identify the issues that hamper our efficiency and curate remedies to address such issues. "An able team of judges, lawyers and researchers working at the Centre for Research and Planning are assisting the courts with this work. Their work is invaluable particularly because of the lack of research and data on the functioning of the courts in India", he added.