7,000 crore for E-courts in Union budget will enhance courts: CJI DY Chandrachud

Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud on Saturday said that in the recent budget, the Government of India has introduced a provision of Rs 7,000 crore for phase-3 of the e-courts project. This will help enhance the accessibility of judicial institutions and the efficiency of judicial systems in India. Such endeavour will ensure the court reaches every citizen of India.

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, on Saturday lauded the government's decision to allocate Rs 7,000 crore in the 2023-24 union budget for phase 3 of the e-courts project saying that it will enhance the judicial institutions and ensure that courts reach out to every citizen. CJI Chandrachud spoke at the 73rd anniversary of the Supreme Court's establishment. To commemorate the establishment it was decided to organize an annual lecture series for which Singapore's Chief Justice, Justice Sundresh Menon, was invited as the key speaker along with CJI DY Chandrachud.

CJI Chandrachud said that during the covid 19 pandemic, the top court adopted innovative techniques to reach out to people. Between 3rd March 2020 and 31st October 2022, it heard 3.37 lakh cases through video conferencing. He said that now the court has a hybrid system for hearings. "We updated our video conferencing infrastructure in courtrooms at meta scale. And, we are continuing to use such technological infrastructure to allow a hybrid mode of court hearings that allows parties to join court proceedings from any part of the world online," said CJI.

He said that the "history of the Supreme Court is the history of the daily life struggles of the Indian people". Talking about the daily mentioning of cases that happen every morning before the listed cases are heard, CJI said the court senses the pulse of the nation through these mentioning and it is an assurance that the court exists to protect citizens from injustice.

"Their liberties are as precious to us as the judges work in close connection with our citizens. For the court, there are no big or small cases, every matter is important. Because it is in the seemingly small and routine matters involving the grievances of citizens that issues of constitutional and jurisprudential importance emerge. In attending such grievances, the court performs a plain constitutional duty, obligation, and function," said CJI.

Speaking at the event, Chief Justice of Singapore, Sundresh Menon, said that the Supreme court of India is among the busiest courts in the world, and its justices are among the hardest working because of the immense caseload they carry.

CJ Menon said that global challenges are giving rise to new legal issues, the issues are first political but they eventually have legal dimensions. He said that with rising complex issues, the judiciary can not solely rely on traditional methods and will have to come up with new ways. He said that legal issues disregard boundaries as the world is more interconnected than ever before. He said that judges would need to be sensitive to foreign laws now and cooperate with foreign counterparts.

He also talked about how judges are targeted for the judgments often being accused of delivering their personal bias in judgments. He said that it diminishes the courts and undermines the judges' work.