Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud endorsed the rights of journalists to live report court proceedings.
Responding to a query regarding the pressures faced by judges due to social media comments, CJI said :"Social media is a reality.
Every remark which is said by a judge is conveyed on social media.
CJI said that he has always stood for enhancing transparency of the court proceedings.
He also acknowledged the contributions made by the technology in making the court proceedings smoother, simpler and more accessible.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud endorsed the rights of journalists to live report court proceedings. He said that every remark of judges is now reported on social media on a real-time basis. This type of reporting need not be and cannot be stopped, he said.
CJI made these comments while participating in a Q&A session at the Oxford Union earlier this month. Responding to a query regarding the pressures faced by judges due to social media comments, CJI said :
"Social media is a reality. In our courts today, we have live-tweeting by minute. Every remark which is said by a judge is conveyed on social media. That is something we need not stop and we cannot stop."
CJI agreed that at times judges receive harsh and unwarranted criticism on social media; some of such comments are based on wrong information or misinterpretations. However, he said that the judges are broad-minded enough to ignore such comments.
"Obviously, we are at the receiving end on some occasions. Sometimes the criticism is fair, sometimes the criticism is not fair. But I do believe, as judges, our shoulders are broad enough to accept the critique which people have of the work we do.
Yes, in social media there is a problem. Because every citizen on social media is a journalist with a view. And very often, we (judges) are at the receiving end. And very often we see comments about what we have not said.
But is it (social media) in our control? We are living in a society where so much lies beyond our control. I always believe that the power of good prevails over the power of evil."
CJI said that he has always stood for enhancing transparency of the court proceedings. This would make the Courts more accessible and intelligible to the common public who can watch and assess the performance of the judges.
"The Court is involved in a dialogue, not only with the litigating parties but a dialogue with the wider civil society. That is one of the reasons why we decided to live-stream important constitutional cases. As Chief Justice of India, it has been my firm conviction that we need to take the process of justicing to the homes and the hearts of the people. People must understand the smallest of issues that come to the Court attract the most serious of the application of mind."
He also acknowledged the contributions made by the technology in making the court proceedings smoother, simpler and more accessible. He spoke at length about the expansion of the virtual courts system, e-filing, paper less courts. Artificial Intelligence is being used to translate judgments to regional languages and to categorize and club similar cases.
"Therefore, notwithstanding the flip sides of technology and notwithstanding the sometimes unwarranted criticism of judges, overall, technology allows us to reach out to people and explain to them the seriousness with which we attend to the problems of the common people."
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