CJI Chandrachud said- ‘Judicial independence does not always mean anti-government stance

#News Bureau November 5,2024

Current Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that the independence of the judiciary does not mean always giving a verdict against the government. On Monday evening at Express Adda, DY Chandrachud stressed the importance of impartiality within the judicial system and urged the public to trust the judges in their decisions.

On the issue of courts not granting bail in many cases, CJI Chandrachud said that for him as CJI “this has been a matter of grave concern. Because I had said that bail is the rule rather than the exception, that message has not reached the trial courts. They are still reluctant to grant bail.” The CJI said- I have always said that I have granted bail from A to Z – from Arnab to Zubair. This is my philosophy. The CJI also said that during his two-year tenure, 21,000 bail cases were filed in the apex court, while 21,358 bail cases were disposed of.

Then he clarified
On a question at Express Adda, the CJI reiterated that “the Prime Minister came to my house for a purely private event, it was not a public event. Well, I think that, you know, there was nothing wrong in it, the simple reason is that these are meetings, there is dialogue, between the judiciary and the executive, even at the social level.”

At the event, Chandrachud remarked that when he invalidated the electoral bond scheme and ruled against the central government, he was called “very independent”. “When you take a decision on electoral bonds, you are very independent, but if the decision goes in favour of the government, you are not independent… But this is not my definition of independence,” the Chief Justice said.

The Supreme Court declared the electoral bond scheme unconstitutional on February 15, 2024, effectively ending a controversial political funding method. The BJP-led central government had faced criticism since it launched it in 2018. It was considered a direct bribe to political parties. The BJP benefited the most from this, which received donations from many companies and people. This also included companies against which ED, Income Tax, CBI were investigating or cases were registered.

The Chief Justice said at Monday’s event that the traditional idea of ​​judicial independence requires separation from executive power. The traditional idea is that the judiciary plays an important role in maintaining democratic integrity. Therefore, the judiciary should be independent.

He claimed – “Independence of the judiciary still means independence from the government. But this is not the only thing in the context of judicial independence. Our society has changed. Especially with the advent of social media… interest groups, pressure groups and other groups who use electronic media to put pressure on the courts to get a decision in their favor. “

He said that many groups consider the judiciary to be independent only when the judges give decisions in their favour. If you do not decide in my favour, then you are not independent, that is what I object to. To be independent, a judge should have the freedom to decide what his conscience tells him. Of course that conscience should be guided by the law and the Constitution.