Judges hardly get time to think or read about the law: Chief Justice

Mumbai: Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that judges’ work burden increases in volume as they rise in the judiciary having no time to think or read about law, NDTV reported citing PTI.

Justice DY Chandrachud was addressing the inaugural Loksatta Annual Lecture in Mumbai yesterday when he stressed about the work burden saying that judges are expected to dispose of cases like machines.

‘Our judges are not gallivanting or goofing up even in vacation, they are deeply committed to the work they do,’ he was quoted as saying.

Pointing out that orders they pass would define the country for decades, CJI asked “Do we give our judges sufficient time to think or read about the law or do you just want them to be merely a mechanical machine in the disposal of cases’.

It is highlighted that cases are pending across lower courts, high courts and the Supreme Courts owing to reasons including lack of adequate number of judges and infrastructure issues.

Referring to the Collegium system, the Chief Justice said that every institution can be improved but sought not to conclude that there was something fundamentally wrong with it.

The Chief Justice termed Collegium system a federal system with responsibility being given to different levels of governments including the Centre, the states and the Judiciary.

‘The fact that these institutions have stood the test of time for over the last 75 years is a reason for us to trust our system of democratic governance of which judiciary is a part,’ he was quoted as saying.

The Chief Justice pointed out that it is easy to criticise the institution, adding that ‘But the very fact that there are institutional improvements, which are possible, should not lead us to a conclusion that there is something fundamentally wrong with the institution’.