A judge never writes a judgment to please or displease anybody, says former Chief Justice Chandrachud

Justice Chandrachud discusses the role of judges, gender equality in law, and challenges in judicial appointments at a law conclave.

A judge never writes a judgment to please or displease anybody, and decides a particular case based on where the balance of law and justice lies, said Justice D.Y. Chandrachud (retd), former Chief Justice of India. He was speaking at ‘Justice Unplugged: Shaping the Future of Law’, a law conclave organised by the VIT School of Law, VIT Chennai, in association with The Hindu in Chennai on Saturday.

During a conversation with Mohamed Imranullah S., Deputy Editor, The Hindu, Justice Chandrachud said a judge can never be regarded as a left-leaning or a right-leaning or a centre-leaning judge. “You decide each case based on the merits of that particular case. You write true to your own conscience and to the call of constitutional conscience. People are entitled to critique what you write. And that is what democracy and free speech are all about.” He was responding to a question on criticism of some of the judgments pronounced by him.

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To a question on social justice and inclusivity in appointment of judges, he said, “It is a very valid concern when we talk about High Courts and the Supreme Court. The fascinating part about the evolving nature of India as a nation is the fact that over 50% of those entering the judiciary at the lowest levels are women, which suggests two things. When women are given a level playing field and an equal opportunity, they are doing much better than the men. By and large, 50% of the inflow into the first year of LLB class in law schools are women. Now that more and more women are entering law schools, the question is how do we ensure that these women don’t fall by the wayside in the profession because all said and done the legal profession, even today, is terribly patriarchal.”

He said: “Things are changing now as we find more and more women being extremely successful as lawyers. There are a lot of things which institutions can do as well. Judges are not just adjudicators but also institution builders. We need to make a conscious effort to allow for women to have more positions of responsibility in the legal profession.”

Responding to a question on assessment of the work of judges of the High Courts in light of the increasing pendency of cases, Justice Chandrachud said the nature of assessment should not be solely based on volume – the number of cases that a particular judge disposes of. The nature of the assessment must also factor in the quality of the work that the judge is doing. “It is important for us to have some assessment of the quality of work which is done by judges without impinging on the independence of the court,” he added.

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