Blitz Bureau
CHIEF Justice of India DY Chandrachud has said that meetings between heads of judiciary and executive are never to discuss judicial work being done by judges but for administrative or social purposes, according to Bar and Bench.
The CJI said that such meetings are necessary because the state governments pass the budget for the judiciary. He said that when the judiciary and the executive engage, it creates a perception that deals are being made and emphasised that these interactions are only part of robust dialogue between different arms of government.
“People think there are deals being made, but that is not the case. This is part of the robust dialogue between different arms of the government. The work of all three arms is dedicated to the betterment of the nation. The dialogue is not about the work we do as judges—not at all—because there, we are completely independent. But there is an intersection between the administrative work of the judiciary and that of the executive,” the CJI stated.
He emphasised that there is a tradition that head of the government of State or Union is always in a consultative process with the head of the Judiciary of State or Supreme Court. CJI Chandrachud made the statements as part of the Loksatta Lecture at Mumbai University on October 26.
The CJI further explained that during his tenure as Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court and as a member of the administrative committee in Maharashtra, it was customary for the Chief Minister to visit the residence of the Chief Justice, and vice versa.
“There are agendas set for such meetings that these are infrastructure or IT projects and how can it be funded and the executive then says these are the projects of priority. Would not we interact with each other for this? When such meetings happen there is great deal of maturity in the political system because during the course of such meetings, never, in my experience, I was a CJ of Allahabad High court and the Lucknow bench building construction etc. were discussed,” said the CJI while answering a question on controversy relating Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending Ganesh puja at the CJI’s residence.
