Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant has said that high courts must function as vigilant constitutional courts that actively respond to systemic failures in the rule of law, instead of waiting for individual litigants to seek relief.
Speaking at the Fali Nariman memorial lecture at Mumbai University, the CJI said, “Justice delayed is not only justice denied, but it is justice destroyed.” He urged high courts to view access to justice as a state-guaranteed service rather than a passive entitlement.
The high courts should go beyond their traditional appellate or revisional roles and function as accessible forums for constitutional remedies, he said.
“The high court’s power to grant interim relief under Article 226 is the hallmark of the court’s protective jurisdiction to intervene at the threshold, ensuring that the status quo is preserved so that justice is not defeated by fait accompli of administrative haste,” Justice Kant said.
“While the Supreme Court may have the final word, the high court often has the most vital one,” the CJI said. Placing Article 226 in historical context, the CJI said India’s constitutional design must be read against its colonial past, when laws were used to suppress liberty. This, he said, reinforced the lesson that rights without effective remedies are hollow—a realisation that shaped the broad remedial reach of the provision.
The power of courts to act suo motu (on their own), exercised with restraint, further strengthens the high courts’ role in delivering substantive justice, he added.
The CJI further said that the evolution of public interest litigation marked a moral shift in constitutional adjudication, allowing public-spirited individuals and organisations to approach high courts on behalf of those silenced by poverty, illiteracy or marginalisation. The power of courts to act suo motu (on their own), exercised with restraint, further strengthens the high courts’ role in delivering substantive justice, he added.
“When the law is silent, the sentinel does not remain mute,” he said, citing judicial interventions to protect the environment, uphold the dignity of prisoners, and secure the rights of migrant workers during national crises.