Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI:Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant has called for a collective effort by the Bench, Bar, Government and litigants to reduce delays and costs that quietly erode the dignity of ordinary litigants.
“Our justice system may be likened to a chariot. The Bench, the Bar, the Administration, and the Citizen are its four wheels. If even one refuses to move, the journey halts,” the CJI made the observation in his keynote address at a symposium in Cuttack on December 14 organised by the Orissa High Court Bar Association on the theme, “Ensuring Justice for the Common Man: Strategies for Reducing Litigation Costs and Delays.” Ensuring justice for the common citizen was the foremost moral imperative guiding judicial reform, he said and added that technology should amplify human judgment and not replace it.
“Pendency of cases in courts clogs every level of the judicial structure, from the trial court to the constitutional court. And when a blockage occurs at the top, the pressure only intensifies below,” he said.
He also stressed the need to strengthen judicial infrastructure to reduce pendency. “This is because without sufficient courts, even the most sincere judicial system will collapse under logistical strain,” he said.
The CJI noted that the Supreme Court was actively working to conclusively dispose long-pending matters, particularly those involving settled or repetitive legal issues. Bringing closure to such cases, he explained, would reduce uncertainty and help get to proceedings that have remained stalled for years in trial courts across the country.
The CJI said technology was very useful during the COVID pandemic. He, however, said that one cannot afford to forget that technology comes with its own shadows.
“In an age of deep fakes and digital arrests, courts cannot afford naive optimism… A reform that excludes the poor, elderly, or digitally unfamiliar is not reform at all, it is regression. That is why I have always maintained that technology must remain a servant of justice, not its substitute. It should amplify human judgment, not replace it,” the CJI said.
Among others, Orissa High Court Chief Justice Harish Tandon, and judges from high courts across India attended the event, which was also joined by Advocate General Pitambar Acharya.
