All courts must be open for public viewership, says SC judge Chandrachud

The book by Professor Gupta titled “My Journey With Law and Justice”, was virtually released in the presence of Justice DY Chandrachud (Judge, Supreme Court of India); Justice Surya Kant (Judge, Supreme Court of India); Justice Ravi Shanker Jha (Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court); Justice Amol Rattan Singh (Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court and President BoG, Chandigarh Judicial Academy); Justice Madan B Lokur (former Judge, Supreme Court of India, and Judge, Supreme Court of Fiji), Professor (Dr) Upendra Baxi (Professor Emeritus), among others.

Speaking on the occasion, while referring to an essay titled Judicial Culture in the book of Dr Gupta, Justice Chandrachud said that Professor Balram Gupta states that an open court system strengthens judicial culture, introduces discipline and ensures the rule of law.

He said that in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have been struggling to keep our systems open consistent with the fundamental norm of open justice on which all democratic societies ought to be founded.

‘…I fully endorse the views of Professor Balram Gupta. A judge is to be judged not only by the number of judgements delivered and the rate of disposals but also by the conduct within the walls of the court room…justice seems to be done only when judicial proceedings are open for public viewership. This not only provides legitimacy to judicial institutions but also furthers democratic principles or accountability…,” Justice Chandrachud said.

He further added that in various countries across the globe, including in India, the performance of a judge is periodically evaluated by using both qualitative and quantitative parameters. These indicators include the disposal rate of a judge, the quality of judgements and a variety of other factors, including the behaviour of the judge towards the lawyer during court proceedings. However, while data on the disposal rates and judgements are easily available in the public forum — including on the National Judicial Data Grid the behaviour of a judge in the courtroom is not easily ascertainable because of the lack of transparency in judicial proceedings. “Unless this important indicator of performance evaluation is publicly available, it would be difficult to evaluate the performance of a judge and would pose challenges to judicial accountability,” he said.

“…though legal journalism is on the rise, and reporting of judicial proceedings has gained traction almost by the minute if not by the second, it has its limitations unless you have followed the arguments by legal luminaries, such Nani Palkhivala and HM Seervai…I think it’s important that we must live stream and record proceedings in every Indian court…,” said Justice Chandrachud.