Calling to ensure equal opportunities for women and marginalised communities in the legal profession, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Saturday backed Tamil Nadu's proposals for regional benches, Tamil as an official High Court language, and inclusive appointment of judges. The CJI said the SC has been making all possible efforts to make court proceedings accessible for all lawyers outside Delhi through a hybrid system that lets lawyers appear from anywhere. He said the hybrid system has been a success in ensuring access of case proceedings for lawyers from even smaller towns. "The SC of India is not SC of Talk Marg but the SC of all of India,” he said. “Lawyers can now appear virtually from anywhere — from Melur or Virudhunagar. We have also started live-streaming of all constituent bench cases for Law students sitting far away. Many Law students of Tamil Nadu may be unable to pursue internships in Delhi due to many reasons, including economic capacity. Access to court proceedings will substantially bridge the opportunity, barriers.” Citing the "abysmal" women-to-men ratio in the legal profession, CJI Chandrachud said, "Statistics inform us that for 50,000 male enrolments in Tamil Nadu, there are only 5,000 female enrolments.. The legal profession is not an equal-opportunity provider for women, and the statistics are the same all over the country. “The phase is changing. In the recent recruitment in the district judiciary, over 50 percent are women. But we have to create equal opportunities for women so that they do not fall by the wayside because.they undertake multifold responsibilities as they progress in life." Addressing the issue of inclusivity in appointment of judges, the CJI mentioned the efforts of the Collegium to ensure representation for marginalised communities, including women and backward communities. The CJI was speaking at an event to lay foundation stone for additional court buildings in the district court campus in Madurai and inauguration of the District and Sessions Court and Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Mayiladuthurai. Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, Justice V Ramasubramanian of the Supreme Court also spoke at the event. Beginning his speech by admiring the Tamil Nadu government for taking several steps in improving court infrastructure, the CJI spoke about the poor infrastructure of many courtrooms, including insufficient ventilation and inadequate facilities for judges, litigants, and lawyers in many states. Urging administrations to address these issues, he said some 2.62 crore cases were heard by high courts and lower courts through video-conferencing since the pandemic began. Between March 23, 2020 and February 13, 2023, the Supreme Court heard 4.13 lakh cases through video-conferences, he said, emphasising that technology could help bridge the gap between citizens and the justice system. Touching upon Stalin's demand to use Tamil as an official language in Madras HC, the CJI noted that a Constitutional amendment might be necessary but acknowledged the language barrier and potential opportunities for young lawyers. "English is not our first language. We think and formulate our thoughts in our mother tongue,” he said. “However, I implore all lawyers who faces difficulty in communicating in English not to be demotivated. I request judges of Madras HC to be encouraging to the young juniors and not let language barriers affect their effective representation.” The CJI urged senior lawyers to trust and support young talent and appealed the lawyer community to engage in dialogue before resorting to strike. While preserving language and heritage, he also reminded them to learn to unlearn social biases. He also called for increased entry-level pay for lawyers and the establishment of crèche facilities in courts across the country. CJI Chandrachud spoke on the ongoing project to use artificial intelligence (AI) to translate Supreme Court orders into Tamil and other official Indian languages. Although the project is still in its infancy, he urged the state government to join this mission and make translated judgments available to everyone across the state. He said digitising judgments was one of the tasks he had taken up after taking charge as CJI "to make them available to anyone in the world." He said: “IIT Madras provided an Artificial Intelligence-based programme to translate our judgements. But AI needs human verification, so HCs are told to constitute a panel of retired judges to do this verification.. Some 4,428 judgements are currently being translated.” he also urged the Tamil Nadu government to take it up as a “joint mission to reach out to everyone”. "All judgments of HC should be translated to all regional languages in India,” he said. “Our judgement search portal has 1.11 crore judgments of HC, all available free of charge. Out of these, 8 lakh are from Madras HC. I ask the Chief Justice (of Madras HC) here to take the project to translate them into Tamil, to make it available for everyone across Tamil Nadu," he said, adding that those translated judgements should be made available for police stations, education, revenue departments, collectors, tahasildars and even for police academies.
