CJI calls Goa fire deaths ‘tragedy for the entire nation’

A fire at the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub in North Goa’s Arpora on December 6 killed 25 people, including five tourists.

At the gathering, the CJI said drug use is a reality that unfolds quietly in ordinary lives.

“It enters homes without warning, often without immediate consequence, and reveals its damage only after it has taken firm root. Moreover, in its early stages, it is rarely driven by malice. It may begin… with curiosity, experimentation, peer influence or the belief that one can step away at will, but addiction is rarely contained. What starts as a private act soon exerts a public cost on families, on education, on livelihoods, and ultimately on the institutions that hold our society together,” he said.

The CJI said substance abuse cannot be addressed through isolated responses and demands a collective effort, involving families, educators, health professionals, communities and institutions working in coordination. “Within this larger framework, the law has a role to play, but it is not the only choice or the voice, nor should it be the first response in every case.”

He said the legal system in the country has long acknowledged that “justice is not served by punishment alone, particularly where human frailty, youth and social vulnerability are involved”.

“…especially in matters concerning addiction, [it] has therefore evolved with a conscious reformatory orientation, one that seeks not only to ensure wrongdoing and censor it very strongly, but to prevent its repetition and restore individuals to the social mainstream where possible.”

The CJI said the legal framework draws a clear and deliberate distinction between those who traffic in narcotics, organise supply chains and profit from human vulnerability.

“These are not victims of circumstances. They are perpetrators of serious harm. For such actors, the law must speak thoroughly, decisively and without hesitation. Society cannot afford ambiguity when faced with organised exploitation, but the law’s response must be different when it encounters a first-time user, a student or a young adult struggling with dependency,” CJI Surya Kant said.

In such cases, the central question is no longer only one of culpability.
“It becomes a question of recovery. Punishment, by itself, cannot be the end. Justice must ask whether it is merely closing a case or preserving a future that might otherwise be lost. This approach is not leniency, it is realism,” the CJI said.

He said addiction can only be confronted through a calibrated balance of deterrence, treatment and social reintegration. “This is precisely where institutions beyond the courtroom become indispensable,” he said.

Earlier Friday, speaking at the inaugural session of the Bar Council of India’s National Conference and Symposium on Mediation in South Goa, the CJI outlined a vision for India’s courts to evolve into “multi-door courthouses”, where courts function as comprehensive centres for dispute resolution rather than merely venues for trials.

“As we look forward towards the horizon, I envision a transition towards the multi-door courthouse. What I mean to say when I am using this expression of multi-door courthouse… this is a visionary concept where the court ceases to be a singular venue for trial; rather, it becomes a comprehensive centre for dispute resolution,” he said.

When a seeker of justice approaches our institutions, they should not be reflexively funnelled into the adversarial gauntlet, he said.

“Instead, they must find an array of doors, and those doors are mediation, arbitration, and eventually, ultimately, it can be litigation also, if tailored to the specific nature of their grievances,” he said.

The CJI said it must be acknowledged that some cases cannot be resolved through arbitration or mediation. “The judicial system is and will always remain prepared to provide a fair litigation trial to adjudicate those disputes. This is the ultimate empowerment of the litigant, ensuring that the method of resolution is as nuanced and varied as the dispute itself,” he said.

He added that mediation is not a sign of the law’s weakness, but its highest evolution. “That was one question probably somebody in the morning was asking… that, are we adopting mediation only because the courts are overburdened and [because] there is a lot of pendency in the courts? No, it’s not. Mediation is not a sign of the law’s weakness, but rather, mediation is the highest evolution. It is the true transition from a culture of adjudication, where we merely manage conflicts. Rather, we are shifting to a culture of participation, where we actively cultivate harmony,” he said.