Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on November 26 said it is the solemn duty of the current generation to keep afloat the idea of India powered by a Constitution based on the principles of individual liberty, equality, and fraternity.
“When we say today ‘we honour the adoption of the Constitution’, first and foremost, we honour the fact that the Constitution ‘exists’ and that the Constitution ‘works’,” the Chief Justice said in his address at the Supreme Court during the Constitution Day celebrations.
The Chief Justice’s words are significant as both the Constitution and the Supreme Court are entering the 75th year of their adoption and founding, respectively.
“This moment allows us to reflect on the journey of the past, while also envisaging our dreams and expectations for the future,” Chief Justice Chandrachud said.
The Chief Justice said the common man should not fear approaching courts. The courts are an extension of constitutional governance. For the past seven decades, the Supreme Court has acted as a “people’s court”. Thousands of citizens have approached its door with the faith that they will get justice through this institution, the Chief Justice said.
“Citizens came to the court to seek protection of their personal liberty, accountability against unlawful arrest, protection of rights of bonded labourers, asking for guidelines to prevent sexual harassment at workplace, prevention of social evils such as manual scavenging, even hoping for interference to get clean air, food security, and so many more instances that cannot be summarised in few minutes. These cases are not just citations or statistics for the court. These cases resemble the expectations of the people from the Supreme Court, as well as the court’s own commitment to deliver justice to the citizens,” Chief Justice Chandrachud said.
Citizens, no matter who they are or where they come from, can simply write to the Chief Justice of India to set into motion the constitutional machinery of the Supreme Court to get justice. In this way, the Supreme Court of India was unique.
The Chief Justice said the focus of the court has been on making its work accessible to all free of cost.
Besides live-streaming proceedings so that citizens know what is happening inside courtrooms, the Chief Justice said 36,068 of its judgments, as of November 25, 2023, are available for free on e-Supreme Court Reports (e-SCR) platform of the court.
Launching e-SCR (Hindi), the CJI said 21,388 judgments have been translated into Hindi, vetted, and uploaded on the e-SCR portal. Besides, 9,276 judgments have been translated into other Indian languages, including Punjabi, Tamil, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Odia, Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada, Assamese, Nepali, Urdu, Garo, Khasi, and Konkani. These judgments have also been uploaded to the e-SCR portal.
