CJI Chandrachud underlines ‘Constitutional Morality’ as means to preserve India’s diversity

CJI Chandrachud emphasizes Constitutional Morality, diversity, and technology in Indian judiciary at National Judicial Academy conference.

Espousing the importance of implementing ‘Constitutional Morality’ in Indian jurisprudence, Chief Justice of India D. Y. Chandrachud on June 29 insisted on the commitment of courts to ensure diversity, inclusion and tolerance.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day East Zone II Regional Conference of the National Judicial Academy, the CJI also focussed on the importance of technological advancements in the justice delivery system.

CJI Chandrachud elaborated on the notion of ‘Constitutional Morality’ as a restraining factor on the State that should derive from the Preambular values of the Constitution.

Underlining the country’s federal structure that’s “marked by a great deal of diversity”, the CJI focussed on the role of judges in “preserving the diversity of India”.

“I am reticent when people call courts a temple of justice. Because that would mean the judges are deities which they are not. They are instead servers of the people, who deliver justice with compassion and empathy,” CJI Chandrachud said at the conference titled ‘Contemporary Judicial Developments and Strengthening Justice Through Law and Technology’.

Calling judges “servants and not masters of the Constitution”, the CJI warned the judiciary of the pitfalls of personal values and belief systems of judges interfering with judgments that are opposed to values enshrined in the Constitution.

“We could be masters of Constitutional interpretation, but a just society is established with the court’s vision of Constitutional Morality,” he said.