PANAJI: Justice is a "living institution" that must balance continuity with change, and law should neither resist transformation nor embrace novelty without reflection, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said on Sunday.
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The law that refuses to engage with change does not remain pure, while the law that embraces every novelty without reflection also risks losing its moral centre, he said.
Addressing the concluding function of the two-day SCAORA International Legal Conference here, the CJI asserted that every legal system is an inheritance received by centuries of struggle, debate, compromise, and moral courage.
The question that will always be is how can justice remain faithful to itself in a world that refuses to stand still, he asserted.
"It is this shared enquiry that leads me to the theme of justice as a living institution saved by time, tested by change and sustained by the collective discipline of those who serve it," he said.
"Every legal system is an inheritance and none of us gathered here today invented the courts we are practising in, the procedure we rely upon or the principles we invoke with such familiarity. We all received them by centuries of struggle, debate, compromise, and moral courage. The inheritance confers privilege but then it also imposes restraint and responsibilities," he said.
It reminds all that we are not owners of the institution of justice but just temporary custodians, he said.
Asserting that a living institution is not a museum piece but is survived by preserving its purpose, the CJI said, "The law that refuses to engage with change does not remain pure, while the law that embraces every novelty without reflection also risks losing its moral centre," he said.
The CJI pointed out that this delicate balance between continuity and adaptation has surfaced in different essence across nearly every conversation at the SCAORA International Legal Conference, be it the discussion concerning technology's growing presence in the courtroom, the rise of cross-border commercial disputes or the ethical challenges caused by social media and instant commentary.
"The underlined tension remains the same - how to adapt without eroding trust. The trick in my opinion lies in being candid," he said.
The CJI said various pressures being faced by justice systems today are neither imaginary nor exaggerated, though he emphasised he was not talking of any (pressure) on the autonomy or independence of the judiciary as people sometimes misconceive.
On that score (autonomy or independence of the judiciary), there is neither compromise nor is it a cause of concern, the CJI stressed.
The CJI said the pressures he was referring to are of an entirely different kind.
"Those pressures are that the courts are expected to be faster, yet more careful, more accessible yet more restrained. Technology promises efficiency but it also introduces a new type of power and new risk to the fairness. Globalisation invites comparative learning while local realities demand deep contextual sensitivity. I point to these perceived threats precisely to argue the opposite," he said.
These are not dangers from which the institution must retreat as they are, in reality, stress tests that do not merely expose points of vulnerability but rather reveal reserves of resilience provided institutions are willing to respond with imagination rather than just on the basis of knee jerk reactions, the CJI opined.
"The living institution is not one that escapes pressure. It is one that absorbs pressure without losing shape," he said.
Speaking about the conference, the CJI said what must have struck all participants is not the anxiety about change but a shared insistence that the core values of justice, namely fairness, independence, dignity and reason, must guide how that change is managed.
"Technology, for instance, can reduce distance, simplify access and democratise information, but it can never replace judgment. AI may assist, but it cannot waive human sufferings that are informed. The task, therefore, is not to resist technology nor to surrender to it, but to discipline it, so that innovation remains the servant of justice and never its master," the CJI said.
Justice AHM Dilip Nawas of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka and Bombay High Court Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar were present on the occasion.