Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 14: National Judicial Academy, Bhopal in collaboration with High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and J&K State Judicial Academy organized two days North Zone Regional Conference on “Enhancing the Excellence of Judicial Institutions: Challenges and Opportunities” at SKICC here.
Several Judges of the Supreme Court including Justice Madan B Lokur, Justice Navin Sinha, Justice Deepak Gupta and B S Chauhan, Chairman, Law Commission of India, Justice S Muralidhar, Judge, Delhi High Court were the resource persons of the conference.
There were six marathon sessions on “Importance of Ethics, Integrity and Discipline”, “Strengthening Internal Vigilance Mechanism”, “Impact of Media on Public Perception regarding Vitality of Justice Delivery”, “Relationship between High Court and District Judiciary”, “Social Context Judging (SCJ) as Principal for Exercise of Discretion and Application of SCJ in given case studies” and “E-Justice: Re-engineering the Judicial Process through effective use of ICT”.
The resource persons emphasized upon the participating judges that judging is not a profession but a way of life. “A judge trying a case is himself on trial as he always remains under public gaze. Thus judges have to live and behave like hermits, who have no desire or aspiration, having shed it through penance”, they added.
“The judiciary is independent in the sense that it is not answerable to anyone. This does not give it a license to function arbitrarily. The judiciary is as much subject to rule of law as anyone else. Five causes destroy impartiality and leads to judges taking sides in disputes, these are, attachment, greed, fear, enmity and hearing a party in private”, they further said.
The role of the Judicial Magistrates at the time of granting remand, the provisions relating to free and competent legal services, role of mediation in settling the disputes, Food Security Act, preference to be given to the cases of women, children, disabled and senior citizens and the role of the judge to ensure social justice and access to justice were also debated.
While discussing the importance of ethics, integrity and discipline, it was stressed that the judge must be even-handed, his approach must be consistent irrespective of the fact as to who is before him in the dock. He cannot act on pre-conceived notions, the resource persons said.
Judges of High Court of Punjab and Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, Directors of State Judicial Academies of North Region and Civil Judges (Jr. Division) of High Court of Punjab and Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand participated in the conference and shared their experiences on social context judging and social justice.
There were interactive and brainstorming sessions in which participants raised important issues concerning importance of ethics, integrity and discipline and impact of media on public perception regarding vitality of justice delivery and e-justice.
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