'We live in an age where people are low on patience and tolerance', says CJI Chandrachud

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud

Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud on March 3 remarked that “we live in an age where people are low on patience and tolerance”.

The CJI made the statement while speaking about the effects of social media on society. He said that people are not willing to accept perspectives which are different from their own. He further noted that something which is said as a passing remark germinated into a theory which cannot be tested rationally.

While COVID might have pushed the human race to its edge, it also presented an opportunity to ‘internationalise ideas’. “This is truly something which holds hope for us as we emerge from darkness cast on us in 2020-2021,” the CJI observed.

Speaking of what the Supreme Court of India represents, the CJI has said "the Supreme Court is not just the Supreme Court of Tilak Marg in New Delhi but it represents the aspirations of citizens in the smallest villages".

The CJI elaborated on the electronic filing of cases in the Supreme Court, virtual hearings and the new e-Supreme Court Reports (e-SCR) project, which has digitised close to 34,000 judgments of the court from 1950 onwards.

“What better way to reach out to our citizens than to use technology to take justice to citizens,” he stated.

Speaking about the live-streaming of Constitution Bench cases of the court on YouTube, CJI said, “It is intended to show citizens that the Supreme Court is accessible to them.”

The CJI said that the current lot of judges in the higher judiciary are a reflection of the state of the legal profession at the beginning of the millennium.

He noted that unless there was a level playing field for women to enter the profession and thrive from 2000 to 2022, there is no way by which there will be more women judges in the Supreme Court in 2023.

The CJI observed that while there are many benefits to globalisation, there is a section of people who are discontent with it. “There is a rise of inequality across the world. Share of the increased pie due to globalisation consumed by lower half was much less than share consumed by a quarter of the community,” Justice Chandrachud said.

The CJI was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of American Bar Association’s India conference on the topic “Law in the Age of Glocalisation: Covergence of India & the West.”