'A Judge Must Not Become Judgemental'

He studied economics at St Stephen’s College and became the subject topper at Delhi University. His next stop was not the Civil Services, but law, a subject that had fascinated him as a child. After all, his father, Justice Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud, was the 16th Chief Justice of India and the country’s longest-serving CJI. In a free-wheeling chat with TOI’s Dhananjay Mahapatra, Justice D Y Chandrachud, who took over as the country’s 50th CJI on Wednesday, spoke about the different influences on his life from what his father taught him to how their domestic help when he was growing up made him a staunch protector of rights, especially women’s rights. He also outlined the changes he plans to bring about in the next two years. Excerpts:

What are your priorities as CJI?

After struggling to keep all the courts functional during the pandemic, I am hoping to use this term to engage in some long-term institutional planning and capacity building. At the high courts, we have a sanctioned strength of 1,108 judges, of which about 30% are vacant. We are functioning at sub-optimal capacity and if we wish to tackle pendency head-on, we will have to fill up our sanctioned strength on a war-footing. Vacancies have gradually been reducing. Hopefully, you will see a much steeper decline in the coming couple of years.

What are your plans to speed up the justice delivery system?

Our mission is to ensure that the colonial model of justice where people have to seek out justice is replaced by a justice delivery model where the justice system reaches out to citizens at the grassroots level. The focus will be on accessible infrastructure and infusion of litigant-, lawyer- and judgefriendly technology. As e-Committee chairperson, my endeavour is to ensure that court services reach every individual, even those who do not have access to technology. The e-Committee has been working to provide services at the gram panchayat level though common service centres.

Use of technology can be optimised only if there is a change in mindset. I invite all judges, including those in the HCs and the district judiciary level, to lead by example. The physical infrastructure must be strengthened across the district judiciary to optimise functioning of courts and make them more accessible and litigant-friendly, including for those with disabilities.

There is a perception that the constitutional court judgeship is confined to a few where the lineage counts. Your views.