CJI VOWS TRANSPARENT DELIVERY OF JUSTICE; MINISTER GIVES AWAY WILL OF STEEL AWARDS

Programme hosted by Sunday Guardian Foundation and Mahesh Jethmalani to mark Ram Jethmalani's birth centenary.

- RAHUL CHHABRA

Replacing an ad-hoc system with an institutionalised court set-up is the best strategy for enhancing transparency and accountability, said Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud at the "Ram Jethmalani Memorial Lecture", hosted here by the Sunday Guardian Foundation and noted lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani to mark the birth centenary year of the doyen of jurisprudence experts. Ram Jethmalani was the founder of The Sunday Guardian.

The event, which saw the best of legal minds delving deep into issues of constitutional governance, also witnessed the distribution of the inaugural "Will of Steel Awards" by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal. The Ram Jethmalani Prize in Journalism in Service to Humanity was awarded to Aditya Raj Kaul, Executive Editor, TV9 Network. The award for legal journalism was given to Team Bar and Bench and the award for empowerment was given to Hina Rohtaki, special correspondent, Indian Express.

Earlier, CJI Chandrachud said in the 10 months of holding office he had realised that institutionalising courts improved transparency, accountability and humanised the workspace.

Indirectly responding to noted jurist Fali S. Nariman's recent criticism of the selection process of judges, CJI Chandrachud said that he disagreed with the view that under the current system the collegium lacked factual data to evaluate people that it considered for appointment.

Highlighting steps taken to address concerns over the appointment of judges, he said, "It's a work in progress...I have a Centre for Research Planning headed by an officer from Haryana Judicial Service with two young scholars. We have prepared a broader platform to assess every one of the top 50 judges in the country. We have data on judgments and... quality of judgments. The idea is to make the process of recommending appointments to the Supreme Court more transparent."