Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud on Saturday termed the district judiciary the “backbone of the judiciary” and said it is a crucial component of the rule of law.
Speaking at the ‘National Conference of the District Judiciary‘, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here, the CJI said it was necessary to stop calling district judiciary subordinate.
“The district judiciary is the first point of contact for a citizen in search of justice. The district judiciary is a crucial component of the rule of law,” Justice Chandrachud said.
He said the quality of work and the conditions in which the judiciary provides justice to citizens determine whether they have confidence in the judicial system.
“The district judiciary is therefore called upon to shoulder tremendous responsibility and is aptly described as the ‘backbone of the judiciary’. The spine is the core of the nervous system,” the CJI said.
“To sustain the spine of the legal system, we must stop calling the district judiciary as the subordinate judiciary. Seventy-five years after Independence, the time has come for us to bury one more relic of the British era – the colonial mindset of subordination,” he added.
The CJI said that in 2023-2024, 46.48 crore pages of court records have been scanned or digitised.
“The National Judicial Data Grid, managed by the e-committee in conjunction with the National Informatics Centre, is a mine of data not only for lawyers but also for citizens,” he said.