PM Modi on constitution day Speech at presence of CJI
Chief Justice of India to present a Memento to you the honorable prime minister of India [Applause] may I now request The Honorable prime minister of India SRI Narendra Modi ji to deliver the inaugural address foreign attorney general or venkat ramiji Supreme Court Bar Association 1949 man foreign [Music] foreign judiciary or executive okay Bharat Ely samidhan okay then we know satio subscribe because Dunya um foreign foreign [Applause] foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign foreign Sachi integrity or dedication mantra is basically foreign [Music] foreign [Applause] a b ums bharati mother of democracy I mean foreign spirit youth century startups Information Technology digital payments foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign is that you all man equality or empowerment distribution is foreign foreign foreign foreign [Applause] thank you sir may I now request The Honorable Union minister of Law and Justice to address the audience honorable prime minister SRI Narendra Modi Ji honorable Chief Justice of India Justice DIY Chandra honorable Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay kishankol honorable Judge Supreme Court of India Justice Abdul Nazir honorable judges of the Supreme Court honorable former Chief Justice of India my colleague spacing bagel The Honorable Chief justices and the judges of the high courts the attorney general for India SRI r venkatnamani Solstice Journal Tushar Mehta president Barr Council of Supreme Court Bar Association certificate Singh Mishra senior officers of the government of India friends from media ladies and gentlemen it is my honor to address this very August Gathering to celebrate the Constitution Day Constitution Day or commonly referred as anybody celebrated to Mark the adoption of Indian constitution by the constitute assembly in 1949 and also to remind us the significance of the historic day Constitution is the Bedrock upon which Indian Nation stands and continues to achieve Great Heights every passing year today this occasion gives me the opportunity to convey my gratitude towards the makers of the Constitution and also to promote and to reaffirm our constitutional values and reiterate the Constitutional promise of Justice Liberty equality and fraternity towards these citizens of this nation it is also an occasion to remember with gratitude the struggles and the sacrifices of our founding fathers their founding fathers placed immense responsibility on the coming generations of countrymen to take the country forward in the path of progress it would be apt to recall the words of Baba sahib Dr BR ambedkar when he cautions Us by saying let us not forget that this Independence has thrown on us great responsibilities by Independence we have lost the excuse of blaming the British for anything going wrong if Hereafter things go wrong we will have nobody to blame except ourselves Justice is the foremost introductory vision and aspiration that the people of India have promised to give to themselves and its Generations the Constitutional promise of equal justice is based on equal opportunity and it is also a dream imagining from article 39a it is our constant Endeavor to bring down barriers for accessing Justice through integrating technology and other meaningful tools on making information accessible on a routine basis and in an easy to understand manner in a country as large as ours last mile delivery of Justice remains critically challenged new Solutions have to be generated integrated and inter-operated across various available legal platforms to actualize the last mile delivery of Legal Services from courts to Citizens quick simplified and affordable access to Justice should be the buzzword to accelerate the movement of access to Justice in India the power of indigenous technology is being harnessed the mainstream legal aid and legal empowerment in the society now seeking pre-litigation advice and consultation is a matter of Doorstep Delivery it has been made possible through daily Law Services wherein a citizen can connect via teleconferencing facilities with a dedicated pool of panel lawyers through downloading the daily low mobile app or reaching to their near common service center with their within their Villages 25 lakh people have benefited from this service in next five years one crore plus citizens would be rendered with advice and consultation to amplify the Outreach of access to Justice legal literacy and legal awareness is being prioritized and made accessible in Regional local and local dialects using Innovative techniques both physical and virtual of dissemination to consolidate all these initiatives department of justice has formulated a pan India scheme on access to Justice title designing innovative solutions for holistic access to Justice in a vast country like India where 65 percent of total population still lives in rural areas and where regional and local language is the medium of understanding in most of the states language becomes one of the perceived barriers in ensuring universal access to Justice to the citizens of the country when legal material and legal terminology are not available in local understandable by the local language understandable by the common man as it is the Indian constitution recognized 22 major languages of India in the eighth schedule of the Constitution honorable prime minister modiji on multiple occasions has highlighted the need to encourage local language in courts to increase the confidence of the Common Man of our country in judicial system and to make them feel connected to in this context I am happy to inform that under the ages of the ministry of Law and justice The Bar Council of India has constituted bharatiya bhasha samiti chaired by former Chief Justice of India honorable Justice S.A Bob day the committee as a first step is listing out words and phrases which are most commonly frequently used in various branches of law such as civil criminal and Constitution for developing a common core vocabulary close to all Indian languages for the purpose of translating legal material into Regional languages such a common core vocabulary for all Indian languages will also help in translating legal material from one Indian language to another by doing so this will enable availability of lower textbooks and judgments orders in local languages to students pursuing legal education as well as administrators and litigants Etc further this will also facilitate working of courts in local languages once the medium and mode of legal education starts using the regional languages it would pave the way of creating a local language ecosystem under which the entire Judicial System would operate towards this end our legislative Department of Ministry of Law and justice has already prepared a glossary of 65 000 legal terms we plan to digitize this glossary of 65 000 words and make them available to all public in searchable format for uses for all simultaneously all efforts will be made to collect a legal groceries already published in Regional languages and to digitize it and also to make it available to the public in a searchable format therefore by selecting the best available translation tool and by using artificial intelligence technology a mechanism for Speedy large-scale translation of legal terminology of Indian language Indian Regional languages can be put in place to strengthen the ecosystem of local language as part of prime minister's ambitious digital India program e-course mission mode project will be a building block for paperless course in future this will ensure a transparent and Speedy Justice delivery system an easier file storage and retrieval system instantaneous access to voluminous records thus increasing efficiency making Justice more accessible I would like to give my sincere thanks to honorable prime minister for making available educate funds for e-courts mission mode project for creating the it infrastructure in the course this has enabled the Judiciary to function even during covet period wherein more than two crore virtual hearings have been held by the courts across India making India a world leader in Virtual hearings they faced two of the project is nearing its completion in the end I would like to mention that on this auspicious occasion we work as a team from the government side under the Visionary leadership of honorable prime minister we are doing everything possible to strengthen the intense judicial system and also to have a very very close cordial relationship with the Indian Judiciary and I'm also fortunate that all the chief justices of India the previous two former Chief Justice and the present chief justice and the team of the honorable judges in the Supreme Court as well as the high courts led by The Honorable Chief justices we have shared very very cold cordial relationship and identified those issues which we have to deal collectively on this auspicious occasion of the Constitution Day I once again thank all those participants who are here with your guidance your vision and your active support we will definitely make India the most vibrant democracy in the world thank you very much [Applause] thank you sir may I now request The Honorable Chief Justice of India Dr Justice chandrachur to address the audience namaskar The Honorable prime minister of India SRI Narendra Modi Ji the union Minister for Law and Justice SRI Kirin minister of State Shri SP Singh bhagel my distinguished colleagues srija's Sanjay kishan call and she Justice Abdul Nazir my brothers and sisters on the bench of the Supreme Court Chief justices of the high courts judges of the high courts the attorney general for India venkatramani Tushar Mehta Leonard solicitor general the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association shivikas Singh sriman Kumar Mishra chairman Bar Council of India our most valued guests who are in physical attendance and citizens of India who have joined us virtually I have pleasure in welcoming in our midst The Honorable prime minister of India we are gathered here to celebrate the adoption of the Constitution of India the foundational document of the world's largest democracy lawyers and judges spend their time and years unraveling the text of the Constitution but the story of the Indian constitution is not a story only of legal text and legal interpretation it is a story of human struggles and sacrifices it is a story of undoing Injustice against the marginalized sections of our society the women the disabled the dalits and members belonging to tribes and segments situated in far-flung areas of the country it must be remembered that the marginalized communities were the first to plant the seeds of the Constitutional ideas of Liberty equality and fraternity on Indian soil the first wave of resistance against the colonial power came from the indigenous communities of India our constitution is a social contract entered into between those who are in power historically and those who are oppressed and sought to change the power hegemony and chose to govern themselves coincidentally this year marks 75 years since our nation attained Independence India's Liberation from Colonial rule and the drafting of the Constitution were simultaneous projects the prolonged struggle for Independence culminated with the demise of the colonial reign and the birth of an independent nation governed by self-rule however the death of the colonial regime was not accompanied by a simultaneous birth of constitutional values that we hold on so dearly to when India gained her independence she was invested with social evils as a first prime minister said on the eve of Independence the past clings on to us still in some measure and we have to do much before we redeem the pledges we have so often taken that has been the continuing constitutional project as the Supreme Court said in its judgment in 2018 in Indian young Lawyers Association besides the struggle for our independence from British rule there was another struggle going on since centuries and which still continues that struggle has been for social emancipation the constitution of India is the end product of both these struggles the constitution of India is to a large extent aspirational for it seeks to deliver political freedoms and civil rights attempting to shrug off the colonial baggage it seeks to remedy the injustices that are suffered in a socially hierarchical Society when the Constitution was adopted the social political and economic realities of our nation were in stark contrast to the aspirational ideals in the text of the Constitution the Constitution entrusted the legislature the executive and the Judiciary with the role of bridging this gap between constitutional ideals and social reality I am conscious that Colonial and pre-colonial courts followed an approach of reluctance disinclination and inaction in protecting the rights of citizens for instance Scholars and historians have documented the refusal of colonial courts to interfere in cases involving social religious custom even if the rights of the marginalized were violated with the birth of constitutional democracy the culture of reluctance was replaced by a call for a dedicated Judiciary to protect the rights of citizens all judges across the courts in India ranging from the district courts to the Supreme Court must reflect upon the Constitutional vision of securing Justice equality and Liberty there is a need for us to introspect on our actions and decisions and to question our own prejudices and preconceptions for until we open our minds to multiple views of persons with varied lived experiences we would be lacking in our role as judges and institution thrives with time only when it functions democratically I believe that as the Chief Justice of India it is my responsibility to collaborate and consult my sister and brother judges at the Supreme Court the Chief Justice and the judges of the high courts members of the district judiciary and the stakeholders of the institution it is crucial that we tap on the experience of the diverse section of people who are part of the Judiciary their knowledge and understanding would undeniably strengthen the institution that is why it is all the more important that the representation of marginalized communities and women in the legal profession and the Judiciary is enhanced the Indian courts have been at the Forefront protecting the rights of the marginalized groups and upholding the rule of law the jurisprudence that has emanated from our courts in India has influenced decisions in far-flung Nations as diverse as Australia Kenya South Africa Jamaica Uganda Fiji Sri Lanka Bangladesh Nepal Malaysia and Singapore which share similar problems in a nation as large diverse and graded as ours the Paramount challenge that the judiciarys and institution faces is to ensure that the Justice delivery system is accessible to everyone challenges require dedicated actions the Indian Judiciary has been adopting several measures of institutional reforms with a single objective and I borrow the celebrated phrase of American Civil Rights activist Dr Martin Luther King Jr to describe it to bend the Arc of the moral Universe towards Justice we have been adopting technology to improve the working of Courts it is of supreme importance and necessity that the courts are remodeled to reach out to the people instead of the people reaching out to the courts in their quest for justice to ensure that the courts reach out to the people it is essential that the process of litigation is simplified and made citizen-centric though the judiciary's engagement with technology gained prevalence during the covid-19 pandemic we must not dismantle the infrastructure but build upon it and I would earnestly request the chief justices of the high courts to ensure that the technological infrastructure on which public funds have been spent is not dismantled but strengthened further the Supreme Court now functions in a hybrid mode with both online and offline codes which enable lawyers and parties in person to appear from different parts of the country though the Supreme Court is located on tilakman the Supreme Court is a supreme court for the entire nation as the Chief Justice I am attempting to adopt technology-based services in the listing of cases and Court hearings so that institutional flaws such as delays in listing and hearing can be removed from our vocabularies the e-committee of the Supreme Court of India uses technology to make the Justice delivery system more accessible and citizen-centric the national judicial data grid is a repository of 77 lag judgments of the high courts that are available to every citizen free of cost additionally various citizen-centric services are employed to reach out to the people at the grassroot level while technology has ably aided Us in ensuring functionality of the Judiciary during the pandemic technology must be augmented with institutional reforms to resolve the chief issues of access to Justice the first interface of the people with the judicial system is the district Judiciary it is thus of Paramount importance that the district Judiciary is strengthened and supported the district Judiciary must be lifted from the mindset of being a subordinated judiciary today the under prime minister of India is present here to launch the E initiatives namely the virtual Justice clocks the justice is mobile application 2.0 digital codes and S3 was websites of district courts the virtual District the virtual Justice clock is a platform where information available through the national judicial data grid is made available to the public virtual Justice clocks for the district Judiciary of India are a real-time informative public dashboard which provide information in three levels covering all the states districts and Court establishments in India the dashboard provides real-time status which is refreshed and updated every 15 minutes the Justice mobile app 2.0 is developed for the judges of the district courts in the country the app is provided to judicial officers to Monitor pendency and disposal of his or her court at the handset 24 7. digital codes is a green initiative of the Indian Judiciary in the form of a desktop app that has been developed to make quotes paperless or digital it provides an easy to view case files documents while sitting at home judges can view all the case related pleadings chart sheets court orders of both civil and criminal cases which aim at making the court paperless and finally the initiative S3 was website the acronym S3 was stands for secure scalable and suganya website as a service through the digital code in S3 was initiative the websites of district courts are being upgraded from the existing system to a platform which is secure scalable and accessible content published in the website is accessible so that even persons with disabilities including visual disabilities would be able to access the information using assistive Technologies these initiatives reflect upon the commitment of the Indian Judiciary towards providing access to Justice to our own citizens our Endeavor is to enhance access to Justice this much this must not be understood in narrow terms of enriching the experience of those who are already in possession of access but by reaching out to those groups and communities that are denied basic rights access to Justice must be defined in the expression of upholding the faith and perception that the general public holds in the legal system I can assure everyone that the initiatives launched today are a part of a larger technological and institutional advancement of the Indian Judiciary to ensure that even the most disadvantaged communities in the country do not stumble while reaching out to Justice before I conclude I would like to emphasize on the relevance and constitutional values not just to the judicial branch but to all institutions and sections of the society the evolution of a society can only ensue on the foundations of Liberty equality and fraternity the Trinity of values highlighted by Dr babasaheb ambedkar in his last address to the constituent assembly therefore I appeal to the young minds to reflect on the social realities of India and work towards achieving fraternity by dedicating themselves to the cause of Justice in whatever way possible sometimes change happens by small acts of kindness the heart and the soul of law as it is administered in our courts is our sense of compassion to our citizens with that I thank you jaihin [Applause]
2023-04-24 02:46
