Truth Has Become A Victim Of False News: CJI

Source: PTI

Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Friday observed that a flip side of technology is that people have become “low on tolerance” and have retreated within, and that truth has become a victim of false news.

“People are low on tolerance because they are not willing to accept your views. Humanity has also retreated within… Some of this is a product of technology itself. Truth has become a victim of false news,” he said after inaugurating a three-day international conference being organised by the American Bar Association (ABA) on the theme “Law in the Age of Glocalisation: Convergence of India and the West”. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was also present.

The CJI also expressed displeasure over how easily people troll judges when they do not agree with them.

“We did not have social media. We (judges) know that we are trolled by anyone who does not agree with us,” he said, adding that when the Constitution of India was drafted, nobody knew how human society would evolve.

The CJI also said that trolling comes when people are unwilling to accept opinions and perspectives that are different from their own.

“Every little thing that we do — and believe me, as judges we are no exception to this — in everything that you do, you face the threat of being trolled by someone who doesn’t share your point of view,” he said.

The CJI also dwelt on how something said as a seed germinates into a theory that cannot be tested on the anvil of rational science.

He also highlighted how technology had been transforming our lives, especially the lives of judges. “Covid gave us little option. The then CJI told me we have to close our doors and now how do we grant bail etc. I told the CJI we have desktop computers and we can start video conferencing,” he noted.

On appointing more women judges in the apex court and the high court, the CJI said he definitely supports it, but the answer is a “little complex”.

“I am often asked about why we can’t have more women judges in the Supreme Court than we have, why can’t we have more high court judges from among the women we have. And the answer is not simple, the answer is a little complex. And I hope it has a gem of truth,” he said.

He pointed out that decentralisation of justice is the result of video conferencing and that it has become an important paradigm of access to justice. “It has promoted equalisation of justice. Supreme Court is the supreme court of smallest of villages, and not just Tilak Marg of Delhi.”

Mehta said that the event on glocalisation could not have been held at a better venue than India. “It is at the centre of glocalisation. India is now a destination as an economic powerhouse in the world,” he remarked.

“We have made several statutory and legislative changes. We have reduced corporate tax. We have reduced conflict which clogged our justice system. Ease of doing business have become faster,” he added.