‘Lower court judges do not want to take any risk’, why did CJI Chandrachud say this?

Bangalore. Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud on Sunday said that in important criminal cases, trial court judges do not want to take any risk by granting bail if there is scope for doubt. The Chief Justice stressed the need to use common sense and discretion to look into the nuances of each case.

Justice Chandrachud said, “People who should get bail from lower courts are not getting bail there, as a result of which they always have to approach the High Court.” He said, “People who should get bail from the High Courts do not necessarily get bail and due to this they have to approach the Supreme Court. This delay further increases the problem of those who are facing arbitrary arrests.”

He was responding to a question at the end of his speech during the 11th Annual Conference of the Berkeley Center for Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination about arbitrary arrests. “We live in a society where we commit an act and then apologize. This is especially true of public authorities who are politically motivated in detaining activists, academics, journalists, and even leaders, including chief ministers, of opposition parties,” the person who asked the question said.

According to him, all these acts are done with the full belief that justice is delivered at a very slow pace. In response to this, Justice Chandrachud said that the Supreme Court is constantly trying to tell that one of the reasons for this is the underlying distrust towards institutions in the country.

He said, “Unfortunately, the problem today is that we look with suspicion at any relief given by judges of subordinate courts. This means that subordinate court judges do not want to take any risk by granting bail in important cases.” The Chief Justice said that judges will have to look at the nuances and subtleties of each case. He said that most of the cases should not come to the Supreme Court.

The Chief Justice said, “We are giving priority to bail so that the message goes out across the country that people (judicial officers) at the very initial level of the decision-making process should perform their duty without considering whether there is any risk to them.”

Tags: DY Chandrachud, Supreme Court