CJI Surya Kant urges courts to share lessons from implementing judgments

CJI Surya Kant urged judges across legal systems to exchange practical experiences and lessons. He said shared knowledge can help courts refine directions when implementation problems arise.

In Short

• The NXT Judicial Forum was launched at a New Delhi dialogue
• Justice Kant warned against gatherings becoming ceremonial and overly speech-oriented
• Living will procedures were simplified after doctors found safeguards cumbersome

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Wednesday said judgments cannot anticipate every difficulty that may arise when their directions are implemented, stressing the need for judges from different legal systems to share practical experiences and lessons from setbacks, Press Trust of India reported.

Delivering the inaugural address at the fourth Law and Constitution Dialogue in New Delhi, the CJI said justice was strengthened not only by court decisions but also by open discussions about how courts function.

At the event at the B R Ambedkar International Centre, Justice Kant launched the NXT Judicial Forum, the NXT Judicial Fellowships and The Sunday Guardian's 'Legally Speaking' edition.

"A judgment resolves a dispute and declares the law, confining itself to the conclusion and the reasons behind it. That discipline allows a judgment to be relied upon across the world, but it also means that a judgment cannot foresee every difficulty that may arise when its directions are put into practice," the CJI said.

"Justice is strengthened not only by what courts decide, but by how freely we discuss the way they work," he added.

Justice Kant noted that the Forum's objectives described existing judicial gatherings as too often "overly ceremonial or speech-oriented". He joked that the first thing the Forum had asked of him was a speech and said he would try to ensure that it did not "end up as Exhibit A".

The CJI said it was easy to bring distinguished minds together in one hall for an evening, but much harder to give their conversation "a life after the hall has emptied".

Explaining why judges needed to continue meeting even though their judgments were published and studied worldwide, he cited the Supreme Court's 2018 Constitution Bench ruling that recognised the right to die with dignity and allowed people to make a "living will", according to PTI.

Justice Kant said the court had initially required every such document to be countersigned by a judicial magistrate and approved by two separate medical boards. Doctors found the process too cumbersome "at that very moment when patients and their families needed it most".

The Supreme Court, therefore, simplified the guidelines in 2023 by allowing a notary or gazetted officer to attest the document and asking medical boards to decide preferably within 48 hours, he said.

The lesson of how "a safeguard designed in a courtroom works at a hospital bedside" would be invaluable to any court considering similar questions, the CJI said.

On the use of artificial intelligence in courts, Justice Kant said every judiciary was considering how far AI could help with research, translation and case scheduling, while none could claim extensive experience in the field. "Since all of us are learning at the same time, it makes little sense for each court to learn alone," he said.

The CJI's address highlighted the need for courts to exchange practical knowledge so that judicial directions can be improved when difficulties emerge during implementation.

- Ends