Summary:
New Delhi, Dec 6 (PTI) Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud Tuesday said "India also survives much beyond" the national capital and there is need to focus on district judiciary as the country "goes forward".
He said an important component of actualising the right to access to justice is ensuring that there is adequate judicial infrastructure which shall begin from the district judiciary.
Addressing a gathering at the inauguration function of Delhi High Court"s "S" Block building, the CJI said he always believes that "much as we would like to have the best infrastructure in the capital city.
I think India also survives much beyond the capital.
It is there (district judiciary) that we need to focus our attention as we go forward".
He said the court complexes built during the colonial times were used to create an imposing effect over the public, restricting the access to an exclusive few.
"The architecture of our buildings was intended to produce a sense of fear and awe in the consumers of justice and the divide between those who dispensed justice and those to whom justice was delivered," he said.
The CJI added that the understanding of justice has now drastically changed and efforts are now concentrated on reaching out to people as opposed to people reaching out to us.
"In all the work that we do as judges and lawyers, judicial spaces are considered to be public or civic spaces and thus spaces which should be universally accessible.
The symbolism of court complexes helps in materialising justice, making it tangible and corporeal for citizens who come from far and wide.
The court room, whether physical or virtual, provides a setting where the search for justice takes place for the citizens," he said.
While inaugurating the state-of-art building, Justice Chandrachud said this building combines the modern with the democratic and the Delhi High Court itself is a whiff of fresh air in the state corridors of jurisprudence.
"It is a court of equity and it is a court for relief for citizens even in the most difficult of times and it is in that context that I viewed what the architect said of the three basic parameters which guided this building in its design -- contextual architecture, climate change resilience and demographic architecture.
"Perhaps we can transplant those concepts to the soil of jurisprudence.
How jurisprudence has to be contextual, contextual to be able to meet the challenges of the time.