NEW DELHI: India’s 50th Chief Justice, DY Chandrachud stated that judges at the lower levels of the judiciary, the grassroots are reluctant to give bail due to the fear of being targeted for granting it in heinous case. He was speaking at an occasion organised by the Bar Council of India on Saturday, November 19 reports PTI.
“The higher judiciary is flooded with bail applications due to reluctance at grassroots to grant bail. Judges at the grassroots are reluctant to grant bail not because they do not understand crime but there is a sense of fear of being targeted for granting bail in heinous cases,” Chandrachud said.
Union Minister for Law and Justice, Kiren Rijiju, who was also present at the occasion, disapproved of protests by certain lawyer bodies against the recommendations of the SC collegium to transfer some high court judges. “I heard some lawyers want to meet the CJI regarding transfers. It can be an individual issue but if it becomes a recurring instance for every decision by the collegium, then where will it lead to”, he said.
Bar bodies of Gujarat, Telangana and Madras high courts had protested against the decision of the collegium to transfer some judges.
The CJI has agreed to meet the Gujarat high court Advocates’ Association on Monday in view of the ongoing protest by lawyers opposing the SC collegium’s recommendation to transfer Justice Nikhil S Kariel to the Patna high court.
Chandrachud also said that when the lawyers strike, the consumer of justice suffers, the person for whom justice is meant, and not the judges or the lawyers. He also said harmony and balance are crucial to maintain the tranquility of society and courts as institutions of governance in the country have a role to define that sense of harmony and balance.
The collegium had recently recommended transfer of three high court judges for administrative reasons, sources said. The collegium is learnt to have transferred Madras high court acting chief justice T Raja to the Rajasthan high court, while Justice Kariel and Justice A Abhishek Reddy have been transferred to the Patna high court. Media reports on collegium resolutions have led to eruption of lawyers’ protest in the Gujarat HC and Telangana HC.
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