Amid Government vs Judiciary, PM's Praise For Chief Justice

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lauded Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud's recent comments on making Supreme Court judgments available in regional languages. The CJI had made the comments yesterday at an event organised by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa in Mumbai.

"At a recent function, the Hon'ble CJI Justice DY Chandrachud spoke of the need to work towards making SC judgments available in regional languages. He also suggested the use of technology for it. This is a laudatory thought, which will help many people, particularly youngsters," PM Modi tweeted.

"India has several languages, which add to our cultural vibrancy. The central government is undertaking numerous efforts to encourage Indian languages including giving the option of studying subjects like engineering and medicine in one's Matru Bhasha (mother tongue)," read another tweet from the PM, who had stressed on the need to use local languages in courts several times last year.  

Speaking at an event in October, PM Modi had said since obscurity of law creates complexity, new laws should be written in lucid manner and in regional languages to bring in "ease of justice" so that even the poor can easily understand them. Legal language, he said, should not become a hurdle for citizens.

He had spoken of the matter in May as well, at another event which was attended by then Chief Justice NV Ramana. "This is a serious issue... It will take some time... There are lots of hurdles, bottlenecks, hiccups in the implementation of regional languages in High Courts," Justice Ramana had said.  

The Prime Minister's tweets today come amid a face-off between the government and the judiciary over the issue of judicial appointments, in which the government seeks a bigger role. Earlier today, Union law minister Kiren Rijiju had cited a retired judge's comment on the subject to underscore what he called "sane views" of "the majority".  

Retired Delhi High Court judge RS Sodhi, in a recent interview, has accused the Supreme Court of "hijacking" the constitution.  

Posting the clip of the interview on his Twitter handle, Mr Rijiju wrote, "Voice of a judge... Real beauty of Indian Democracy is its success. People rule themselves through their representatives. Elected representatives represent the interests of the people and laws. Our judiciary is independent, and our constitution is supreme".

"Actually, majority of the people have similar sane views. It's only those people who disregard the provisions of the Constitution and mandate of the people think that they are above the Constitution of India," he added.