Unfortunate That Only Few Aware Of Constitutional Rights: Chief Justice

Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Wednesday said it is unfortunate that even after 75 years of independence only a few are aware of the constitutional provisions and emphasised that the public must know their constitutional rights and duties.

CJI Ramana, who was speaking as the chief guest at an event by Eastern Book Company to celebrate the release of 'Supreme Court Cases (SCC) pre-1969', stated that the ultimate consumer of justice is the public and thus called for "simple" judgement writing by the judges as well as publication of important judgements of the Supreme Court and high courts in regional languages by law journals.

He said even a "small school kid" in the western countries is aware of his constitution and the laws and asserted "we need that kind of culture".

"The lawyers and the public must know the constitutional provisions and the Constitution. It is unfortunate that we are now celebrating 75 years of independence but still only a few selected people in the urban areas or the legal professional are aware of the constitutional rights and duties and the constitutional principles," CJI Ramana said.

"They (people) must know what the Constitution says and how they are entitled (under the laws). What are their rights, how to implement their rights, how to know their duties. It is necessary for us, especially (law journals) to try and introduce at least selected judgements of importance -- crux and not the entire judgement -- in regional languages to enable access in a simple language," he added.

Acknowledging that translation of judgements in regional languages in a simple manner would entail a financial burden, CJI Ramana added, "I hope some governments can also give some money because they are now starting several projects for popularising the Constitution and the constitutional schemes. We can think of this issue also." He further said being a judge for 22 years, he was aware of the criticism that judgements are at times "like a thesis" and requested all members of his fraternity to be simple.

"I request all the fraternity members as well as lawyers who are contributing by arguing to try to be simple in judgement (and write) concise, precise and short sentences. People must feel like they are reading a story," he said.

"Ultimately, at the end of the day, the consumers of justice are the litigant, public or whoever it is, they must know the end result. That is more interesting than our own imaginations and philosophies. That way I think we can help the public a lot. The reasoning and the conclusion needs to be clear. I hope and trust this will happen," he said.

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