Judiciary's independence is non-negotiable, says CJI RM Lodha

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India RM Lodha today asserted that independence of judiciary is “non-negotiable” and it has the inherent strength to foil any attempt to interfere with that. In remarks that come against the backdrop of steps to end the collegium system of higher judicial appointments, he did not make any direct reference to the law passed by Parliament in this regard but said no effort to take away judiciary’s independence will succeed. “Judicial independence is essential for maintaining public confidence that there is an institution which would come to their “aid and rescue in case of any wrong committed by the Executive or anyone”, he said addressing a seminar on ‘Rule of Law Convention-2014’. [caption id=“attachment_1658655” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Chief Justice of India RM Lodha. PTI image[/caption] The CJI called upon the legal fraternity to keep away people who “play tricks to taint judiciary” saying any form of corruption in judiciary “shield impurity which is the worst form of aliment in thriving democracy.” “I won’t speak on the issue (the Bill) but I would touch upon the issue of independence of judiciary which is very dear to me. It is one thing which is non-negotiable,” Justice Lodha, who is demitting office as CJI on September 27, said. “Having been a judge of High Courts and the Supreme Court for more then two decade, 21 years, I can say with confidence that judiciary has the inherent strength and no effort would succeed in taking away the independence of judiciary,” he said. Justice Lodha said “My experience is that by and large now people understand that judiciary is something whose institutional independence cannot be touched. “I am more than confident that independence of judiciary maintained by everyone and anyone for whom judiciary is dear at any cost and once it is maintained I am sure there would be strong rule of law as it is the independence of judiciary that leads to confidence in people mind that here is a judiciary that would come to their aid and rescue if there is wrong done by executive or by anyone.” Justice Lodha also referred to the judicial appointments commission of United Kingdom and said during his recent visit to London he was told that there is no change in the quality of appointments after the commission was constituted five years back but “it brought transparency”. He said that in the era of economic growth, corruption is also growing and it is “very-very” essential that judiciary remain corruption free. “If there is any amount of corruption in judiciary one thing that will happen is it would shield impurity. That is the worst form of ailment in a thriving democracy and to each one of you who are sitting here I request you don’t do anything that directly or indirectly brings corruption to judiciary. Because corruption is not something which can happen by one hand.There are people who play all sorts of trick”. “Corruption has to be eradicated in all forms in judiciary,” the CJI said adding that the challenge is there to maintain the purity of judiciary. While lauding the role played by legal profession in the independence of the country, he said “Now, the role of lawyers has become important for maintaining rule of law. Rule of law cannot be breached by anyone howsoever be a person mighty.” Speaking on the occasion, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that he is trying to reduce the government litigation. He also praised Justice Lodha’s decision to elevate two senior advocates as apex court judges and hoped that the tradition of elevating lawyers directly to the Supreme Court would be followed by the coming CJIs also. Justice Lodha also said that traditional and adversarial system of lawyering cannot resolve all types of cases and advocated adopting “multi-disciplinary practice” to deal with matters of medical negligence, patent, price fixation of gas and drugs. “Time has come when traditional system of lawyering will not do and diverse methods have been suggested in developed countries. There has been a multi-disciplinary practice involving cases of medical negligence, patent, fixation of drugs pricing, fixation of gas pricing,” he said. Advocating the adoption of such practice, Justice Lodha said, “Lawyers have started affiliating themselves to professionals like doctors for medical negligence cases, scientists for patent matters, gas pricing matters with economists and taxation matters with chartered accountants.” “Multi disciplinary practices have been accepted in United States. US Bar Association has amended rules and certain medical rules have been amended to encourage multi-disciplinary practice and courses have been introduced,” he said. The Chief Justice said, “It’s high time for Bar to consider and recognise the multi-disciplinary practices. “Traditional form of litigation cannot resolve disputes through traditional adversarial litigation,” he said adding, “If you expect 30 million cases to be decided through adversarial system, it can’t be possible.” “We have alternate dispute resolution mechanism by way of arbitration, conciliation, mediation and Lok Adalats but another form of ADR that is collaborative law practitioners are emerging in other countries,” he said, adding “legal profession can’t be static. Legal progress goes to help in many ways and true legal progress helps in development of country.” He said, “Collaborative law practitioners provide multiple procedures for litigation based on negotiation. Negotiation is not there as ADR here. Negotiation should be one of the modes of ADR.” PTI