“We have been very reticent. The Supreme Court has been very reticent. So, the high courts are even more reticent and the district courts, which look up to the high court, are therefore even more reticent on the use of modern means of communication, including Twitter and Telegram” said Justice Chandrachud
Judiciary will lose its game if it does not shed its inhibition of using modern social media tools such as Twitter and Telegram, justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud said on Sunday, emphasising that technology must be put to its best use by the justice delivery system in the interest of transparency and accountability.
“We have been very reticent. The Supreme Court has been very reticent. So, the high courts are even more reticent and the district courts, which look up to the high court, are therefore even more reticent on the use of modern means of communication, including Twitter and Telegram” said the judge, speaking at the valedictory function of the First All India District Legal Services Authorities meet in New Delhi.
Justice Chandrachud underlined that judiciary’s resistance to use the means of modern communication has to change because it can reach out to the citizens by only using the language of discourse, which is today becoming so prevalent in society.
“Unless we, as judicial institutions, shake this resistance to adopting the means of communication which is so widespread in society today, we would perhaps have lost the game. And, I believe that we are already in the process of losing the game, unless we shed fear about what is going to happen if we use modern means of communication,” he regretted.
Justice Chandrachud, who is also the chairman of the Supreme Court eCommittee and has been spearheading the e-court and digital courts projects for the entire country, also mentioned about reservations of judges against live-streaming of court proceedings, adding judges across the board feel they would be assessed by the people if judicial proceedings are telecast.
