100 Days of Justice DY Chandrachud’s tenure as Chief Justice of India

February 18, 2023

100 Days of Justice DY Chandrachud’s tenure as Chief Justice of India

In the words of CJI DY Chandrachud: “The Apex Court serves the World’s most populous Democracy and in true aspects is a People’s Court.”

 On November 9^th 2022, Justice DY Chandrachud assumed the position of Chief Justice of India (CJI) and completed 100^th day as the Chief Justice Of India on Thursday 16^th February 2023.

Some of his most notable accomplishments thus far includes the smooth listing of cases and the live streaming of the Constitution Bench hearings.

The Supreme Court has reached its full strength of 34 Judges during his tenure. The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended 12 candidates for appointment as High Court Chief Justice under his direction. In addition, the Collegium has recommended 35 Candidates for High court, 7 of whom are women, and 30 of those candidates have been appointed.

The Supreme Court has decided 36,436 cases in 2022 and that 7,256 cases were decided between January 1^st ,2023 and February 15^th.  The CJI has the goal of making more than 34,000 Judgments available for free to Lawyers, law students and the general public. Over 3,000 Judgments have been translated into local Languages so far.

Although 100 days may seem like a short time in his two-years tenure, the top court has seen significant developments during these three months.

Key Initiatives:

1. The Electronic Supreme Court Reports (e-SCR) project, which made free access to 34,000 Supreme Court Judgments available online for free, was one of the most important initiatives.

• 3,132 Judgments that have been translated into Indian Languages:
• Hindi – 2952
• Tamil – 52
• Malayalam – 29
• Telgu – 28
• Odia – 21
• Kannada – 17
• Marathi – 14
• Assamese and Punjabi – 4
• Nepali, Gujarati and Urdu – 3
• Garo and Khasi – 1

• The introduction  of the Advocate Appearance Slip Portal to eliminate manual appearance by Advocates-on-record filing and save paper.
• Providing soft copies of paper-books and utilizing technology for the electronic processing of petitions by the top court’s PIL section.
• Preparing for the launch of the second version of the electronic – filing (e-filing) software, which will allow Litigants, Advocates on record and other Stakeholders to file new cases, Applications and other documents online.
• The incorporation of e-Office and e_HRMS modules into specific administrative sections by the Indian Supreme Court.
• Establishing the Supreme Court Committee on the accessibility, led  by Justice S Ravindra Bhat and tasked with the carrying out an accessibility audit of the Court’s facilities and operations.
• Send off of a well being and health focus (rec centre) for the staff for Yoga and cardio workouts.
• Training sessions on stress management, communication and presentation skills, organizational behaviour and ethics, value in public governance critical thinking , problem solving and decision making for Registry’s Officers and Staff.
• The installation of an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) in the CGHS Wellness Centre as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision.
• The implementation of e-filing 3.0 in the District Courts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Tripura and Bihar as well as the High Courts of Manipur, Jharkhand, uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh.
• Assembling a module to educate the Judiciary about the LGBTIQA+ Community.
• The launch of the E-Committee Website in Bengali.
•  Based on the E- Committee’s proposal, the Union Finance Minister announced a Budgetary expenditure of 7,000 crores for phase 3 of the E-courts Project.

Administrative Reforms

1. The Case Categorization Advisory Committee, led by Justice PS Narasimha, was established to investigate the current framework for classifying Judicial matters.
2. The AI-Assisted Legal translation Advisory Committee which will be led by Justice Abhay S. Oka, will be formed to evaluate and track the progress of using AI tools to translate Judicial Records and judgments into various Indian Languages.
3. Directing various registry sections to prepare on annual calender in order to improve efficiency.
4. Establishing a consistent email policy and set of guidelines for registry staff so that they can work without paper and properly archive information, among other things.
5. A hackathon was held to solicit suggestions and ideas for enhancing the registry’s operation.

Judicial Reforms:

1. Expanding the everyday number of enlistment Centre Legal Disputes from 40 to80.
2. The resolution of 14,209 cases between November and the present (13,764 new cases were filed during this time)
3. The appointment of the eight new Supreme Court Judges.

Other Initiatives:

1. The Online Right to Information Portal, which was launched on 24^th November 2022 and received approximately 450 online RTI applications to date.
2. Beginning the process of establishing the Neutral Citations System, a uniform, secure and dependable method for identifying and citing Supreme Court pf India decisions.
3. The dress code for Ushers, Chauffeurs and Non-Clerical Staff will be changed inroder to ban Colonial Attire.

Conferences:

For the first time since its inception in 1950, the Supreme Court observed its Founding Day. Sundaresh Menon, Chief Justice of Singapore (CJS) gave Inaugural Annual lecture which was titled “The Role of the Judiciary in a Changing World”.

All the Stakeholders and Beneficiaries were invited to participate in a hackathon held recently within the Supreme Court to come up with novel concepts for listing cases. Major alterations to the e-filing procedure were made following the hackathon suggestions.