Cuttack (Odisha): Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Sunday said that technology should augment human judgment, not replace it. He was addressing a gathering here on the topic of ‘Ensuring Justice for the Common Man: Strategies to Reduce Litigation Costs and Delays’.
He said, “Pending cases in courts clog the judicial system at every level, from the trial courts to the constitutional courts, and when there is a bottleneck at the top, the pressure increases further down.”
‘Technology has its own shadow’
He also emphasized the need to strengthen judicial infrastructure to reduce pending cases. He said, “This is because without adequate courts, even the most honest judicial system will collapse under logistical stress.” Justice Kant said that technology proved very useful during the COVID pandemic. However, one cannot forget that technology has its own shadow.
‘Technology must remain a servant of justice’
The CJI said, “In the age of deepfakes and digital arrests, courts cannot afford to be naive… A reform that excludes the poor, the elderly, or the digitally illiterate is no reform at all, but a step backward. That is why I have always maintained that technology must remain a servant of justice, not a substitute for it. It should augment human judgment, not replace it.”
He said that a system where the executive, legislature, and judiciary do not work in harmony is like a tricycle with one wheel missing. The rule of law cannot maintain balance, let alone move forward. ‘Laws can be made’
He further added, “The consequences are dire – laws can be made, crimes can be registered, even freedoms can be curtailed, yet timely trials, for which the infrastructure is woefully inadequate, remain elusive. The citizen, too, is waiting for something that fulfills the promise of justice.” The event was also attended by Odisha High Court Chief Justice Harish Tandon, judges from High Courts across India, and Advocate General Pitambar Acharya.
