District judiciary breathes life into law: CJI Surya Kant

Madurai: Supreme Court and high courts may interpret, refine and shape the law, but it is the district judiciary that breathes life into it, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said.CJI Surya Kant inaugurated the additional court buildings on the Madurai district court campus and an additional guest house at the Madurai bench of the Madras high court campus here on Sunday.In his address, CJI said, "I have said on many occasions that the district judiciary is the backbone of our justice delivery system. I do not use that phrase as a pleasantry or a ceremonial compliment. I use it because it is a statement of structural fact. For the vast majority of our citizens, the district court is the first court they will ever enter. For many, it is the only court they will ever know."If the higher judiciary is the mind of the legal system, the district judiciary is its lifeblood, its vital organs, the sinews that hold the entire body together."When we invest in district court infrastructure, we are not merely laying bricks and pouring mortar. We are laying the groundwork for a more responsive and more dignified system of justice. The environment in which justice is administered shapes the quality of that justice in both visible and subtle ways. A well-designed courtroom fosters discipline, promotes efficiency and lends a measure of institutional decorum, elevating every participant in the process. Improvements may appear small in isolation, but taken together they cumulatively transform the culture of dispute resolution," the CJI said.He said that the additional court buildings at Madurai contribute to this very transformation. He expressed confidence that this new infrastructure will reduce unnecessary adjournments that erode public faith and bring a renewed sense of dignity that the people of Madurai district deserve."It is a quiet message that institutions of justice in this country are alive, evolving and conscious of their obligation to the people they attend to. They are not grand monuments designed to impress. They are functional, purposeful spaces and it is precisely that purposefulness that makes them valuable," said the CJI.He said the Madurai bench of the Madras high court, since its establishment in 2004, has grown steadily and impressively both in the volume of caseload and in its institutional stature. In recent times, the Madras high court, particularly the Madurai bench, was spearheading contributions towards the development of civil, criminal and constitutional jurisprudence, he added.Supreme Court judges justice J K Maheshwari, justice M M Sundresh, justice R Mahadevan, Madras high court Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari, Madras high court judges justice R Suresh Kumar, justice N Sathish Kumar, justice Anita Sumanth, justice S M Subramaniam, justice P Velmurugan and justice P Dhanabal, district court judges and advocates were present.