NEW DELHI: More than one-and-a-half-month after several Opposition leaders criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to CJI DY Chandrachud’s residence here for Ganapati Puja, the latter has clarified that such meetings are not to crack deals as no pending cases are discussed.
“So, people think, what you were discussing about…The discussion is not about pending cases…The maturity of the political system lies in the fact that there is a great deal of deference to the judiciary even in the political class,” the CJI said during a discussion after delivering the inaugural lecture in the Loksatta Annual Lecture series on ‘Understanding federalism and its potential’ at Mumbai University on October 26.
“People think there are deals being struck, but that is not the case. This is part of a robust dialogue between different arms of the government. We have three arms of the government — the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. We have to understand that the work of all the three arms is dedicated to one and the same goal namely, the betterment of the nation.”
“And so long as we trust this process, I think we must accept that there has to be a continuing dialogue not in terms of the work which we do as judges, not at all, because in the work which we do as judges we are completely independent. But in so many ways there is an intersection between the work which the judiciary does on the administrative side and the work which is done by the government on the administrative side,” the CJI stated.
Noting that such meetings between the heads of the executive and the judiciary were necessary, Justice Chandrachud said pending projects on judicial infrastructure, information technology and budgeting were discussed in such meetings.