Judges should not take benefit of special facilities in a way that isolates them from society !

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Dhananjay Chandrachud tells the Chief Justices of all the High Courts in the country !

New Delhi – ‘Judges should not use the special facilities given to them in a way that will isolate them from society. Appropriate use of such facilities maintains the credibility and legitimacy of the judiciary and maintains the faith of the society in the judges’, Dhananjay Chandrachud, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, said while addressing judges across the country. ‘There is a need for internal evaluation and counselling in the judiciary. Do not use special privileges in a way that will cause inconvenience to others. Don’t be the cause of people’s criticism’, he added.

A letter written by Chief Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud addressed to the Chief Justices of all High Courts of the country has gone viral on social media. In this letter, the Chief Justice referred to a recent case and addressed the judges as mentioned above. A few days ago, a Chief Justice of the High Court had written a letter to the General Manager of the Railways asking him to seek clarification from the concerned regarding the bad experience he had with the Railways. Owing to this, the Chief Justice has written this letter to the Chief Justices of all High Courts.

Chief Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud has mentioned this incident in the letter. The letter mentioned the incident experienced by a Chief Justice, in which, the train arrived 3 hours late, but despite repeated requests, no railway Police officer was present in the coach to supervise the Judge, nor was the kitchen staff present to provide food to them. When the manager of the pantry car was contacted regarding this, he did not receive the call. This greatly displeased the Chief Justice. So, he wanted to seek clarification from the authorities concerned. The letter was sent by an officer of the etiquette department of a High Court to the General Manager of Railways. Basically, High Court Judges have no power to take disciplinary action against Railway officials. Therefore, there is no question of any High Court officer seeking clarification from the Railway Officer.