Chief Justice of India Surya Kant
NEW DELHI: Unveiling details of his brain child ‘Unified Judicial Policy’ (UJP), CJI Surya Kant on Saturday said courts will give top priority to cases relating to personal liberty, ensure predictability in decisions relating to commercial and economic matters to foster investor confidence, and deal empathetically with disputes relating to family, consumers and social justice.Speaking at the Regional Judicial Conference at Jaisalmer, the CJI said citizens approach courts not only to seek remedies but with the hope that the law will be applied consistently, liberties will be guarded, rights will be clarified and govts will be held accountable.He said predictability of the justice delivery system, pruned of legal jargon, is important to further public understanding and maintain faith in the system. Predictability is rooted in consistency, reason, precedent and timely disposal, he said, adding, “investors look for it, accused persons rely on it, families hope for it and society depends on it.”“A justice system that operates unpredictably or without clear guiding principles inevitably weakens public confidence because litigants cannot anticipate how similar cases will be treated or when their matters will be resolved,” CJI Kant said. “When judicial outcomes reflect principled reasoning, consistent application of law and transparent evolution of doctrine, confidence in the courts is strengthened, as people come to understand justice is not dependent on chance but guided by established norms.”Technology has evolved into a constitutional instrument that strengthens equality before the law, expands access to justice and enhances institutional efficiency. It allows the judiciary to transcend physical barriers and bureaucratic rigidities to deliver outcomes that are timely, transparent and principled.Justice systems, one headed by HCs in the states and the other operated nationally by SC, are not operating in parallel, he said while underscoring the need for UJP, under which technology will be the engine to ensure convergence of the two systems by harmonising procedural norms, prioritising cases, removing delays and formatting coherently judgments across jurisdictions. “But technology alone cannot sustain the Rule of Law; it must operate alongside the deeper constitutional traditions that anchor judicial behaviour and preserve institutional coherence,” he said.CJI Kant said uniformity in judgment and reasoning is a must in cases of similar nature. “A Unified Judicial Policy is not merely an administrative doctrine; it is the architecture of constitutional confidence. It strengthens the idea that our courts are not isolated entities but parts of one Republic, driven by common values, delivering coherent justice,” he said.“Ultimately, the measure of innovation is not the complexity of the software we deploy, but the simplicity with which a citizen understands the outcome of their case and believes that justice has been served,” he stressed.
