In January this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government will spend ₹800 crore on a new building for the country’s top court, which would 27 new courtrooms and other facilities for lawyers and litigants.
“In designing the new building, which we are about to commence construction of, the The most important stakeholder in the legal profession is the litigator who comes to court with the grievances,” Chandrachud said on March 21.
Accessibility in every way
The plan for the new building is based on a whole bunch of recommendations from the legal community.
“One layer would be in terms of physical accessibility: tactile paving, proper marking of pathways, hydraulic lifts, a variety of suggestions including, say, providing earmarked spaces for senior citizens, pregnant women, differently-abled persons, and so on and so forth. So washrooms, drinking water facilities, availability of medical care, so that's one level at which we are working, namely the layer of physical access,” the CJI added.
'Ease of justice' has been one of the buzzing phrases in India in recent months. the 65-year old Chandrachud, who became the chief justice of India in 2022, believes the ongoing changes at the highest court of the country would send a strong message for the rest of the society.
"We designated as 12 women advocates as senior counsels... the total number of (women) advocates who were designated as seniors were just about 12 or 13. So, from the month of February, we designated in one go, the equivalent of what was designated between 1950 to 2024," he said.
The first set of acid attack victims are set to join the Supreme Court soon, and over 500 visually-impaired people have been employed at all levels of the judicial system across India, the Chief Justice highlighted.
First Published: Mar 21, 2024 11:45 AM IST
