Judges appointing judges a propagated myth, says CJI N V Ramana

Days after John Brittas, a Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala, gave a speech in Parliament on the evils of a system under which judges appoint judges, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Sunday dismissed the notion as a "widely propagated myth".

"It is nowadays fashionable to reiterate phrases such as, 'judges are themselves appointing judges'. I consider this to be one of the widely propagated myths. The fact is the judiciary is merely one of the many players involved in the process," the CJI said.

"Many authorities are involved, including the Union law ministry, state governments, governors, high court collegia, Intelligence Bureau, and lastly, the topmost executive, who are all designated to examine the suitability of a candidate," he pointed out.


The CJI said that he was sad that the "well-informed" also propagated this notion. "After all, this narrative suits certain sections," he remarked. He was delivering the fifth Sri Lavu Venkateswarlu Endowment Lecture on Indian judiciary - challenges of the future - in a law college in Vijayawada.

The chief justice also identified hate speech as an important new-age challenge that the judiciary must confront, apart from persistent challenges such as inadequacy of judges, lack of infrastructure etc. He stressed upon the need for domain expertise to deal with new problems arising out of rapid development of science and technology, for example, the internet.

"Sale of illegal material on the dark web, identity theft, fraudulent online transactions, hacking, spread of defamatory content and hate speech etc are all challenges that we must confront," he said. Another example relates to money laundering or crime funding through virtual currencies, the CJI said.

At present, even understanding the mechanisms underlying such an offence might be beyond judges and investigators, he added. "Our understanding and the laws cannot lag too far behind changing technology. We are still discussing issues related to the internet, while technologists are talking about the 'metaverse'," he said.

He also spoke of the need for the legislature to pass well-considered laws to reduce the burden of litigation on courts.