New Delhi Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said technology should amplify human judgment and not replace it. Addressing a symposium today, Justice Kant said technology was very useful during the COVID pandemic; however, one cannot afford to forget that technology comes with its own shadows. The CJI said that a reform that excludes the poor, elderly, or digitally unfamiliar is not reform at all; it is regression. That is why I have always maintained that technology must remain a servant of justice, not its substitute. He said that pendency of cases in courts clogs every level of the judicial structure, from the trial court to the constitutional court.
Narrating his experience in courts, the CJI said that perhaps the greatest immediate potential to clear backlogs is the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), especially mediation. Justice Surya Kanta cited the instance of the Lok Adalat system; according to him, this has been an enduring success in the National Lok Adalat drives. It remains one of the most efficacious grassroots justice innovations anywhere in the world, he noted.
