Rise of populist forces poses a challenge to judiciary: CJI Gogoi

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Tuesday said the rise of populism presents a challenge to independence of courts and asked the judiciary to stand up to populist forces and protect constitutional ethos.
Addressing chief justices and judges of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) countries, CJI Gogoi referred to the growing trend of populists disparaging judges as the "unelected who overturn acts of elected majority" and said: "To some critics and naysayers, this situation presents a case for hoisting the classical counter narrative - unelected judges, acting under the constitutional mandate, get to overturn the acts of the elected majority.However, it is for us to recollect that such situations across the world have heaped tremendous pressure on judicial organs, and it is no surprise that in some jurisdictions, judiciary too has succumbed to populist forces."

"This is also an area that requires the judiciary to prepare itself, to strengthen itself about such populist onslaughts on the independence of the institution," he said. The exhortation came against the backdrop of the frustration among the populists globally against the "tyranny of the unelected elite", who are accused of using their control over institutions to obstruct the fulfilment of popular will represented by electoral mandates.
Though he located his theme in the global context, the CJI also seemed to take issue with the NDA government's assertion that the executive must have a role in appointment of judges of constitutional courts. "Non-political appointment of judges alone could ensure independence of the judiciary," he stressed.
Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had recently said neither he nor his ministry is a 'post-office' in appointment of judges and asserted that the executive had a stake in such appointments.
CJI Gogoi listed the key indices for building an independent judiciary and said, "Non-political appointments, security of tenure and rigorous procedure for removal, securing reputation of and remuneration and immunities for judges, in-house accountability procedures and implementation of code of judges' conduct are some such measures."
Many in India heard an echo of the lament about "unelected judges overturning acts of elected majority" when the Supreme Court in 2015 struck down Parliament's unanimous decision to replace the collegium system with National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC). The political class as a whole had protested against what it considered subversion of popular will.
The CJI said: "The human agency, through which justice is sought to be administered, has to be adequately secured and fortified in ordinary times, so that it is sufficiently equipped to deal with such forces of populism in extraordinary times, lest they overrun the judicial edifice, too. This would be our strongest case for strengthening the independence of the judiciary." He said another aspect of judicial independence is financial independence. "Control of revenues and expenditure vests with governments and is often used as a tool to armtwist judiciary," he said.