What sustains judicial institutions in the long run is the sense of compassion, sense of empathy and ability to answer cries of citizens, he said.
The CJI's announcement made in the apex court assumes significance in the wake of Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju's statement in Rajya Sabha on Thursday in which he said there was a feeling among the people that long court vacations were not very convenient for justice seekers.
In a significant verdict, the Supreme Court by a majority of 7:2 on Tuesday held all private properties cannot form part of "material resources of the community" empowering states to take them over for distribution to serve "common good" under the Constitution.
A seven-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, by a majority of 6:1, set aside the apex court's five-judge bench verdict of 2014 in the EV Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh case which had held that no sub-classification of Scheduled Castes (SCs) can be allowed as they are a homogeneous class in themselves.
The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside caste-based discriminatory provisions of prison manuals of around 11 states while deprecating the practice of distribution of work and segregation of prisoners in separate wards on basis of their castes.
"We are faced with certain hard facts like several courts do not have proper facilities. Some courts function out of dilapidated buildings. Judicial infrastructure is important for improving access to justice," he said.
The letter comes after a report by the London-based Financial Times, citing documents from George Soros-backed Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), alluded to a "fraud" by the Adani Group by selling low-grade coal as high-value fuel in 2013.
Justice Chandrachud said unlike many countries, India's Constitution was forged by Indians here in New Delhi
Calling for a trust vote merely on the ground of differences between MLAs of a ruling party can topple an elected government, the Supreme Court observed on Wednesday, adding that the governor of a state cannot lend his office to effectuate a particular result.
Merely because an educational institution is regulated by a statute does not take away from it the character of a minority institution, the Supreme Court observed on Tuesday as it commenced hearing the vexed question of minority status of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
Following is the chronology of events in the case related to validity of the electoral bonds scheme, a mode of funding to political parties, in which a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a landmark verdict annulling it.
Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud has constituted an all-woman bench comprising Justices Hima Kohli and Bela M Trivedi to hear transfer petitions involving matrimonial disputes and bail matters on Thursday.
The judge further underlined that the minorities of the country had not only joined the mainstream but also were an important facet of it.
Commencing final arguments on a batch of pleas against the verdict, the bench, heard senior lawyers including Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Salman Khursheed and Menaka Guruswamy for the petitioners.
The top court, meanwhile, permitted the state government to amend its plea to seek issuance of guidelines for the governors on grant or decline of assent to the bills passed by the assembly in a time-bound manner.
They all assembled at the judges' lounge before the start of the day's work and gave a standing ovation to Pragya, daughter of an obscure cook at the top court Ajay Kumar Samal.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked whether Parliament could have enacted the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, which divided the erstwhile state into two Union territories, during the subsistence of President's rule in 2018-2019.
Tewari, a Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP, was appearing for former Arunachal Pradesh MLA Padi Richo, who has filed an intervention application in a batch of petitions challenging abrogation of Article 370.
Allowing the Centre's review of the August 23, 2022 verdict, a bench Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices PS Narasimha and Manoj Misra recalled the judgement delivered by a three-judge bench headed by former CJI NV Ramana.
Non-heterosexual unions and heterosexual marriages ought to be considered as two sides of the same coin, both in terms of recognition and consequential benefits, Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said as he lamented that the only deficiency at present is the absence of a suitable regulatory framework for such unions.
'It has changed the political character of India by ejecting socialism as an ideology from the Constitution of India.'
The Collegium's recommendations, if accepted by the Centre, will raise the total number of judges in the apex court to 33 against the sanctioned strength of 34 including the CJI.
The apex court termed the prevalence of "social evil" of child marriage as "sobering" and passed a slew of directions to the Centre, states, district administrations, panchayats and the judiciary to eradicate the malaise.
The bench wondered if it struck down the immunity clause in the penal codes then the offence will be covered under the main provision on rape or "can the court create a separate offence or adjudicate the validity of the exception (clause)".
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Tamil Nadu government not to shift YouTuber Manish Kashyap, arrested for allegedly circulating fake videos of migrant labourers being attacked in the southern state, from the Madurai central prison.
On February 1, grappling with the intractable issue of the AMU's minority status, the top court said the 1981 amendment to the AMU Act, which effectively accorded it a minority status, only did a "half-hearted job" and did not restore the institution the position it had prior to 1951.
Justice BV Nagarathna also partially agreed with the majority verdict but criticised the CJI's views on Justice Iyer's judicial approach in dealing with "material resources" and state's power over them.
A committee headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud designated 56 lawyers and advocate-on-record as senior advocates, 11 of them women.
The Supreme Court on Friday termed as "unwarranted and extraneous" the Madras high court directive to YouTuber Felix Jerald to close down his channel as one of the bail conditions.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the pleas seeking cancellation and re-test of the controversy-ridden National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024, holding that there was no data on record to indicate a systemic leak of question paper and other malpractices.
Creating a record, the CJI headed apex court collegium meetings led to appointment of 11 Supreme Court judges with nine of them, including three women, appointed in one go.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, M M Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi will hear the plea of jailed JMM leader at 10.30 am on Friday.
The electoral bonds scheme for funding political parties should not become a tool for "legitimisation of quid pro quo" between power centres and people who are benefactors of that power, the Supreme Court said on Thursday as it underscored the need for reducing the cash component in the electoral process.
Over 260 eminent citizens, including former judges and bureaucrats, have written to Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud urging him to take cognisance of DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin's 'eradicate Sanatan Dharma' comment, calling it "hate speech".
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a probe into the Hathras stampede that left 121 dead, and asked the petitioner to move the Allahabad high court.
CJI Lalit concurred with the minority view of Justice S Ravindra Bhat who held the EWS quota as "unconstitutional" for excluding poor among SCs, STs and OBCs.
In 1997, the seven-judge bench ruled that the Centre had the regulatory power over the production of industrial alcohol. The case was referred to the nine-judge bench in 2010.
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled the former state of Jammu and Kashmir did not have any 'internal sovereignty' that was distinguishable from the powers and privileges enjoyed by other states in the country.
The Supreme Court on Friday got irked over a lengthy judgement penned by a single judge bench of the Delhi high court in a case related to an arbitral award involving media baron Kalanithi Maran and SpiceJet, saying there was no "application of mind". Suggesting that the case be now transferred to another judge by the Delhi HC, the top court said the judgement "has to be carefully articulated" and "the judge must apply mind to grounds of challenge and then deduce if interference is warranted". The strong observations against the single judge bench came from a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud during the hearing of an appeal by Kalanithi Maran and Kal Airways against a Delhi high court order setting aside an arbitral award asking the SpiceJet to refund Rs 579 crore plus interest to the media baron and his firm.
A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud noted that Karnataka high court judge Justice Vedavyasachar Srishananda, who had made those observations, had on September 21 tendered an apology for his comments in the open court there.
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