Judges who revel in the idea of “My Lords” are diminishing, Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed

Judges reveling in the idea of “My Lords” are diminishing, said retired High Court judge and former Chief Justice of Jammu & Kashmir High Court, Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed..“Some are, of course, die-hard”, he added..Referring to the Chief Justice S Ravindra Bhat of Rajasthan High Court and Justice S Muralidhar of Delhi High Court who are known to have discouraged advocates from addressing them as “My Lords” or “Your Lordship”, Justice Ahmed said..“Respect the Chair and not the Judge..There are no Lords and there are no peasants”, he said..Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed was speaking at a panel discussion organized by Vidhi Legal to mark the launch of its website on ‘Infrastructure of District Courts in India’ on Saturday, August 3..Justice Ahmed’s remark came in response to Senior Advocate Vijay Hansaria‘s observation that the practice of addressing judges as “My Lords” outside Court leads to the judge not being amenable to other perspectives which is “not good for joint efforts” with other stakeholders to address an issue..Speaking on the issue of poor infrastructure in the judiciary, Justice Ahmed said that a solution to the issue could only be found in joint efforts by the Government as well the judiciary..He added that unilateral decision-making by the Judges or the Government with respect to court infrastructure and then imposing it over the other “does not work”..Justice Ahmed further said that while addressing the lack of infrastructure in the judiciary, especially sub-ordinate judiciary, the focus should be on a litigant’s perspective..“It (providing access to justice through better infrastructure) is apolitical. It is the Rule of Law and governance.”.On being asked the reasons as to why certain States had a better infrastructure at the level of the sub-ordinate judiciary while others lagged behind, Justice Ahmed remarked,.“Just as every person is different, every State is different”..He listed the working of High Courts, size of a State and its financial capacity as factors which influence infrastructure of the sub-ordinate judiciary..“The centre for every judicial system is the High Court… The sub-ordinate judiciary is under the superintendence of High Court… Every High Court has its own genealogy. Madras, Calcutta, Bombay are all Charter High Courts. They have their own set of traditions and sometimes we get caught in traditions.. Allahabad High Court is a universe. Even judges don’t know each other (there)..(Then) There are rich and poor States. West Bengal is stingy. Delhi is open.”.Taking the discourse to the issues of budget allocation for infrastructure, Justice Ahmed highlighted the need for a separate budget for maintenance of the infrastructure as well..He further added that in order to revolutionize the infrastructure in the judiciary, the budget allocation should be “demand-driven” and not “supply-driven”..“(The budget should be ) not what the government can give or gives but what the Courts want.”.Senior Advocate Hansaria who was one of the panelists also spoke at length on issues plaguing infrastructure in the judiciary..Given the fact that most litigation arises from Central Government, Hansaria suggested that the Central Government should also contribute towards infrastructure development at the State level..“Joint effort by Judiciary and other stakeholders is needed. (It also depends on) how much interest the Chief Justice of the High Court is taking”, he said..Disability Rights Activist, Rama Krishnamachari also graced the event and said that a “Universal Design approach” should be the way forward for Court infrastructure. She also stressed upon periodic infrastructure audits with respect to access along with “retro-fitting” the existing infrastructure for improving the access to justice in terms of the infrastructure.