Higher judiciary is over ambitious: Chidambaram

Cautioning the higher judiciary of being “over ambitious” at times, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said there had been occasions in the country when an ambitious court tended to believe there was a judicial solution to problems.

He pointed out the burdening of courts because of the large number of cases, the lack of good judges, and the ambition of the judiciary as some of the ailments of the present day legal system. Chidambaram was speaking at the KN Katju Memorial Lecture, 2011.

The home minister also said that though he didn’t agree with the over ambition of the judiciary at times, yet the judicial activism had helped enlarge the ambit of the fundamental rights of citizens.

“Like any other institution that has reached a ripe and old age, the judiciary is under stress. Another cause of stress is that the judiciary, especially the higher judiciary, is over ambitious. An ambitious court tends to think that there is a judicial solution to its problems,” Chidambaram said at the lecture. He added that in his view, the Indian judiciary was not afflicted by any malady that was incurable.

Chidambaram empahsised that it was the right of every citizen to have clean judiciary that would do justice according to the law of the country. “Litigation in the country is no longer a rare occurrence, so it the right of every citizen to have a clean judiciary. Judges have the power of life and death. Those who have occasion to go to the courts, and there are many, have vested interest in a clean judiciary. People go to courts with the hope and expectation that justice will be done. The least that they expect from the system is an honest judge,” the home minister added.

Being a lawyer himself, the home minister said the judicial activism of courts, especially the Supreme Court, in enlarging the ambit of fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution and creating a human rights jurisdiction must be applauded.

Blaming the failure of legislative and executive system in the country at times, retired Supreme Court judge, Kuldip Singh, argued that the judiciary had never failed to deliver.