Gogoi urges judiciary to be more accessible

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said the judiciary must be more accessible to the common people so that democracy could be further strengthened.

"Some judges believe that they must remain aloof but that is a very wrong approach in democracy. It happened during British rule, but in a democracy they should reach out to the people and serve them," Gogoi said in his address at the inauguration of an annexe building of the Gauhati High Court here.

"The high court building is not for the judges and lawyers, but for the common people. The legislature, executive and the judiciary have been created by the constitution for the service of the common people," he said.

Gogoi said there might be differences and difficulties along the way but "the doors should always be open for dialogue and negotiations".

"There is insurgency in Assam with militants resorting to armed violence but I have always kept the doors open for negotiations and dialogue and it has come down considerably in the recent years," he said.

The government, however, has to be firm when situations arose, he said.

"We must also analyse why insurgency raised its head. It's only because the government failed to deliver the goods and in such a situation reforms have to be brought in to change the system," Gogoi said.