To make justice accessible, infrastructure is necessary: CJI

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said today that development of basic infrastructure for the judiciary was indispensable if people were to have access to justice.

The CJI was addressing judges and trainee judicial officers after inauguration of a new building of the Chhattisgarh State Judicial Academy on the high court premises here.

Access to justice was a constitutional principle but one could not have access to justice without basic infrastructure, Misra said.

"When we think of infrastructure we think of things such as buildings, but apart from physical infrastructure, there has to be intellectual infrastructure, which means the mental ability to understand academic aspects of law," he said.

The judicial academy had excellent modern facilities and now it was the judicial and legal fraternity's responsibility to ensure that high-standard legal education and learning environment was provided here, he said.

Speaking to reporters later, Misra said the facilities at the academy would make people feel as if it was the famed Nalanda University of yore.

Earlier, speaking at the inauguration, Chief Minister Raman Singh said his government was trying to improve the court infrastructure in the state.

The new judicial academy building was built at a cost of Rs 28.17 crore, officials said.

Chhattisgarh High Court's Chief Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi was also present on the occasion.