Judiciary at a crossroads, introspection necessary to restore neutrality: Justice Anand Venkatesh

Stating that judiciary was at a crossroads, Justice N. Anand Venkatesh, Judge of the Madras High Court, said it was time for the judiciary to have an introspection to restore neutrality.

Commercialisation of legal education, political affiliations of advocates, politicisation of judgments, and the lack of transparency in the Collegium system of judicial appointments in the country were among the foremost issues that needed to be collectively addressed by the judiciary and the Bar with dynamism, said Justice Anand Venkatesh, addressing the ninth State Conference of Indian Association of Lawyers in Coimbatore on Saturday (September 19).

“The profession is not commercial in nature. It is essentially a service-oriented noble profession. Advocates are expected to be fearless and independent for protecting rights of citizens, upholding rule of law, and protecting independence of judiciary itself,” Justice Anand Venkatesh said, quoting a Supreme Court ruling. “Advocates are perceived to be intellectuals among elites, and social activists among the downtrodden,” he emphasised.

The slide in legal education was perceptible due to the mushrooming of law colleges. From only a few hundreds during the 1990s, the country now had 1,500 plus law colleges.

The candidates studying in the 27 national law colleges accounted for only 5% of the total advocates getting enrolled, he pointed out, expressing concern over absence of topics such as intellectual property rights and international law in the syllabi of government law colleges.

Candidates from the government law colleges came out without any foundation in fundamentals. Junior advocates were in a state of crisis since they were not being guided by senior advocates. Artificial Intelligence would take over documentation and drafting, and render them redundant, he cautioned.

Absence of a Vice-Chancellor at Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University (TNDALU) was a cause for deep concern, the High Court Judge said.

Politicisation of the bar associations impacted the neutrality of the judiciary. He wondered how the neutrality of the Bar Council of India could be accepted when its chairman, belonging to a political party, was also a member of the Rajya Sabha.

The course-correction even for the judiciary was possible only through neutral bars, he emphasised.