CJI Surya Kant said courts must prioritise personal liberty and ensure predictable decisions to strengthen public trust. He introduced the Unified Judicial Policy to bring consistency, technology and clarity across all courts in India.
NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant on Saturday explained his vision behind the “Unified Judicial Policy” (UJP), a concept he described as his brainchild, aimed at making India’s justice delivery system more consistent, predictable and citizen-friendly.
Speaking at the Regional Judicial Conference held in Jaisalmer, the CJI said courts across the country must work with a shared approach while deciding cases, especially those affecting personal liberty, economic growth and social justice.
The CJI said that under the proposed Unified Judicial Policy, courts will give the highest priority to cases involving personal liberty, including matters related to arrest, bail and fundamental rights.
He also stressed the need for consistency and certainty in commercial and economic cases so that investors feel confident about the Indian legal system. At the same time, he said courts must handle disputes related to families, consumers and social justice with sensitivity and empathy.
Justice Surya Kant said that people come to courts not just to win cases, but with the belief that the law will be applied equally and fairly.
He said citizens approach courts with the hope that similar cases will be treated in a similar way, personal freedoms will be protected, rights will be clearly explained and governments will be made answerable when required.
Highlighting the importance of clarity in the justice system, the CJI said that judgments should be simple, easy to understand and free from unnecessary legal jargon. He said predictability in court decisions helps people understand the law better and strengthens public trust in the judiciary.
Explaining why predictability matters, he said,
“investors look for it, accused persons rely on it, families hope for it and society depends on it.”
Justice Kant warned that when courts work without clear guiding principles, public confidence in the justice system begins to weaken.
He said,
“A justice system that operates unpredictably or without clear guiding principles inevitably weakens public confidence because litigants cannot anticipate how similar cases will be treated or when their matters will be resolved.”
He further explained that trust in the judiciary grows when decisions are based on sound legal reasoning, consistent application of law and respect for precedent.
According to the CJI,
“When judicial outcomes reflect principled reasoning, consistent application of law and transparent evolution of doctrine, confidence in the courts is strengthened, as people come to understand justice is not dependent on chance but guided by established norms.”
Speaking about the role of technology, Justice Surya Kant said that technology has now become a constitutional tool that helps promote equality before law, improves access to justice and increases efficiency in courts.
He said technology enables courts to overcome physical distance and procedural hurdles, allowing justice to be delivered in a faster, more transparent and fair manner.
The CJI pointed out that India currently has two interconnected justice systems — one led by High Courts in the states and the other functioning at the national level through the Supreme Court. He said these systems should not function separately.
Stressing the need for a Unified Judicial Policy, he said technology must act as the driving force to bring both systems together by aligning procedures, prioritising cases, reducing delays and ensuring judgments follow a coherent format across courts.
However, Justice Kant cautioned that technology alone cannot uphold the rule of law.
He said,
“But technology alone cannot sustain the Rule of Law; it must operate alongside the deeper constitutional traditions that anchor judicial behaviour and preserve institutional coherence.”
Emphasising the need for uniformity, the CJI said that courts must follow similar reasoning and principles while deciding cases of the same nature.
He described the Unified Judicial Policy as a foundational reform, saying,
“A Unified Judicial Policy is not merely an administrative doctrine; it is the architecture of constitutional confidence. It strengthens the idea that our courts are not isolated entities but parts of one Republic, driven by common values, delivering coherent justice.”
Concluding his address, Justice Surya Kant said that the real success of judicial innovation does not lie in advanced software or complex systems, but in how easily a common citizen can understand a court’s decision and feel that justice has truly been done.
He said,
“Ultimately, the measure of innovation is not the complexity of the software we deploy, but the simplicity with which a citizen understands the outcome of their case and believes that justice has been served.”
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