SCO countries should strive for judicial cooperation: CJI

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud has stressed that the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) should strive for judicial cooperation in order to make their judicial systems more approachable for the common people.

In his concluding address to the 18th meeting of chief justices/chairpersons of the Supreme Courts of the SCO member states hosted by Supreme Court of India, CJI Chandrachud emphasised upon the need to collectively adopt new mechanisms to make court processes simpler and more accessible.

He highlighted several challenges facing the judicial systems in the SCO member states and how the conference allowed all member and observer states to reflect upon the challenges that are common to their jurisdictions.

He also emphasized that these issues need to be tackled with mutual cooperation and by sharing experiences and wisdom gathered. A statement issued by the apex court said that while agreeing on a number of shared goals for the future of the judiciary of respective countries at the closure, Uzbekistan was collectively entrusted the presidency for the next meeting of chief justices/chairpersons for the year 2024 on rotation. The two-day meet was held in New Delhi under the presidency Chief Justice Chandrachud on March 10-11 with an aim to foster effective judicial cooperation among the member states. “It was a two-day joint interaction session wherein all SCO member states, two observer states (Iran and Belarus), SCO Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) and SCO Secretariat had taken part physically except Pakistan who joined through video conference,” the statement of the apex court said.

The session concluded with the signing of a joint statement.

The intention to strengthen and expand cooperation among the Supreme Courts of the SCO member states and to promote the use of technology to enhance the efficiency of the judicial system and access to justice were deliberated upon during the course of the meeting. After the meetings which concluded on Saturday, sources in the apex court said that the delegates visited Agra on Sunday. On March 10, in a joint interaction session, the CJI gave the brief description of the judicial system in India.

Brief description of the judicial system followed in SCO member/observer states as well as the challenges faced and measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic were also given. Besides the Chief Justice of India, other speakers who addressed the session include Aslambek Mergaliyev, Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Jinghong Gao, Vice-President of Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China, Zamirbek Bazarbekov, Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Kyrgyz Republic, Umar Ata Bandial, and Vyacheslav M Lebedev, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

Other who spoke on the occasion include Valery Kalinkovich, first deputy chairman of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus, Mohammad Mosaddegh Kahnamoee, first deputy of the Head of the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Janesh Kain, Deputy Secretary General, SCO Secretariat, and Rakesh Kumar Verma, deputy director, executive committee, RATS, SCO.

CJI Chandrachud shared the challenges faced by the judicial institution during the COVID-19 pandemic and focussed on the measures such as the adoption of technology for virtual hearings, live-streaming of court proceedings, and e-filing undertaken by the Indian judiciary to ensure access to justice.

He highlighted that the incorporation of technology in the Indian judicial system has made the judicial institutions more accessible for all its citizens. “The heads of judiciaries who attended the meeting also shared the functioning of their judicial systems and challenges faced and innovative measures taken by their judiciaries to minimize the impact of COVID-19 pandemic,” the press statement of the apex court said.