Conversations around anti-discrimination and equality are gaining currency : CJI

Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Sunday said that today we stand in a world where conversations around anti-discrimination and equality are gaining currency.

Delivering the keynote address at the 11th Annual Conference of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law, Justice Chandrachud, people, especially the younger generation, are challenging our assumptions and daring us to imagine a more perfect world.

“The role of law is being reimagined – the historically wielded law which reifies and rigidifies social hierarchies are being replaced by laws to address discrimination, harassment and victimisation. Laws like the Criminal Tribes Act 1871 and Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code 1860 have given way to legislations like the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019,” he said.

Later replying to a query, he said that people who should be getting bail in the trial courts are not getting it there and as a result of this they come up before the higher courts.

He said that trial judges are not granting bail on important issues of crime and that they are playing it safe.

“People who should be getting bail in the trial courts are not getting it there and they come to high courts. Those who should be getting bail in high courts are not getting bail and as a result people move it to the Supreme Court,” he said.

He also said that trial courts need to be encouraged to be more receptive and accommodating to the concerns of the people who seek liberty.

“The problem today is if we look at any grant of relief by the trial court with a degree of suspicion it means that the trial judges are increasingly playing safe and not granting bail on important issues,” he said.

He said that most cases need not come to the Supreme Court.

On Artificial Intelligence (AI) he said that though it has many beneficial uses, technology can also be misused.

“Another aspect in which Equality Law has intersected is in the use of AI and Technology Law. AI has many beneficial uses, such as enhancing medical diagnostics. For instance, AI-powered diagnostic tools can analyse medical images with remarkable accuracy, assisting doctors in detecting diseases at earlier stages. However, technology can also be misused, providing novel and powerful tools for manipulative, exploitative, and social control practices,” he said.