Former chief justice of India D Y Chandrachud said on Friday that if an individual judge has a certain quibble about a particular decision, the correct thing is to approach the chief justice and have a conversation, instead of bringing it out for a public dialogue.

He was responding to questions at an event titled “Fireside Chat” after the inaugural ceremony of “Vidhi Utsav 2025, The Festival of Law, Legal Literature and Luminaries” organised by Oakbridge Publishing.

Justice Chandrachud said judicial institutions cannot function efficiently unless there is a well-laid-down procedure that adds certainty, objectivity and transparency, be it in the preparation of the judge’s roster, the procedure to be followed or in terms of the practice directions.

“Speaking for myself, I also feel that if an individual judge in an institution has a certain quibble about a particular decision, the correct thing is to go to the chief justice and have a conversation.

“Laying it up for, you know, public dialogue perhaps detracts from the value of institutional roles. So if you have an issue, the best thing is to talk to the chief justice and get it sorted out,” he said.

The former CJI said the bench requires uniformity in certain areas as it is dealing with the bar and the bar expects a degree of certainty on how cases will be taken up.

“You are also dealing with real-life cases of citizens. Now, if a particular high court has, say, 35 or 40 benches and you have 40 different procedural modalities which are followed, there will be chaos.

“And therefore, when it is said that, you know, the chief justice is the master of the roster, which is a highly-debated phrase in today’s times, the purpose of this is to bring in a degree of uniformity, because institutions cannot otherwise function and they cannot function efficiently,” he said.

Regarding the changes brought in judicial institutions, Justice Chandrachud said these should be institutionalised.

“Very often, the changes which are brought into a system are treated to be individual-centric. Sometimes you find that this is exploited by, maybe the bar on some occasions, it can be exploited by various other quarters to sort of suddenly mark a break from the past once there is a change in the helm of the administration. Speaking for myself, I always believe that the changes which you bring about must be institutionalised and therefore, setting up institutions and processes within the institutions is as important as making actual decisions,” he said.

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