New Delhi: Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana Wednesday said the right of people to change those in office through elections was no “guarantee against tyranny” of the elected and argued that democracy and its benefits could only be ensured by giving space to both “reasoned and unreasonable” public discourse.
Delivering the ’17th Justice P D Desai Memorial Trust’ lecture virtually, CJI Ramana also spoke about why the judiciary cannot be controlled, directly or indirectly, by the legislature or the executive, or else the rule of law would become illusory.
Ramana also mentioned how social media trends can affect the functioning of the judiciary. But he also underlined that underlining that judges cannot stay “in ivory castles”, and “have to be mindful of the fact that the noise” amplified on social media “is not necessarily reflective of what is right and what the majority believes in”.
Read full text of the speech here:
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