New Delhi: The Supreme Court will this weekend, for the first time in India, host the Commonwealth judges’ conference, without any representation from Pakistan and Bangladesh, ThePrint has learnt.
Organised by the Canada-based Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute, this two-day conference will see the participation of Supreme Court judges from all Commonwealth countries, who will deliberate on various issues from strengthening the current judicial system in their respective jurisdictions to improving trans-border cooperation between judicial bodies.
A senior Supreme Court officer, who is part of the organising team at the top court, told ThePrint that Pakistan and Bangladesh have not been included in this conference, in view of the strained diplomatic relations the two countries have with India currently.
When India was selected as the host nation for this conference, the organisers were informed about the Supreme Court’s limitation in having representation from the two neigbouring countries, the officer said.
Sharing details of what is likely to transpire at the international conference, the officer said: “It will focus on institutional challenges in the present times, use of artificial intelligence to improve efficiency and also discuss the current arbitration ecosystem between the Commonwealth countries.”
With disputes turning international, even a few private ones, the discussions would also be around the comity of court principle.
“We often come around cases where parties, particularly in matrimonial disputes, after having fought their disputes in a foreign court come to India and invoke the jurisdiction here. This is done despite a foreign court decree either in their favour or against them. Under the comity of court principle, courts are bound to respect the foreign court’s judgment,” the senior officer who spoke to ThePrint explained.
Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and a few senior judges nominated by him will represent the Supreme Court of India at the conference.
Besides, one judge from every high court will be nominated to attend the conference that will also share notes to develop a common training module for judges serving in Commonwealth countries.
“Since training of judges is a core part of the conference, CJI Surya Kant has also invited former Supreme Court judge, Justice Aniruddh Bose, who heads the National Judicial Academy to be present at the conference,” the officer added.
A representative from each regional judicial academy would also be attending the conference, he said.
According to another source, all international participants have to register themselves, for a fee, with the Judicial Education Institute. While the registration charges are US $800 for each judge, Indian judges will pay US $300 as participation charges.
The second source disclosed that the Supreme Court had conveyed its desire to host this international conference to the organisers last year.
“When the then CJI Sanjiv Khanna received the invite to attend this conference that was held in Malta, he nominated Justice Surya Kant to attend it. There, Justice Surya Kant, now the present CJI, suggested to the organisers to hold the next conference in New Delhi and offered to host it as an official Supreme Court event. The organisers accepted his proposal and took it up with him soon after he took oath as the CJI,” he said.
The top court has in recent times taken several steps to build a working relationship with serving Supreme Court judges of other countries. As part of this initiative, the top court has signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore to create a robust training programme for its judges, interacted with judges from UK on enhancement of technology and its inclusion in the justice delivery system and also started an exchange programme with Bhutan under which it gets two law interns to work with judges of the Supreme Court.
CJI Surya Kant’s swearing-in ceremony also witnessed a landmark moment with judges from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Kenya, Malaysia and Mauritius attending it.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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