KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud shared the same dias on Saturday and at a conference in Kolkata. Both of them spoke about the integrity and honesty of judiciary which is lacking nowadays. On Saturday Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the judiciary should be honest and free from political bias. Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud backed her views and said judges should refrain from allowing their personal beliefs to influence their rulings.Speaking at a conference East Zone-II Regional Conference of the National Judicial Academy in Kolkata, Banerjee described the judiciary as an “important temple” for citizens, and it serves as the last frontier for getting justice and upholding constitutional rights.”It is not my intention to humiliate anyone, but my kind submission is that please see that there is no political bias in the judiciary. The judiciary must be absolutely pure, honest and sacred,” she added.”The judiciary is an important temple for us. It is just like ‘mandir (temple), masjid (mosque), gurdwara and girjaghar (church)’. It is our supreme authority to deliver justice to the people. I believe this judiciary is of the people, for the people, by the people,” she said.The Chief Minister said the people have hopes in the judiciary as they believe they will get justice from the courts.”If the judiciary cannot help common people, where will they get justice? When they face any problem or anything atrocious, they only hope with greater interest that the judiciary can solve their problems. It is the last frontier for getting justice and upholding constitutional rights,” she said.”The judiciary is a big pillar and serves as the foundation of our country to save democracy, the Constitution and people’s interests,” she added.She also took a swipe at the Centre for not financing fast-track courts. She said, “We have 88 fast-track courts. Earlier, the Government of India provided (financial) assistance for fast-track courts, but they stopped doing that seven to eight years ago. We are the only state that is running 88 fast-track courts, of which 55 are for women.”Banerjee underlined that the West Bengal government gave Rs 1,000 crore for the development of the judiciary and provided land for constructing a new High Court in Kolkata’s Rajarhat area.On his part, CJI Chandrachud emphasised how judgments should be based on constitutional morality and not a judge’s concept of morality.”Increasingly, we see judges writing on their ideologies. For example, a judge stating that he won’t give protection to a couple who are staying together, as they are in a consensual relationship outside marriage. The law protects relationships which are in the nature of marriage, yet we find judges writing that they cannot give protection,” he said.”Even if there is a risk of honour killing of the couple, is this the true nature of a judge? Or are they giving effect to their own personal ideas on what is moral and what is immoral, rather than upholding constitutional morality?” he added.During the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, Banerjee had criticised the Calcutta High Court order cancelling all appointments made through a 2016 teacher recruitment test. She had then argued that BJP leaders were influencing a section of the judiciary.“The court verdict cancelling all recruitments is illegal. We stand by those who lost their jobs. We will ensure you get justice, and challenge the order in a higher court,” she said, adding “I will not name any judge, but I am talking about the verdict. If you had pointed out the mistakes and directed us to correct them, we could have easily done that. Anybody can make a mistake; I do not look after everything. The education department is a separate one. There are different departments like the SSC, the primary board, and the college commission.”
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