Amidst huge trend of digital media and call for cashless economy in the country, Chief Justice of India TS Thakur anticipates complex legal cases and asked judicial officers to be well prepared for the changing justice delivery system, on Monday.
While speaking at the 18th biennial state-level conference of judicial officers – a 2-day conference on ‘Walking the Extra Mile for Judicial Excellence’, the CJI said, “Understanding the legal dynamics of a changing digital world is one of the crucial aspects of striving for excellence in judicial work. India is going digital. The encouragement to adopt digital payment mechanisms by the government of India will inevitably give rise to complex legal issues for the judiciary to address shortly,” said Justice Thakur.
However, he told judges to receive the change positively and be prepared for an emerging digital world. “We must view the change critically, but not cynically,” the CJI added.
While raising concern on money laundering, CJI said, “We have to be prepared for a rise in unlawful activities in a changed digital environment. We have to be watchful of increasing criminal activities like data theft and digital fraud. With extension of digitization to banking and transaction services, concerns about money laundering will also increase.”
Thakur also advised judges to be familiar with technology in order to efficiently deal with the complexity of legal issues.
“It would be inevitable for judicial officers to learn and imbibe digital technologies, including usage of cloud computing and mobile applications,” he added.
