Indian judiciary one of most powerful in world: CJI

Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir has described the Indian judicial system as one of the most powerful in the world today due to the power of judicial review enjoyed by it.
Speaking at an event after inaugurating the Jammu and Kashmir Judicial Academy complex built on the outskirts of Srinagar on Sunday, he said that the Constitution has given power to judicial systems to enforce the fundamental rights of people.
"Today the Indian judiciary is one of the most powerful judiciary in the world, because there is a power of judicial review. We are empowered under Article 32 of the Constitution to enforce or implement any fundamental rights," Justice Kabir said in his address to the gathering at the newly built auditorium of the Academy at Mominabad.

The CJI also praised the role of Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism in the country saying, "It has worked wonders to bring down the backlog of cases".
"Population has gone up, crimes have gone up and unemployment, so many factors are there which have led to increase in the cases piling up in the courts," he said, adding that ADR mechanism should be adopted increasingly.
He also asked the legal community to become a role model for society by their behaviour and sticking to the spirit of law.
"There are rules about ethics and how lawyers should behave both inside the court and outside and when a person becomes an advocate and takes that oath, he becomes a member of the Bar Council of India and the State Bar Council.

"He is immediately elevated to a certain position in the society and people look up to him or her. An advocate is a privileged person in the society," he said.