Justice must touch gently — for law that  cannot feel, cannot heal: Justice Kant 

Justice, for him, is not a verdict pronounced from a pedestal but a whisper of understanding from a conscience awake. “A law that cannot feel, cannot heal,” says Justice Surya Kant, who sees compassion as the highest form of strength.

In his first in-depth conversation with The Tribune after being designated Chief Justice of India, Justice Surya Kant reflects on the moral compass guiding judicial interpretation, the balance between reason and empathy, and the judiciary’s duty to renew itself with the times. 

“Every institution must reform not because it has failed, but because the world it serves keeps changing. Reform is not an admission of failure but an act of foresight — the duty of leadership to renew trust before it fades,” he says.

Justice Surya Kant, who will take oath as CJI on November 24, says the judiciary must remain a living institution, alive to the rhythm of change yet anchored in conscience. “Justice for all is a daily duty. The true measure of a system lies in how gently it touches those with the least voice and the greatest need.” To him, fairness without empathy is hollow, and retribution mistaken for justice, cruel.

Reforms must in changing world

Every institution must reform not because it has failed, but because the world it serves keeps changing... the true measure of a system lies in how gently it touches those with the least voice and the greatest need. -- Justice Surya Kant, CJI-designate

Even the symbols of the judiciary, he believes, are reminders of humility. “The robe a judge wears is not an emblem of authority but a cloak of responsibility — an everyday reminder that a judge must remain human before being judicial.”

Calling the Constitution “the moral compass of the Republic,” he describes it as a living covenant renewed through fairness. “It is not an inheritance to be guarded in glass but a living faith to be renewed through every act of fairness, every whisper of truth, every judgment of courage.” A democracy’s strength, he says, lies in its ability “to protect freedom without wounding dignity, and dignity without silencing freedom.”

Turning to technology, Justice Surya Kant cautions against allowing efficiency to eclipse empathy. “Technology must serve inclusion, not exclusion. A system that becomes mechanical may deliver orders but will cease to deliver understanding.” Delay, he says, is justice’s deepest wound. “Delayed justice is not merely procedural lapse — it is a moral failure. Every day lost in indecision is a day denied to someone’s dignity.”

This week, the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association, moved by his elevation, invited him for a felicitation. On barely 12 hours’ notice, the campus was filled with advocates — and more advocates — who had once shared his corridors and causes. Justice Surya Kant made a special effort to meet them before assuming office, describing the gathering as one of affection, not protocol.

As he prepares to lead the world’s largest judiciary, his words return to their moral core: that the majesty of law lies not in its power to command but in its capacity to understand — that justice must touch gently, for only a law that can feel, can heal.